Two things sit side by side on this site: ancient texts that belong to everyone, and translations of them that are my own work.

The source

Weiyan translates Classical Chinese works old enough to be in the public domain. The original Chinese reproduced here belongs to everyone; use it freely. The works on the site so far:

• Tao Te Ching (道德經), attributed to Laozi.

The translations

The English translations and their notes are my original work, made with the Weiyan pipeline. They are © 2026 Joe Kendall, released under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

You may read them and share them unchanged, for non-commercial purposes, with credit to Weiyan (weiyan.co.uk). Adapting them, retranslating from them, or using them commercially is by permission — write to hello@weiyan.co.uk.

How they are made

Each translation is made by carrying every passage through the passes of a translation team — analysis, glossing, translation, editing, and a consistency check across the whole book.