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= Tao_Te_Ching =
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Introduction
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The 'Tao Te Ching' () or 'Laozi' is a Chinese classic text and
foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi,
though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation
are debated. The oldest excavated portion dates to the late 4th
century BC.
The 'Tao Te Ching' is central to both philosophical and religious
Taoism, and has been highly influential to Chinese philosophy and
religious practice in general. It is generally taken as preceding the
'Zhuangzi', the other core Taoist text. Terminology originating within
the text has been reinterpreted and elaborated upon by Legalist
thinkers, Confucianists, and particularly Chinese Buddhists,
introduced to China significantly after the initial solidification of
Taoist thought. One of the most translated texts in world literature,
the text is well known in the West.
Title
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In English, the title is commonly rendered 'Tao Te Ching', following
the Wade-Giles romanisation, or as 'Daodejing', following pinyin. It
can be translated as 'The Classic of the Way and its Power', 'The Book
of the Tao and Its Virtue', 'The Book of the Way and of Virtue', 'The
Tao and its Characteristics', 'The Canon of Reason and Virtue', 'The
Classic Book of Integrity and the Way', or 'A Treatise on the
Principle and Its Action'.
Ancient Chinese books were commonly referenced by the name of their
real or supposed author, in this case the "Old Master", Laozi. As
such, the 'Tao Te Ching' is also sometimes referred to as the 'Laozi',
especially in Chinese sources.
The title 'Tao Te Ching', designating the work's status as a classic,
was only first applied during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han
(157-141 BC). Other titles for the work include the honorific 'Sutra
of the Way and Its Power' () and the descriptive 'Five Thousand
Character Classic' ().
Principal versions
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Among the many transmitted editions of the 'Tao Te Ching' text, the
three primary ones are named after early commentaries. The "Yan Zun
Version", which is only extant for the 'Te Ching', derives from a
commentary attributed to Han dynasty scholar Yan Zun (, ). The
"Heshang Gong" version is named after the legendary Heshang Gong
("legendary sage"), who supposedly lived during the reign of Emperor
Wen of Han (180-157 BC). This commentary has a preface written by Ge
Xuan (164-244 AD), granduncle of Ge Hong, and scholarship dates this
version to . The origins of the "Wang Bi" version have greater
verification than either of the above. Wang Bi (226-249 AD) was a
Three Kingdoms-period philosopher and commentator on the 'Tao Te
Ching' and 'I Ching'.
Archaeologically recovered manuscripts
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'Tao Te Ching' scholarship has advanced from archaeological
discoveries of manuscripts, some of which are older than any of the
received texts. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Marc Aurel Stein and
others found thousands of scrolls in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang.
They included more than 50 partial and complete manuscripts. Another
partial manuscript has the 'Xiang'er' commentary, which had previously
been lost.
In 1973, archaeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books,
known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb dated to 168 BC. They
included two nearly complete copies of the text, referred to as Text A
() and Text B (), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and
put the 'Te Ching' section before the 'Tao Ching', which is why the
Henricks translation of them is named "Te-Tao Ching". Based on
calligraphic styles and imperial naming taboo avoidances, scholars
believe that Text A can be dated to about the first decade and Text B
to about the third decade of the 2nd century BC.
In 1993, the oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo
slips, was found in a tomb near the town of Guodian () in Jingmen,
Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BC. The Guodian Chu Slips comprise
around 800 slips of bamboo with a total of over 13,000 characters,
about 2,000 of which correspond with the 'Tao Te Ching.'
Both the Mawangdui and Guodian versions are generally consistent with
the received texts, excepting differences in chapter sequence and
graphic variants. Several recent 'Tao Te Ching' translations utilise
these two versions, sometimes with the verses reordered to synthesize
the new finds.
Chronological theories
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Although debated more in early scholarship, early modern scholars like
Feng Youlan and Herrlee G. Creel still considered the work a
compilation, and most modern scholarship holds the text to be a
compilation, as typical for long-form early Chinese texts. Linguistic
studies of the 'Tao Te Ching's' vocabulary and rime scheme point to a
date of composition after the 'Classic of Poetry' (or Book of Songs),
but before the 'Zhuangzi', and would generally be taken as preceding
the 'Zhuangzi'. This is the traditional "before Zhuangzi" theory.
Although the Book of Songs is a diverse work, they do not appear to
bear any especial resemblance as to help try to date the work that far
back.
Based on Sima Qian, the text would traditionally be taken as preceding
Shen Buhai. Creel proposed that Shen Buhai may have preceded it as
well, but Shen Buhai does bear a "striking" resemblance to Laozi.
Although not enough to eliminate a late dating, the discovery of the
early Mawangdui silk texts and Guodian Chu Slips again made a dating
before the third-century more probable. Essentially the dating of A.C.
Graham, the Stanford Encyclopedia supposes compilation of the
'current' text as dating back to , drawing on a wide range of versions
further dating back a century or two. Benjamin I. Schwartz still
considered the Tao te Ching remarkably unified by the time of the
Mawangdui, even if these versions swap the two halves of the text. As
one criticism of late theories for the work, although its earliest
recovered version is from late in the range of possible dating, its
language was already "coherent and natural".
Termed the "After Zhuangzi" theory, representative of Ch'ien Mu and
Graham, a lack of early references contributes to Graham's late
dating. While the Zhuangzi is the first reference for the Tao te
Ching, its Inner Chapters do not demonstrate familiarity with it.
Thus, an early stratum representative of the 'Zhuangzi's' core Inner
Chapters may have preceded it. Listed in the Outer 'Zhuangzi's'
history before Laozi and Zhuangzi, Shen Dao also shares content with
the Inner 'Zhuangzi'. Less technically complex than Shen Buhai, Shen
Dao's current may even precede him, as could be theoretically
interpreted from Ban Gu. However, though not verbatim quotations, Shen
Dao can also be directly compared with the Tao te Ching.
Sinologist Chad Hansen does not consider the Outer 'Zhuangzi' entirely
accurate chronologically, but positioned Shen Dao under "Pre-Laozi
Daoist Theory" for the theoretical framework of the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Daoism's 2024 edition. Discussing concepts of names
and realities in its opening, Feng Youlan proposed the school of names
as preceding the 'Tao Te Ching'. But while some may have, it does not
demonstrate school of names influence the way the 'Zhuangzi' does. The
'Tao te Ching' is not as paradoxical, it tries to demonstrate that the
'way' or dao is not constant. Although differing, Mohism and
Confucianism also discuss concepts of names and realities.
Authorship
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The 'Tao Te Ching' was traditionally ascribed to Laozi, whose
historical existence has been a matter of scholarly debate. His name,
which means "Old Master", has only fuelled controversy on this issue.
Legends claim variously that Laozi was "born old" and that he lived
for 996 years, with twelve previous incarnations starting around the
time of the Three Sovereigns before the thirteenth as Laozi. Some
scholars have expressed doubts over Laozi's historicity.
The first biographical reference to Laozi is in the 'Records of the
Grand Historian', by Chinese historian Sima Qian (), which combines
three stories. In the first, Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius
(551-479 BC). His surname was Li (), and his personal name was Er ()
or Dan (). He was an official in the imperial archives, and wrote a
book in two parts before departing to the West; at the request of the
keeper of the Han-ku Pass, Yinxi, Laozi composed the 'Tao Te Ching'.
In the second story, Laozi, also a contemporary of Confucius, was Lao
Laizi (), who wrote a book in 15 parts. Third, Laozi was the grand
historian and astrologer Lao Dan (), who lived during the reign of
Duke Xian of Qin ().
Internal structure
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The 'Tao Te Ching' is a text of around 5,162 to 5,450 Chinese
characters in 81 brief chapters or sections (). There is some evidence
that the chapter divisions were later additions--for commentary, or as
aids to rote memorisation--and that the original text was more fluidly
organised. It has two parts, the 'Tao Ching' (; chapters 1-37) and the
'Te Ching' (; chapters 38-81), which may have been edited together
into the received text, possibly reversed from an original 'Te Tao
Ching'.
The written style is laconic, and has few grammatical particles. While
the ideas are singular, the style is poetic, combining two major
strategies: short, declarative statements, and intentional
contradictions, encouraging varied, contradictory interpretations. The
first of these strategies creates memorable phrases, while the second
forces the reader to reconcile supposed contradictions. With a partial
reconstruction of the pronunciation of Old Chinese spoken during the
'Tao Te Ching's' composition, approximately three-quarters rhymed in
the original language.
The Chinese characters in the earliest versions were written in seal
script, while later versions were written in clerical script and
regular script styles.
Translation
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The 'Tao Te Ching' has been translated into Western languages over 250
times, mostly to English, German, and French. According to Holmes
Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had
solved." The first English translation of the 'Tao Te Ching' was
produced in 1868 by the Scottish Protestant missionary John Chalmers,
entitled 'The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the
"Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze'. It was heavily indebted to Julien's
French translation and dedicated to James Legge, who later produced
his own translation for Oxford's 'Sacred Books of the East'.
Other notable English translations of the 'Tao Te Ching' are those
produced by Chinese scholars and teachers: a 1948 translation by
linguist Lin Yutang, a 1961 translation by author John Ching Hsiung
Wu, a 1963 translation by sinologist Din Cheuk Lau, another 1963
translation by professor Wing-tsit Chan, and a 1972 translation by
Taoist teacher Gia-Fu Feng together with his wife Jane English.
Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese
language and philosophy who are trying to render the original meaning
of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more
popular translations are written from a less scholarly perspective,
giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these
versions claim that their translators deviate from the text and are
incompatible with the history of Chinese thought. Russell Kirkland
goes further to argue that these versions are based on Western
Orientalist fantasies and represent the colonial appropriation of
Chinese culture. Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue and
Jonathan Herman, argue that while they do not pretend to scholarship,
they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized
versions aim to make the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to
modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more familiar
cultural and temporal references.
Challenges in translation
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The 'Tao Te Ching' is written in Classical Chinese, which generally
poses a number of challenges for interpreters and translators. As
Holmes Welch notes, the written language "has no active or passive, no
singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood." Moreover,
the received text lacks many grammatical particles which are preserved
in the older Mawangdui and Beida texts, which permit the text to be
more precise. Lastly, many passages of the 'Tao Te Ching' are
deliberately ambiguous.
Since there is very little punctuation in Classical Chinese,
determining the precise boundaries between words and sentences is not
always trivial. Deciding where these phrasal boundaries are must be
done by the interpreter. Some translators have argued that the
received text is so corrupted due to its original medium being bamboo
strips linked with silk threads--that it is impossible to understand
some passages without some transposition of characters.
Notable translations
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*
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* .
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* Houang, François and Leyris, Pierre (1979), 'La Voie et sa vertu:
Tao-tê-king' (in French), Paris: Éditions du Seuil
* .
*
*
* .
*
* Addiss, Stephen and Lombardo, Stanley (1991) 'Tao Te Ching,'
Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
* Ursula K. Le Guin .
* David Hinton, .
* Chad Hansen, 'Laozi: Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony,' Duncan
Baird Publications, 2009
* Red Pine,
* Sinedino, Giorgio (2015), 'Dao De Jing' (in Portuguese), São Paulo:
Editora Unesp
See also
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* Bogar
* Ecclesiastes
* 'Huahujing'
* 'Huainanzi'
* 'Huangdi Yinfujing'
* 'Qingjing Jing'
* 'Sanhuangjing'
* Straw dog
* 'Taiping Jing'
* 'Xishengjing'
* Four Books and Five Classics
Sources
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External links
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* [
http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.php Legge, Suzuki,
and Goddard's translations side-by-side, along with the original text]
License
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
