How to read the Dao De Jing here
Each chapter page plays the Mandarin recitation and highlights the Chinese as it is spoken, with pinyin above the characters and a line-by-line translation beside or below.
Listen and read along
- Press play in the player at the bottom. The current line is marked and its characters light up as they are read.
- Tap or click a line's translation, or the space beside the line, to hear it from its start. On Chinese pages, tap the space beside the line. "Play this line" in the word card does the same.
- The player keeps playing as you move between pages, and remembers where you stopped.
Words
- Tap or click a word in the Chinese to open its card: the characters, the pinyin, what the word means in this line, its other dictionary senses, and how many chapters use it.
- Playback carries on while the card is open. "Play this line" plays the line the word is in.
- While the card is open, the first tap outside it only closes it, so a stray tap never moves the recitation.
- With the keyboard: W opens the card on the first word of the current line, Left and Right move to the previous or next word, and Escape closes it.
Show or hide
- 拼 shows or hides the pinyin.
- The 文A button shows or hides the translation.
- Settings (the sliders icon) has the text size, the theme (dark, light or system), the playback speed, what happens at the end of a chapter, repeating each line, and a sleep timer.
Learn a chapter
- Turn on "Repeat each line" in the settings to hear every line several times before moving on.
- Slow the speed down to 0.8x or 0.7x (the speed button in the player) while you learn the sounds.
- Hide the translation once you know a chapter and check yourself against the Chinese.
Memorize
- In the settings, "Hide to memorize" hides the Chinese and pinyin, or the translation, behind a bar. Recite the line, then tap it to check: the first tap reveals the line, the next one plays it as usual. Enter does the same on a hidden line.
- "Reveal all" above the lines shows the whole chapter. The next chapter starts hidden again.
- Playback and the current-line marker carry on under the bars, so you can recite along with the recording.
- Chinese pages have no translation, so there only the Chinese can be hidden.
Traditional characters
- In the settings, "Characters" switches the Chinese of the chapter lines to traditional characters, and back.
- The word card then shows the word in traditional characters, with the simplified form in brackets when the two differ.
- The pages themselves are published in simplified characters. Traditional characters show in your device's Kai font when it has one.
Share a line
- "Share this line" in the word card (or S while it is open) shares a link straight to the line, with a picture of it: the Chinese, the pinyin and the translation.
- Where the device has no share menu, the link is copied and the picture is offered as a download in the card.
- Opening a shared link scrolls to the line and marks it.
Keyboard
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause |
| Left / Right arrow | Back or forward 5 seconds (with the word card open: previous or next word) |
| Up / Down arrow | Previous or next line |
| [ / ] | Previous or next chapter |
| W | Open the word card on the current line |
| Escape | Close the word card |
| S | Share the line (with the word card open) |
| P | Show or hide pinyin |
| T | Show or hide the translation |
| H | Memorize: hide the Chinese, then the translation, then nothing |
Offline
Pages you have visited work without a connection. To keep the audio too, use "Download all audio" in the settings; the size is shown on the button.
Install the app
- Android: open the browser menu and choose "Install app" (or "Add to Home screen"). Later, the app will also be on Google Play.
- iPhone and iPad: in Safari, tap Share, then "Add to Home Screen".
- Computer: in Chrome or Edge, click the install icon at the right of the address bar.
Once installed, the site opens in its own window, without the address bar.