![]() Ultimately, one is responsible for one’s own learning. Therefore, one must keep a beginner’s mind, open and spacious, without herd mentality or blind faith in any renown experts. And you suspect that certain old-world elements in the text could be better attuned to today’s senses, if we want to bring about the maximum benefit. Its popularity certainly shows the power of traditional Chinese. Even the Chinese original has different versions, possibly achieved by different placements of a punctuation mark. I take the poetic language and the suggestive imagery of the book as its teaching device and group chapters along such themes and images (Dao, water, the uncarved block, the female, the infant nondoing, the power and virtue of Dao de, the Daoist ruler/sage/master). Next to the Bible, the Dao De Jing is the most translated work in world literature. ![]() More often than not, you see a translator shifts the tone just so slightly, and the whole meaning of a sentence can glide a ten thousand li away from another translator’s inference. There are a great variety of English translations (many can be found on this wonderful site – Terebess Asia Online), each has its own interpretation of Lao Zi’s views and insights. However, right before Lao Zi was riding off into the desert to become immortal, a gatekeeper in northwestern China pleaded with him to impart his wisdom – that’s how in the sixth century B.C. To this day, the teaching remains a central influence in Chinese culture.Īs legend has it, most of his life Lao Zi maintained that ‘The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao’. Lao Zi/Lao Tzu conveys the essence of his teaching through Dao De Jing/Tao Te Ching > in 5,000 Chinese words and 81 chapters, with a literary style terse and concise.
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