The Classic of the Way and Virtue

This book is a translation of the ancient Chinese text Tao Te Ching. According to the introduction of this rendering, tao means “the way of all life,” teh can be interpreted as “the fit use of life by men,” and ching stands for “ a text or classic.” it contains 81 very short chapters discussing the nature of this world, as well as human relations.

At first, I was really confused with the sayings, as words and lines seem to be unrelated to one another. However, as I kept reading and not thinking too much about it, an understanding about the gist of the text dawned upon me. I think it's the repetitiveness of the chapters that eventually allow me to capture the meaning behind the seemingly confusing and platitude-ish wording.

This book touches upon many topics, but one of the most notable here is the concept of wu-wei. According to this article, the term means literally “no doing” and figuratively “effortless doing,” while the translator of this edition worded it as “creative quietism.” Either way, I could find no better way to grasp that concept than to read and feel out the words of Lao Tzu himself.

Of course, this translation is by no means Lao Tzu's actual words. As a student of translation myself, I don't think that any translation can truly replace the source text, the original. Witter Bynner as the translator might have let some of his own biases (particularly of Christianity and the West) slip into the text in its English form. In the introduction, he even admitted that he could not speak Chinese. Instead, he relied on previous English translations and his own experience of being in China for two years. That being said, the translation itself is beautifully written. It pays attention to rhyming and line breaks really well, and the vocabulary he used back in 1944 seems so contemporary, as if he only wrote it in the 2020s.

All in all, although with a grain of salt, I would recommend you to read this Bynner's translation of Tao Te Ching. I might even need to read this more than once.

I did not like it for several reasons. I have read many translations of the Tao Teh Ching, so I have a lot to compare the first half of this volume to. I know nothing of the original language, so I can make no assessment of the accuracy, but I can compare it to other translations. Based on that, I can say that I found this one to be clunky and unappealing. It was difficult and unpleasant to read. I have never read any translation of the Hua Hu Ching before, but I read this one concurrently with [b:Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu 147311 Hua Hu Ching The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu Lao Tzu https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347731768s/147311.jpg 142169] so that is my only point of reference. I was unhappy with Ni for not providing some introduction giving us something about his translation philosophy and how he chose to deal with certain words. (He did provide a brief mention of his approach to male vs female references, and I am glad for that.) The trouble is that while I was reading, there were all these odd phrases that I reasonably guess are not direct translations from the Chinese, but philosophically chosen English equivalents. But since he never tells us what the Chinese original of these phrases is, I can not compare his translation of this text to other translations of other texts I am familiar with. I don't know if the Hua Hu Ching is talking about the same thing as other texts. Heck, I can't even always tell when the word “tao” is the original behind a particular English phrase or word, so I can't even compare it to the Tao Teh Ching as I know it from other translations. Also, I wish he had at least mentioned the confusing history of the text and the likely possibility that it was a fraud to begin with. Somehow, it felt like I was being conned. “Trust me, I know what I'm talking about!” I am sure that as a taoist reading this text just as taoist teaching is great–it does not matter if it is ancient or modern, Chinese or Mayan. If it is a reliable text for teaching taoist philosophy, then great! But for someone like me who wants to read it as an ancient text, with some connection to the Tao Teh Ching which I really like, then this volume is pretty much worthless. And why is this text so very different than [b:Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu 147311 Hua Hu Ching The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu Lao Tzu https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347731768s/147311.jpg 142169]? This is long, wordy, dialog prose; the other is concise verse. Rather suspicious.For a cynical take on the Hua Hu Ching itself, read this short article: http://taoism.net/tao/hua-hu-ching/