Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
by D. C. Lau, Lao Tzu
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Book Summary Information
Author: D. C. Lau, Lao TzuEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-05
ISBN: 014044131X
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Product features:
- Penguin Classics)
- Tao Te Ching (
- Classic
- Penguin
- Classics)
Book Reviews of Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
Book Review: A good but not great translation of a very special work
Summary: 3 Stars
The Tao Te Ching is one of those hyped-up texts that come about with the proliferation of the New-Age establishment. One can walk into most bookstores to be hounded by dozens of editions, finely illustrated, with plenty of white space, printed on unbleached, acid-free paper, almost saying "buy me, simplicity and enlightenment beckons". So, to cut away from the hype into reality, there are two issues - what's the actual text like and how good is this edition?
The Tao Te Ching is a very short text (I think about 5000 characters in Chinese). It is one of the primary Taoist texts but it has been used in many, many other contexts since. It's attributed to Lao Tzu, the sage of Taoism, although scholarly opinion about authorship varies widely. It opens with a line that can be translated as "the Way that can be named is not the Way," so it's quite impossible to convey the principles without breaking them. The general analysis is that it accentuates simplicity, intuition, the under-dog, adaptability, spontenaiety and harmony with the universe. And these all seem to be at least partially, true while of course missing the unattainable essence as all analyses of the work must. Some of the teachings are certainly radical in interpreted literally ("exterminate the sage...and the people will benefit a hundredfold").
Ultimately, you can draw a lot of meaning from this and debate it for hours. Religious Taoist interpretations aside, we don't really know what it's about ultimately. Is it a political manual and a method of ruling by wuwei (a concept that can be translated as actionless action or natural action)? Is it a personal guide to surviving the uncertain social era during which it was composed? Or is it a guide to personal spiritual fulfilment and being in harmony with the natural flow of things (when the text advocates harmony with nature, by nature it seems to mean something a bit different to what most people today mean). It's probably some combination of the three. Certainly if one gets nothing else from the book than the oversimplified philosophy of being spontaneous, not too cerebral and not resisting things too head on, it would make a very worthwhile read.
As to the edition, it has plenty of white space (this time, sarcasm aside, I think that's a very underrated aspect of works, especially translated ones) and no notes as to the various interpretations leaving one uncluttered but at times confused. The translation seems good, but any translation is bound to be flawed and Tao Te Ching ones ESPECIALLY as the Chinese is just so concise, playful and purposely ambiguous that any attempts to render it into another language are bound to break the ambiguity. This edition is a good introduction for someone with no ideological predisposition because it is quite down-the-middle. It avoids a flowery overplaying of how "profound" the work is supposed to be and lets you read and judge for yourself.
More Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology) reviews:
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Summary of Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
Traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius (551-479 BC), it is now thought that the work was compiled in about the fourth century BC. An anthology of wise sayings, it offers a model by which the individual can live rather than explaining the human place in the universe. The moral code it encourages is based on modesty and self-restraint, and the rewards reaped for such a life are harmony and flow of life.Poetry Books
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