As a Chinese linguist, I have to admire the effort that goes into taking ancient poetic texts and rendering them into something usable in English. I felt many stanzas were thought-provoking and the short explanatory blurbs on each poem were often useful. The introduction is archaic in style and difficult to digest (I think I nearly dozed off).
The great misperception of the Tao Te Ching may be found in Daoist efforts to apply it as a central theological work, on par with the Koran or Bible in importance. Truthfully, it was probably a treatise written primarily for kings and other leaders rather than the common man. Therefore, it arguably takes some level of conceit to assimilate and apply it for oneself.
