That is the irony of the whole thing, it starts out: The Dao that can be talked about is not the Real/Eternal Dao - then proceeds to talk about it for 81 chapters. He was just funny like that.
How do you describe the taste of 'saltiness' to convey the sense of saltiness, if who you're writing to has no understanding of it?
That's the problem with written word. We can write all around, and try to help someone identify the moment the sense happens, but words are incapable of sharing the sense.
The writings about the Dao are so that those looking for it in real life can identify it when they think they find it. Just reading with no doing will never show you the Dao. They describe emotions and senses that writings can never convey.
If you can't describe a thing, then you have to talk around it and hope you given the listener enough contextual clues that they figure it out for themselves.
Given that, 81 chapters seems appropriate for an amorphous subject that we can't yet define in language.
How do you describe the taste of 'saltiness' to convey the sense of saltiness, if who you're writing to has no understanding of it?
That's the problem with written word. We can write all around, and try to help someone identify the moment the sense happens, but words are incapable of sharing the sense.
The writings about the Dao are so that those looking for it in real life can identify it when they think they find it. Just reading with no doing will never show you the Dao. They describe emotions and senses that writings can never convey.