Editors' note: The Tao Te Ching is Lao Tse’s teaching in its written form. It is a very small book and can be regarded as relatively pure and unchanged, a mesoteric rather than esoteric work, using word play and paradox. It is a balanced, objective work about which Abdullah stated: ‘For mankind to have been given a jewel such as this teaching is a rare occurrence; if a person could really understand what the Tao Te Ching was about he would give up everything else.’