Lao Tzu's Book of the Way of Life, called Tao-De Ching in Chinese, ranks second in the world in the number of foreign translations after the Bible. The origin of this book and the personality of its author are shrouded in many legends, which the famous translator Vladimir Malyavin talks about in detail in his preface. The word "tao" itself means the path, and moreover, at the same time the path of the universe, life and human perfection. And "de" is the inner fullness of life, invisibly, but firmly connecting all living things. Lao Tzu's main secret seems paradoxical: to become yourself, you need to eliminate your private self; to have power, you need not to want it, etc. And the secret of reading Lao Tzu is to comprehend the inner depth of meaning that wisdom inspires, revealing a different and opposite meaning in each judgment. Reading the "Book on the Way of Life" will be fruitless if it does not reveal the uselessness of abstract ideas, does not lead to a coup in the very way of perceiving the world.