Communication between two peoples, distinguished by a historically grounded national philosophy, can be carried out only with a clear and accurate understanding of the origins of each cultural tradition expressed in language. This article is devoted to the study of Taoist motifs in Chinese classical poetry and their reproduction in Russian translations. The author identifies the peculiarities of the transmission of Taoist philosophical ideas, such as Tao and Wu Wei, through key images (mountains, water, cranes) and the evaluation of their interpretation in Russian translations. The relevance of the research is due to the importance of Taoist philosophy for Chinese culture and the difficulty of reproducing it accurately in translation. The novelty of the work consists in conducting a comparative analysis of the original poems and their translations, which makes it possible to detect losses or transformations in the transmission of philosophical concepts. The results of the study indicate that in some cases translations lose the philosophical depth of Taoist concepts, which leads to a decrease in the cultural and philosophical value of works, and the latter leads to disharmony in intercultural communication between the two peoples.