The total number of words in Tao Te Ching varies from edition to edition: Mawangdui silk book, with 5344 words in the first edition and 5342 words in the second edition (with emphasis on 124 words); In this edition, He Ganggong's Tao Te Ching Zhang Sentence 520 1 word (with emphasis on 94 words), Wang Bi's Notes on Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching 5 162 word (with emphasis on 65438 words) and Yi Fu's Tao Te Ching Guben 5450 words (with emphasis on 64 words).
theme
The theme of Tao Te Ching is "Tao is natural".
"Taoism is natural" is the essence of Laozi's thought in Tao Te Ching. As the most abstract concept category in Tao Te Ching, "Tao" is the source of power to create everything in the world. "Virtue" is the development and expression of "Tao" in the field of ethics. "Tao" and "law" have similarities in rules and common sense, but they are different from western natural law. "Law" should imitate the way of nature and play a role in the reverse transformation of syndrome differentiation.
Philosophically, "Tao" is the mother of the beginning of all things in heaven and earth, the unity of opposites of Yin and Yang is the essential embodiment of all things, and the extremes of things are the law of the evolution of all things. Ethically, Laozi advocates simplicity, selflessness, serenity, humility, gentleness, weakness and indifference. Politically, Lao Tzu advocates doing nothing at home, not disturbing the people, living in peace with foreign countries and opposing war and violence.