The Texts of Taoism, Part 2

Legge's landmark translation of the Tao Te Ching together with the first seventeen books of the Chuang Tzu. The single best entry point to the Taoist canon in English.

James Legge

The complete Chuang Tzu in Herbert Giles's translation, the version that introduced the second great Taoist classic to English readers. Includes the parables and dialogues the book is best known for.

Herbert A. Giles

A linguistic and textual study of which parts of the Zhuangzi come from Zhuang Zhou himself and which were added by later hands. The reference work on how the text was put together.

Liu Xiaogan

Selections from the Lieh-Tzu, the third of the classical Taoist books, on dreams, chance, effortless skill and the limits of knowledge. Short parables that read easily on their own.

Lionel Giles

A short Taoist moral tract on quiet virtue and hidden good deeds, translated with extracts from the Chinese commentary and its traditional stories. One of the devotional texts most widely read inside the tradition.

Teitaro Suzuki and Paul Carus