# The Texts of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang-Tzŭ Shu, as Regards Their Authenticity and Genuineness, and the Arrangement of Them explained — Tao Te Ching

> Chapter companion for Tao Te Ching by Laozi.

## What happens

This chapter examines the textual history, authenticity, and arrangement of the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-Tzŭ Shu. It presents evidence for the Tao Te Ching's genuineness, including early quotations by Ssŭ-ma Chʽien, Han Fei, and Huai-nan Tzŭ, and traces its transmission through imperial library catalogues, commentaries by Ho-shang Kung, Wang Pi, and others, and the division into chapters. It also briefly discusses the Chuang-Tzŭ Shu's textual tradition.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Tao as the Ultimate Principle

The chapter discusses the Tao Te Ching's focus on the Tao and its characteristics, as reflected in the title and content of the work.

### Sage Rulership and Governance

The text's association with Han emperors and its use as a standard authority (ching) for study at court highlights its relevance to governance.

## Character check-ins

### Laozi

Attributed author of the Tao Te Ching; his biography and the circumstances of the book's composition are discussed.

### Ssŭ - ma Chʽien

First great Chinese historian; his account of Laozi and quotations from the Tao Te Ching are cited as evidence of authenticity.

### Wang Pi

Early commentator on the Tao Te Ching; his text and commentary are highly prized and used by later scholars.

### Ho - shang Kung

Traditional commentator attributed with the division of the Tao Te Ching into eighty-one chapters.

### Huai - nan Tzŭ

Author of the Huai-nan Tzŭ; his many quotations from the Tao Te Ching are used as evidence of its early circulation.

### Han Fei

Voluminous author who died in 230 BC; his works contain numerous quotations from the Tao Te Ching.

### Herbert A. Giles

Modern scholar who questioned the authenticity of the Tao Te Ching; his views are referenced as a point of controversy.

### Wu Chʽêng

Later commentator who rearranged the Tao Te Ching into sixty-seven chapters without curtailing the text.

## Key lines

> Ssŭ-ma Chʽien tells us that, as the treatise came from Laozi, it contained more than 5,000 characters; that is, as one critic says, 'more than 5,000 and fewer than 6,000.'

According to Ssŭ-ma Chʽien, the original text by Laozi had between 5,000 and 6,000 characters.

_This establishes the traditional length of the Tao Te Ching._

> Of the eighty-one chapters, either the whole or portions of seventy-one are found in those two writers.

Seventy-one out of the eighty-one chapters of the Tao Te Ching are quoted in whole or in part by Han Fei and Huai-nan Tzŭ.

_This demonstrates the extensive early attestation of the text._

## Links

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