The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion

The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion is a book by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, first published in 1905. This work presents Medhurst’s translation of the Tao Teh King (Tao Te Ching) together with sustained commentary: a careful, often old-school scholarly reading that treats the text as both scripture and literature.

Medhurst frames the Tao as a living philosophical and religious tradition, guiding readers through selected passages with explanatory notes intended to make Lao-tzu’s concise, paradoxical aphorisms accessible to an English-speaking audience. Medhurst’s study reads as much as a comparative-religion tract as a translation: he repeatedly tests Taoist ideas against Christian, Buddhist and Hindu concepts, pointing out resonances and contrasts with a measured, questioning tone.

Written by a translator with missionary training and evident Theosophical sympathies, the book historically helped introduce Western readers to Taoist thought and appealed to mystics and students of comparative spirituality. Readers looking for an early-20th-century translation that pairs literal passages with expansive notes and cross-cultural commentary will find it particularly useful.