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.