Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s10.t1.4

v1.c7.s10.t1.4

The current version of The Book of Lao Zi consists of part one and part two, or the Book of Dao and the Book of De, respectively. In He Shang Gong annotated version, Wang Bi annotated version and Fu Yi final edited and revised version, the part one and part two are all referred to, respectively, as the Book of Dao and Book of De. However, in the silk manuscript version of the Book, the Book of De is placed ahead of the Book of Dao, which is the most ancient transcript version that could be found so far. The currently circulated version is divided into 81 chapters, even though some currently circulated editions consist of 72 or 68 chapters. But the unearthed silk manuscript version is not divided into chapters.