• traditionally dated from the 6th century BCE

• a short text of just 81 "chapters" (more like poems) that can be read in an evening but can take a lifetime of study and reflection to understand.

Tao Te Ching sampling:

Lao Tzu: legendary author of this classic Taoist text (604 - 531 BCE?)

The Legendary Lao Tzu Who was Lao Tzu? (another account) More on Lao Tzu

the name means "Old Master" or "Old Boy", which suggests he was born with the wisdom of age or, as an old man, remained playful as a child may or may not have been an actual historical person. The Tao Te Ching may actually be a compilation of several writers. Lao Tzu was supposedly a low level government employee, an archivist in a local government office. Upon his retirement he took off for the west (a euphemism for death, symbolized by the setting sun?). When he got to the boarder the guard, knowing Lao Tzu to be wise, would not allow him to pass until he wrote down his wisdom to leave behind. Lao Tzu reportedly sat down at the boarder gate and jotted down a mere 5000 Chinese characters. The guard was satisfied and sent Lao Tzu on his way, riding off into the sunset on his Ox.

More Tao Te Ching in video

Chuang Tzu, two centuries later, elaborated on the Taoist philosophy through storytelling in the text named after him.

More on Chuang Tzu

Both texts exhibit paradox and the unexpected in their advice. Taoism is profound, paradoxical, playful and practical all at once.

• Tao is like a passive object: a thing, force or energy.

• Te means "power" or "virtue". Te is various ways Tao manifests or expresses itself. Te is a thing’s activity.

• Te is like the Hindu shakti (the energy or power of the god): active; Tao is like the Hindu god itself: passive (although Tao and Te are not gods).

• Tao just is; Te is the way it is (the form it takes) in any given moment, the direction it’s energy takes.

• Te is what Tao can do, what enables Tao to do whatever it does.

• Te is the word given to the activity of Tao.

• Tao and Te are like Yin and Yang: passive and active respectively.

• Tao has potential, Te is that potential realized, actualized, made manifest. Tao is like the potential to do something but Te is the actual doing of it (thus "actualized"). They are like two sides of a coin or like Yin and Yang to each other. Imagine having an ability but not using it. Te is when you actually apply your ability to do something practical.

• If Tao is like God, then Te is like what God does. Substance (Tao/God) vs. Function. It's like that line: "form follows function" - they go together but are not the same, and form has to come first. Without form or substance, there can be no function/activity. 

• Tao and Te, unlike the Hindu god and shakti, are not deities but abstract, philosophical concepts with practical application and down to earth expression - present in all things and actions.