structure of the Tao Te Ching

Overview of the Text: The contemporary version of the Tao Te Ching now in vogue consists of a total of 81 short chapters, each containing one or more stanzas. In principle, the chapters can be read independently, although the overall collection has an undeniable cumulative impact as themes are repeated and elaborated. While dots and characters representing line breaks and exclamations appear in very early source materials, the overall lack of grammatical particles means that the precise location of divisions, even down to the line breaks, is open to interpretation.