This chapter demonstrates two common tendencies in the textual history of the Laozi/Daodejing, namely, “linguistic assimilation” and “conceptual focusing,” which call for a new approach to understanding the transformation and distribution of the various versions and editions. “Linguistic assimilation” describes the general tendency of editors to replace words, phrases, or passages with common terms or patterns according to their understanding of the meaning and style of a text. Thus, within the modification and dissimilation of varying versions of a text, there is a historical trend towards convergence on certain linguistic features. “Conceptual focusing” indicates that in received versions, some key concepts, such as wuwei 無為 or Dao 道, come to replace general expressions found in older versions, with their positions in passages re-arranged so that the intellectual insights of the text becomes more, rather than less distinctly pronounced. Conceptual focusing is the effort of editors of later versions to highlight key concepts of a transmitted text.