Yuan Dao is a subversive document that challenged the autocratic aspirations of one of China's most powerful emperors. Its presentation set in motion a family tragedy in which the compiler, the most celebrated patron of literature of his age, fell victim to the expansionist politics of his uncle, the "Martial" emperor. Yuan Dao, complete here with English translation and critical Chinese text, is a remarkable distillation of earlier Daoist ideas found in the popular Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) and Shuangzi (Chuang-tzu) texts.