# Dao De Jing Reader

> Dao De Jing Reader (iPhone/iPad app by Elliott Bernstein.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dao-de-jing-reader/id6818645474 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Elliott Bernstein](https://appshunter.io/developer/1830879141)
- Category: Books
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.1 · 164 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2026-10-28
- Data updated: 2026-10-31

## What is Dao De Jing Reader?

The complete Dao De Jing of Laozi: all 81 chapters, in the original Chinese and in two English translations, built for actually reading it.

Every term is tappable, showing what the character means here, in this line — not a dictionary's one-size answer — along with its reading and the characters it is made of, and the English that renders it is boxed in both translations. Pinyin sits under the characters when you want it and disappears when you don't.

LINE BY LINE

Each line of the Chinese is followed by the English that translates it: James Legge's (1891) and Paul Carus's (1913), aligned to the text line by line. Color match paints each phrase of the English and the characters it renders in one hue, so you can see what answers what.

READ IT YOUR WAY

• Study — the full apparatus: text, both translations, pinyin, tappable words, color.
• Translation — the English as a book. The original waits one tap away under each chapter.
• Chinese — the received text alone, unglossed, with the English one tap away.
• Classical — the text as old books set it, in columns right to left: typeset, or photographed from two real copies of the bare text — an Edo printing of 1777 (Wang Bi's recension, with Japanese reading marks) held in Tokyo, and Shitao's own brush copy held in Taipei — with every character mapped, so the glosses work even on a photograph.

The chapters are listed in the book's two parts, 道經 and 德經, each under its old Heshang Gong title with Carus's English beside it. Scroll the book as one column, or turn it one chapter per page. Reader mode puts away everything but the page; there is a dark page for night and a flat, high-contrast scheme for e-ink screens.

TALK IT THROUGH, LINE BY LINE

Any line of any chapter can have its own discussion thread, on Reddit in r/DaoDeJingReader. Each chapter lists its lines with what is being said about each, and a character's card starts a thread on its line with the title and the text already written.

A WORK IN PROGRESS

Much of this app — the definitions written for each chapter, the links between the English and the Chinese, the characters mapped on the photographed pages — was organized with a great deal of machine assistance and checked as far as one person can. The glosses and translation links will have some mistakes. Every card has a "Report a problem with this" link, and corrections reach the app without an update.

YOURS, IN THE FULLEST SENSE

Notes you take live in your own iCloud Drive as Markdown — readable anywhere, and they outlive the app. The text is built in and always works offline. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no tracking.

Everything is free. Nothing is locked. There is a tip jar, for anyone who wants to keep it going.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 毫末 The Tiniest Sprout | $3.00 | one-time |
| 累土 A Heap of Earth | $10.00 | one-time |
| 九層 The Tower of Nine Stories | $30.00 | one-time |


## Is Dao De Jing Reader safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Dao De Jing Reader.

## Is Dao De Jing Reader legit?

Dao De Jing Reader has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Dao De Jing Reader is 55 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 1 release)

### 1.1.0 — 2026-10-28

New:
• Chinese is now set like a printed Chinese page: on an even grid of columns, with full lines reaching the margin, punctuation in a column of its own, and no line starting with a closing mark.
• Each pinyin syllable sits under its own character.
• E-ink style view: has its own section in Settings: page boxes, swipe distance, and repeating a line at the top of each page.


Improved:
• A line of English no longer starts with a stray punctuation mark.
• On the word card, each character in a breakdown lines up with its meaning.
• E-ink style view: long chapters and cards now turn page by page instead of scrolling. Boxes at the top show which page you are on; tap one to go to it.
• E-ink style view: cards and panels open and close without animation, and Superdim now works with the E-ink theme.

## More apps by Elliott Bernstein

- [GiftyPals](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/giftypals/id6749515737)
- [Analects Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/analects-reader/id6801033467)

All apps by Elliott Bernstein: https://appshunter.io/developer/1830879141

## Related topics

[daowei](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/daowei)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-31.*