The Texts of Taoism, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39)

James Legge's translation of Taoist scriptures, published as volume thirty nine of Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East series in 1891, is a landmark of nineteenth century Western sinology, rendering core Taoist texts into English by one of the period's most accomplished translators of classical Chinese. Its authority rests on Legge's own scholarly reputation, built over decades translating the Confucian classics before he turned to Taoist material, and on the Sacred Books of the East series' standing as the first systematic attempt to bring the world's major religious scriptures to an English readership under consistent editorial standards. Its limit is age: translation practice and the underlying critical editions of these texts have both moved on considerably since 1891, so a specific rendering is worth checking against a modern scholarly translation where the wording of a particular passage matters, even though the volume remains a genuine primary translation rather than a paraphrase.