Paperback. Condition: New. The Chinese classic Daodejing is said to have been written as a parting gift before Laozi renounced the world and departed westwards. In 81 poems, which translator Martyn Crucefix describes as 'still vivid, astonishingly fresh, irresistible', it teaches that a return to awareness of the Dao, the all-encompassing mode of being, makes both our personal and political lives more harmonious.