Eighty-one brief chapters attributed to Laozi, the Old Master, written or compiled around the sixth century BCE. The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The book speaks in paradox, in negation, in imagery of water and valleys and empty space. It has been translated into English more often than any other book except the Bible. Each translation differs; the original resists capture. Yet something comes through every time: an alternative to force, to striving, to the Western will to power. The way that can be walked is not the eternal way.