Tao Te Ching
Ratings166
Average rating4.1
A life's work:
“Hold on the center.”
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. in thinking, keep to the simple. in conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”
“Receptive as a valley.”
“He simply reminds people of who they have always been.”
“When they lose their sense of awe, people turn to religion.”
“Failure is an opportunity.”
“If you blame someone else, there is no end to blame.”
What??? How is this the second most translated text/book in the world? Nonsensical and pure gibberish. At least it was short:D
Some disclaimers:
1. I'm new to reading texts like this and this is waaay out of my comfort zone.
2. There's a good chance I'm just not at a place in life to comprehend/understand the text properly.
3. There was a language barrier, as I didn't find a good translation in my native Bulgarian.
With this in mind, here's some notes to hopefully help you if you're in my shoes.
tl;dr
1. Read Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English's version
2. Give it a chance, there is some wisdom to be found in the book
First, which translation you pick up matters.. A LOT! And it doesn't help that there's a ton of them. I started with Ursula Le Guin's version, but I quickly discarded it. It felt too prescriptive and like it romanticizes the source material. I don't think this is Tao Te Ching, this is what Ursula Le Guin wants to believe (or wants you to think?) Tao Te Ching is.
I jumped over to James Legge's version - and this time read the whole book. This version, and especially forewords, gave me a lot of good context on the history of the book, various ancient translations, a general explanation for how Laozi thinks of the Tao, and the approaches to translating and interpreting the source material. My understanding is that this translation tries to be as close to the source material as possible.
And... it seemed like a complete mess intertwined with some good ideas and a lot of gibberish. There are numerous instances where Legge admits in notes that Laozi is contradictory, doesn't make sense, etc. Some times Legge says things like “I will not attempt to explain this” (paraphrasing).
After that, I read (~80% of) Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English's version. This seems somewhere in between Ursula Le Guin and James Legge. It's written in more accessible English, and comparing to Legge's version it seems close-ish to the source material most of the time. The translators did change the tone a lot, but this allowed them to showcase the ideas more clearly. However, I cannot help it - if I assume Legge's version is closer to the source, I feel this version does a decent amount of gymnastics to give the text deeper meaning (I even wanna say “force deeper meaning into the text”). It almost completely replaces some of those gibberish-y/hard-to-translate/very abstract passages with alternatives I feel are interpretations of the source rather than the source itself.
Here's an example of why the translation you pick matters:
Fifty Six (James Legge):
He who knows (the Tao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.
He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will attemper his brightness, and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity (of others).
Fifty Six (J. English):
Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.
Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
—
Some thoughts on the Tao itself:
1. The book does not explain a lot. Laozi seems even kinda protective of the knowledge, like he deliberately doesn't want to share it. He mostly teaches you in the style of ‘if you followed the Tao, this is what you would've done'. The Tao is amazing, all-knowing, and you should follow it, of course. If you do, everything will be great, if you don't - bad stuff happens. “My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practice; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practice them”. Sure.
2. The book teaches humility and humbleness, and reiterates on those to burn them in your head. This I appreciate very much, and the author found various ways to explain why humility and being humble is a good way to live life. It teaches about being kind to others and not being greedy. Good stuff.
3. The book teaches that not acting is good, and not knowing is good. You should strive to do nothing and learn nothing. This I cannot comprehend.
I will most likely go back to Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English's version sometime in the future, after some time passes. There is wisdom to be found in this version - even if their interpretation is not really what Laozi wrote, does it really matter?
Laozi says “The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently. The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again. The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud”.
I guess I'm okay with being average.
Read most of this on a flight, occasionally looking out over sunlit desert hills, pretty scenic. This is some rich poetry, and my biggest takeaway was I think my brother is an unintentional Taoist, which if Lao Tzu is to be believed, is the perfect kind. Do without doing; be without being(?)
Also Le Guin’s footnotes for almost every chapter were helpful and sometimes contained nuggets more valuable than the poems they comment on.
Also kept in my mind that “Tao” is the same word used to translate “Logos” in the famous John 1 passage. Makes for a sort of Jesus-centered mysticism of the Tao, about which I wanna read more in the future
Very nice reading with a lot of great wisdom. It is also quite easy to read and understand. Took less than an hour to read once, but offers content to think about for long time.
It is a classic for a reason. The version by Ursula K. Le Guin makes it even more relevant to the present.
I have no idea how I've never managed to read any translation of the Tao Te Ching until now. What a beauty. I listened to this on audio and it was incredibly calming. I ordered a physical copy to refer to because I love it so much.
No soy ni filósofo ni historiador, y seguramente no tengo ninguna perspicacia original respecto al Tao Te Ching; sólo anoto que disfruté mucho de esta traducción de Alejandro Bárcenas.
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
I read this alongside the more standard Stephen Mitchell translation and they are very different. At the end a note on translations revealed that Le Guin didn't care for Mitchell's; I'd like to read some of the ones that she does recommend.
At any rate, this was the first time I read this foundational spiritual text in any form, and it was a revelation. The “Tao of” everything is so trendy nowadays, but what does that actually mean? There is so much to ponder, a profound spiritual and practical guide to life. I'll be returning to this book in some form or other, I'm sure.
Le Guin's notes on her choices as a translator and what resonates with her personally are interesting. I would tend to disagree with some of her decisions, i.e. that a passage was an interpolation to be dismissed, or that her interpretation is necessarily the right one. With a text of this depth and mysteriousness, I think we have to be cautious in approaching it out of our cynical modern consciousness. However, Le Guin does not claim that her version is definitive, and her commentary gives fascinating clues into the source which eludes precise understanding. I would love to have had more of it.
Read it twice, first translated by James Legge, and really disliked it, second translated by Dwight Goddard and Henri Borel and really loved it. So concerning this book specifically, take your time searching for the best translation for you, cause it can make a huge difference in the reading experience.
Ouvrage fondateur du taoïsme, d'une immense sagesse. Je pense que j'avais envie de surligner l'entiereté de ces pages tellement elles étaient emplies de savoir. Une extrêmement belle philosophie qui gagnerait à être plus connue, très loin de velléités guerrières de beaucoup de religions. Je pense sérieusement que chaque personne devrait prendre le temps de découvrir ces quelques pages, cela pourrait changer beaucoup de choses en bien 🙏🏻
“The tallest tree begins as a tiny sprout. The tallest building starts with one shovel of dirt. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single footstep. If you rush into action, you will fail. If you hold on too tight, you will lose your grip. “
“Some say that my teaching is nonsense; others call it lofty but impractical. But to those who have looked inside themselves, this nonsense makes perfect sense.”
I had never heard of this book until recently, when I saw two or three strong recommendations for it within the same month. I can understand why some people draw parallels to stoicism or secular mindfulness, and I can imagine a dedicated student engaging in extensive exegesis could benefit from this text, but I found it uninspiring and too mystical. I remain in the “this is nonsense” camp.
