iDao - Tao Te Ching

iDao (Love the Tao Te Ching) is an offline study companion for the Tao Te Ching - not a plain text reader. Close reading, dual commentaries, bilingual compare, recitation, practice, and daily habits live in one place. No network and no account are required to start.

WHY DOWNLOAD
Many Tao Te Ching apps stop at original text plus translation. iDao is built on four pillars:
1) Bilingual reading and dual classical commentaries, with vernacular Chinese and per-character pinyin (horizontal and vertical)
2) A recitation workbench with line highlighting, continuous play, and background speech
3) Study Hall and Seek the Tao for practice and light review games
4) Daily Chapter with widgets, notifications, Siri, Control Center, and deep links

Fully offline. No ads. No third-party analytics. Study data stays on device by default. Optional iCloud merge runs only after you enable it.

LIBRARY
81 Tao Te Ching chapters (Wang Bi text; Book of the Way and Book of Virtue), plus Qingjing Jing and Yinfu Jing - 85 chapters total - and 74 bilingual famous lines. Pinyin prefers corpus alignment, with whole-line fallback. Interfaces: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English.

BILINGUAL READING AND COMMENTARIES
Public-domain translations by James Legge and Paul Carus can be read alone or compared. Classical notes switch between Wang Bi and Heshang Gong. Reading language: bilingual, Chinese only, or English only. Long chapters support segmentation and page hints. Backgrounds: system, paper, sepia, night.

CHAPTER DETAIL
Toolbar: Favorite, Speak, More. More covers Study Hall, recitation, notes, mastery, immersion, font size, display toggles, Dao Lists, adjacent chapters, copy, share, link, and Dao cards. Notes open from three places. Build custom Dao Lists and move chapter to chapter in one flow.

VERTICAL AND SHARE CARDS
Vertical text and immersive follow-along highlight lines during speech. Multi-style Dao cards support square, portrait, and story ratios, with fullscreen preview, save to Photos, or share.

RECITATION
Line highlighting, voice and rate, continuous playback with gaps, background audio, and Lock Screen Now Playing. Speak original, vernacular, or English independently of on-screen layout.

STUDY HALL AND SEEK THE TAO
Modes: fade memorization, fill-in, self-check, and quiz. Seek the Tao reviews lines by keyword hunting and stores best score. Multi-select Favorites or Dao Lists for batch recitation or batch Study Hall. Streaks, mastered list, history, and notes keep your trail visible.

BROWSE, LISTS, AND SEARCH
Browse by book, Way/Virtue sections, theme, famous lines, all chapters, and author (including Laozi).

DAILY CHAPTER AND SYSTEM FEATURES
Daily Chapter rotates by solar terms, festivals, and seasons. Optional local notifications need no network. Home and Lock Screen widgets cover Daily Chapter, famous lines, mastery, and favorites. On iOS 18+, Control Center includes today, random, search, Study Hall, favorites, recite, famous lines, browse, and Seek the Tao. Siri and App Intents, up to four Home Screen quick actions, alternate icons, and deep links open chapters, daily, study, hunt, famous lines, favorites, mastered, history, settings, and guides. Optional iCloud merges favorites, lists, notes, history, mastery, and streaks bidirectionally.

SETTINGS AND AUDIENCE
Onboarding plus usage, widget, and Shortcuts guides. Settings cover appearance, accents, three languages, reading and speech details, tab visibility, notifications, data, help, and About.

For systematic readers; bilingual and commentary learners; people who memorize through recitation and practice; anyone who wants Daily Chapter and widgets in daily life; and privacy-minded users who want full offline use without an account.

Open iDao today: read one chapter, recite one line, note one insight, practice once. Through compare, commentary, and practice, walk toward the Way.