Dao De Jing

Ancient Manuscripts

A collection of scanned Dao De Jing manuscripts from various historical sources

The collection includes scans of the Guodian and Mawangdui manuscripts, the Peking University (Beida) and Dunhuang copies, the Heshanggong commentary, the Wang Bi text, Fu Yi's 'old text' and the Louguan steles.

Chapters

20 chapters have been fully processed so far. New scans will be added as they are processed; until then, unprocessed chapters contain only the texts and translations without scans.

20 22 sources 21 — 22 — 23 — 24 — 25 — 26 — 27 — 28 — 29 — 30 — 31 — 32 — 33 — 34 — 35 — 36 — 37 — 38 — 39 — 40 — 41 — 42 — 43 — 44 — 45 — 46 — 47 — 48 — 49 — 50 — 51 — 52 — 53 — 54 — 55 — 56 — 57 — 58 — 59 — 60 — 61 — 62 — 63 — 64 — 65 — 66 — 67 — 68 — 69 — 70 — 71 — 72 — 73 — 74 — 75 — 76 — 77 — 78 — 79 — 80 — 81 —

Available Sources

郭店 (Guodian)

Bamboo slips from Guodian, Hubei province (circa 300 BCE). The oldest known version of the Daodejing.

马王堆 (Mawangdui)

Silk manuscripts from Mawangdui, Hunan province (circa 168 BCE). Two versions (A and B) discovered in 1973.

北大 (Beida)

Peking University Han bamboo slips, acquired in 2009. Important for its completeness and clarity.

敦煌 (Dunhuang)

Manuscripts from the Mogao Caves (4th-11th century CE). Over 50 versions with significant textual variations.

河上公 (Heshanggong)

Two editions with the Heshanggong commentary, one of the oldest interpretations of the Daodejing.

王弼 (Wang Bi)

The canonical Wang Bi text (ca. 240 CE) — the basis of the standard chapter numbering.

傅奕 (Fu Yi)

The Fu Yi 'old text' (古本) edition, 7th century CE.

楼观 (Louguan)

Two stone steles with the Daodejing text from Louguan.

Translations

Archimandrite Daniil (Sivillov)

ru 1828

The first Russian translation (1828 manuscript, published 1915)

Stanislas Julien

fr 1842

The first published complete translation into a modern European language (1842)

John Chalmers

en 1868

The first English translation (1868)

Reinhold von Plaenckner

de 1870

The first German translation (1870)

Victor von Strauß

de 1870

The first German translation made to scholarly standards (1870)

James Legge

en 1891

The classic translation from the Sacred Books of the East (1891)

D.P. Konisi

ru 1894

The first published Russian translation (1894)

Leo Tolstoy

ru 1910

Sayings of Laozi selected by Tolstoy (1910/1913)

Richard Wilhelm

de 1911

The most influential German translation (1911)

Paul Carus

en 1913

The translation by Open Court editor Paul Carus (1913)

Léon Wieger

fr 1913

One of the most influential French translations (1913)