Once there was a man named Lao Tzu. He lived in China in over 2,500 years ago and served in the Imperial Court. Dissatisfied with politics and the state of affairs, he headed West, towards Tibet. At the border, a guard asked him to write down his wisdom.

The Tao Te Ching was born.

It is a book of wisdom, describing the ineffable Tao—the single unity that pervades everything and spawns all multiplicity. It teaches that through simplicity and "action through nonaction" one can return to the Tao. It is a philosophy, a religion, a political theory.

And what does the Tao have to do with web design? Nothing. And everything. Like the Tao Te Ching itself, the Tao Te Web is divided into two books:

Note: I am sure that, inevitably, someone will accuse this site of failing the principles of the Tao Te Web. I reply:

There once was a master programmer who wrote unstructured programs. A novice programmer, seeking to imitate him, also began to write unstructured programs. When the novice asked the master to evaluate his progress, the master criticized him for writing unstructured programs, saying, "What is appropriate for the master is not appropriate for the novice. You must understand the Tao before transcending structure.'' —The Tao of Programming