Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)
by Lao Tzu
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lao TzuTranslator: Stephen Mitchell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-05
ISBN: 0061142662
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Book Reviews of Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)
Book Review: It is what it is...
Summary: 2 Stars
Ok, it's easy to knock Mr. Mitchell's translation. Yet he did get it published and it continues to sell well. Can the author be faulted? The publisher? The buying public? Not everyone can be a scholar; not everyone wants to read a scholarly version. Sometimes folks are just looking for plain English (i.e. sometimes folks don't want to work to understand). For a beginner, this isn't a bad place to start.
I took a class about ten years ago on "Eastern" religions and this was the translation we were asked to buy even though the teacher was using Feng's translation. Having been relatively familiar with the Dao De Jing for a number of years prior to reading this one I was a bit put off. It was an easy read and there the endnotes are interesting but in the end I couldn't help think that it was just plain, to put it nicely, inaccurate and, more honestly, wrong.
Here's his take on Chapter 5:
"The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners."
The original says that neither heaven nor the sage are humane (quite possibly a potshot at Confucianism); to them, people are the equivalent of straw dogs - a sacrificial image disposed of after being used for its purpose. It isn't impartial, as Mitchell notes; it is indifferent. It's pretty cut and dry; there is no hint of "welcoming" anyone which tends to personalize something that is ultimately impersonal.
The Dao does not give birth to good and evil. The Dao transcends any and all such distinctions. The Dao may give "birth" to all things but good and evil are ultimately in the minds of men, not the Dao and "sin" (which has a very specific connotation in the Western world) is a completely foreign concept to the DDJ. This is a case of a Biblical idea imposed on the DDJ. It isn't necessarily intentional on the author's part but the trouble with this work is that the language used in order to make it more "plain" often has cultural undertones that miss the mark of the Chinese original.
As I continued to trudge through it began to sound more like New Age mishmash with splashes of Christianese tossed about. There is a tendency of many a translator/interpreter in this day and age to lump all religions together as one in essence (and this somehow makes them "mystical"). In reality, this is basically Man as the measure of all things. It's the smorgasbord approach - pick and choose what you like. It will appeal to those who don't really care enough to understand a particular text in its context. It's better to feel good and Mr. Mitchell certainly accomplishes this.
Interesting that Mr. Mitchell has translated the Bhagavad Gita, Gilgamesh, the Book of Job and has to his credit the "essential" teachings of Jesus. Who determines what is essential?
This approach isn't transformative; it conforms to what is already believed. If you start here, don't stay too long.
Summary of Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)
In eighty-one brief chapters, Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao?the basic principle of the universe.
Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.
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