Dao De Jing: a literal translation

This book presents the Dao De Jing, not only in English translation but also in the Chinese characters and the standard Roman alphabet transliteration, in parallel formats with annotation in the translation to facilitate comparing it word by word to the Chinese.

And this book also provides an introduction explaining the annotation and summarizing the historical and epistemological relationships between Daoism and the other five of the six most popular religions for the purpose of solving the problem of the diversity of translations of the Dao De Jing by giving readers who don't know Chinese and aren't familiar with religions other than the three Abrahamic religions a way to compare and verify the various translations and perhaps produce one.

But, to Daoists, the most important purpose may be to clarify their fundamental question of whether Kipling's assertion that "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat" can describe the current present.