This is a completely fresh and poetic version of the twenty-five-hundred-year-old Chinese spiritual classic, by one of America's most thought-provoking writers. Moved by a lifelong love for the Tao Te Ching, the novelist and poet Ursula K. Le Guin has been working on this version of the text since the 1950s. Scholar J. P. Seaton has added expert linguistic guidance to her work, bringing to it an equally passionate commitment to scholarly accuracy. Together they have created a translation that is unlike any seen before. Le Guin's version captures all the brilliance of Lao Tzu's poetry while conveying with immediacy and clarity the astonishing depth of his spiritual insights. It also corrects many of the distorted views of Lao Tzu's philosophy, freeing it from gender-bias and revealing its universal relevance. This new version is sure to be welcomed by the many readers of the Tao Te Ching, as well as those coming to the text for the first time.