This version of the Tao Te Ching is in gender-neutral language, in English, and with American spelling. It is based on the English translation of the Tao Te Ching done by James Legge as part of volume 39 of The Sacred Books of the East series, issued in 1891 by Oxford University Press (note that this translation is in the public domain). For this book, that translation was then changed into gender-neutral language and American spelling by Nancy Quinn Collins. The gender-neutral language is used in the whole book; for example "Not to value and employ people of superior ability" is used rather than "Not to value and employ men of superior ability"; the only exceptions are that quotes are left as they originally were, and it is written that (as it really was historically) only princes and kings call[ed] themselves 'Orphans, 'Men of small virtue, ' and as 'Carriages without a nave.'