Lao Tzu’s “Book of the Way of Life,” called “Tao Te Ching” in Chinese, ranks second after the Bible in the world in terms of the number of foreign translations. The origin of this book and the personality of its author are shrouded in many legends, which the famous translator Vladimir Malyavin talks about in detail in his preface. The word “Tao” itself means a path, and at the same time the path of the universe, life and human improvement. And “de” is the inner fullness of life, invisibly but firmly connecting all living things. Lao Tzu's main secret seems paradoxical: to become yourself, you need to eliminate your private self; to have power, you must not desire it, etc. And the secret of reading Lao Tzu is to comprehend the inner depth of meaning that wisdom inspires, revealing in every judgment a different and opposite meaning. Reading “The Book of the Way of Life” will be fruitless if it does not reveal the uselessness of abstract ideas and does not lead to a revolution in the very way of perceiving the world.