Editing Department of Zhonghua Book Company 
Zhao Mengfu”s Tao Te Ching of Regular Script in Small Characters 

Zhao Mengfu is a Taoist. He once learned Dongjue from Immortal Liu on Mount Maoshan. He wrote numerous Taoist scriptures in his life. According to documentary records, Zhao Mengfu wrote Tao Te Ching of regular script in small characters many times. At present, we can see both ink and block-printed editions. The block-printed editions recorded include "The Edition of Mao Shao" of the Yuan Dynasty, "The Edition of Mochitang" of the Ming Dynasty and "The Edition of Ansuxuan" of the Qing Dynasty. This book is Zhao Mengfu”s ink edition of Tao Te Ching of regular script in small characters with black column boundaries. It is 24.5 cm in length and 618 cm in width. The figure of Lao Tzu is put at the beginning of the book. The inscription on the book are "Written by Mengfu for becoming profound scholar on March 24 and 25, 1316, Bingchen, in traditional Chinese calendar, at Songxue Study." At present, it is in the Palace Museum. It is known from the inscription that Zhao Mengfu finished writing the full text of Tao Te Ching which contains more than 5000 characters. The whole work is accurate in stippling. The 5000 characters are delicately beautiful and elegant, graceful, elegant, natural and unrestrained, copious and fluent with no faulty stroke. No wonder Xian Yushu praised Zhao Mengfu, "Zi”ang”s seal script, official script, regular running script and cursive script are the best at present and his regular script in small characters is the best among all the scripts."