Themes of the Dao De Jing

The Dao De Jing returns to the same ideas in different images across its 81 chapters. These 12 pages gather every line on each theme, chapter by chapter, with a short account of how the idea develops.

• WaterThe Dao De Jing calls water the highest good (chapter 8): it benefits all things without contending, takes the low place as rivers and seas do (chapters 32, 61, 66), and though nothing is softer, nothing beats it against the hard (chapters 43, 78).11 chapters
• Governing the peopleThe Dao De Jing tells rulers to govern by non-action: the best ruler is barely known (chapter 17), laws and taxes make the people poor and hard to govern (chapters 57, 75), and a great state is governed like cooking a small fish (chapter 60).25 chapters
• War and weaponsThe Dao De Jing calls weapons instruments of ill omen, to be used only when there is no choice, and says a victory should be treated as a funeral (chapters 30, 31); its strategists prefer to yield, and the side that grieves wins (chapters 68, 69).11 chapters
• Softness and weaknessThe Dao De Jing says the soft and weak overcome the hard and strong (chapters 36, 78): weakness is the use of the Way (chapter 40), the living are soft and the dead are stiff (chapter 76), and the newborn, with soft sinews, has a firm grip (chapter 55).13 chapters
• Contentment and desireThe Dao De Jing says no disaster is greater than not knowing what is enough (chapter 46): knowing what is enough is wealth (chapter 33), knowing when to stop keeps one from danger (chapters 32, 44), and the sage desires not to desire (chapter 64).19 chapters
• The sageThe Dao De Jing's sage puts himself last and is first (chapter 7), does not show himself or contend (chapter 22), knows without going and achieves without acting (chapter 47), and wears coarse cloth with jade inside (chapter 70).20 chapters
• Emptiness and useThe Dao De Jing says emptiness is what makes a thing usable: the space between the spokes, inside the pot and the room (chapter 11), the empty Way that never fills (chapter 4), the bellows that never runs out (chapter 5) and the valley (chapters 6, 28, 39 and 41).13 chapters
• Words and knowingThe Dao De Jing says the name that can be named is not the eternal name (chapter 1), those who know do not speak (chapter 56), true words are not beautiful (chapter 81), and knowing that you do not know is best (chapter 71).32 chapters
• Life and deathThe Dao De Jing says the soft and weak are companions of life and the hard and stiff companions of death (chapter 76), that those who cling too hard to living move toward death (chapter 50), and that a people who do not fear death cannot be threatened with it (chapter 74).17 chapters
• The mother and the valleyThe Dao De Jing speaks of the mother of the myriad things and of the world (chapters 1, 25 and 52), calls the opening of the mystic female the root of heaven and earth (chapter 6), asks one to keep to the female and be the world's valley (chapter 28), and says the female overcomes the male by stillness (chapter 61).14 chapters
• ReturningThe Dao De Jing says returning is the movement of the Way (chapter 40), each of the myriad things returns to its root (chapter 16), what is to be weakened must first be strengthened (chapter 36), and misfortune and fortune lean on each other (chapter 58).25 chapters
• The simple lifeThe Dao De Jing describes a small state with few people who find their food sweet and their homes peaceful (chapter 80), asks for the plainness of the uncarved block (chapters 19, 28, 32 and 57), and counts frugality among its three treasures (chapter 67).16 chapters