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Tao Te Ching

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Philosophy

                              "Tao Te Ching"
   Traditional Chinese: 道德經
   Simplified Chinese: 道德经
   Pinyin romanization: Dào Dé Jīng
   Wade-Giles romanization: Tao Te Ching
   Zhuyin transcription: ㄉㄠˋ ㄉㄜˊ ㄐㄧㄥ
   The Wade-Giles title Tao Te Ching dates back to the first English
   translations in the late 19th century, and some people continue using
   it. The pinyin title Dao De Jing originated in the late 20th century,
   and this romanization is becoming increasingly popular. See discussion
   at Daoism-Taoism romanization issue.

   The Tao Te Ching ( Traditional Chinese: 道德經 [ Listen ]), roughly
   translatable as The Book of the Way and its Virtue (see below), is a
   Chinese classic text. According to tradition, it was written around 600
   BCE by the Taoist sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, "Old Master"), a
   record-keeper at the Zhou Dynasty court. A careful reading of the text,
   however, suggests that it is a compilation of maxims sharing similar
   themes. The text's authenticity, authorship, and date of composition or
   compilation are still debated.

   The Tao Te Ching is fundamental to the Taoist school (Daojia 道家) of
   Chinese philosophy and strongly influenced other schools as well, such
   as Legalism and Neo-Confucianism. This ancient book is also central in
   Chinese religion, not only for Taoism (Daojiao 道教) but Chinese
   Buddhism, which when first introduced into China was largely
   interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts. Many Chinese
   artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and even gardeners
   have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence
   has also spread widely outside East Asia, aided by hundreds of
   translations into Western languages.

The text

   The Tao Te Ching has a long and complex textual history. On one hand,
   there are transmitted versions and commentaries that date back two
   millennia; on the other, there are ancient bamboo, silk, and paper
   manuscripts that archeologists discovered in the last century.

Title

   There are many possible translations of the book's title, owing to the
   polysemy of the component Chinese words:
     * Dào/ Tao 道 literally means "way", "road", "path", or "route," but
       was extended to mean "path ahead", "way forward", "method",
       "principle", "doctrine", or simply "the Way". This term, which was
       variously used by other Chinese philosophers (including Confucius,
       Mencius, Mozi, and Hanfeizi), has special meaning within the
       context of Taoism, where it implies the essential, unnamable
       process of the universe.
     * Dé/Te 德 basically means "virtue" in the sense of "personal
       character", "inner strength", or "integrity", but was used
       differently by Confucianists to mean "morality". The semantics of
       this Chinese word resemble English virtue, which developed from a
       (now archaic) sense of "inner potency" or "divine power" (as in
       "healing virtue of a drug") to the modern meaning of "moral
       excellence" or "goodness". Compare the compound word dàodé (道德
       "ethics", "ethical principles", "morals," or "morality").
     * Jīng/Ching 經 originally meant "norm", "rule", "plan", "warp" (vs.
       "woof") and was semantically extended to mean "scripture", "canon",
       "great book", or "classic".

   Thus, Tao Te Ching can be translated as "The Scripture/Classic/Canon of
   the Way/Path and the Power/Virtue", etc.

   Besides Daode Jing, other titles include the eponymous Laozi (老子 "Old
   Master[s]"), the amalgam Laozi Daode Jing (老子道德經), the honorific Daode
   Zhen Jing (道德真經 "Perfect Classic of the Way and the Power"), and the
   Wuqian wen (五千文 "Five thousand character [classic]"; see next).

Internal structure

   The received Tao Te Ching is a short text of around 5,000 Chinese
   characters in 81 brief chapters or sections (章). It has two parts, the
   Tao Ching (道經; chaps. 1–37) and the Te Ching (德經; chaps. 38–81), which
   may have been edited together into the received text, possibly reversed
   from an original "Te Tao Ching" (see Mawangdui texts below). The
   written style is laconic, with few grammatical particles, frequently
   ambiguous, occasionally rhymed, and expressing often difficult ideas
   poetically.

   The Chinese characters in the original versions were probably written
   in zhuànshū (篆書 seal script), while later versions were written in
   lìshū (隷書 clerical script) and kǎishū (楷書 regular script) styles.
   Daoist Chinese Characters contains a good summary of these different
   calligraphies.

Historical authenticity

   The Tao Te Ching is universally ascribed to Laozi, who may, or may not,
   have been a historical person ("Old Master"), or people ("Old
   Masters"). No one can be certain; indeed, Laozi "was a hidden sage"
   (Kaltenmark 1969:10).

   The first reliable reference to Laozi is his "biography" in the circa
   100 BCE Shiji (63, tr. Chan 1963:35-37), by Chinese historian Sima
   Qian, which combines three stories. First, Laozi was a contemporary of
   Confucius (551-479 BCE), his surname was Li (李 "plum") and personal
   name was Er (耳 "ear") or Dan (聃 "long ear"). He was an official in the
   imperial archives, and wrote a book in two parts before departing to
   the West. Second, Laozi was Lao Laizi (老來子 "Old Come Master"), also a
   contemporary of Confucius, who wrote a book in 15 parts, and lived to
   an age of more than 160 (or 200) years. Third, Laozi was the Grand
   Historian and astrologer Lao Dan (老聃 "Old Long-ears"), who lived during
   the reign (384-362 BCE) of Duke Xian (獻公) of Qin). Boltz (1993:270)
   concludes this biography "contains virtually nothing that is
   demonstrably factual; we are left no choice but to acknowledge the
   likely fictional nature of the traditional [Laozi] figure."

   Generations of scholars have debated the historicity of Laozi and the
   dating of the Tao Te Ching. Linguistic studies of the text's vocabulary
   and rhyme scheme point to a date of composition after the Shi Jing yet
   before the Zhuangzi — around the late 4th or early 3rd centuries BCE.

   Some supporters of Taosim attribute this debate to the folkloric age of
   Laozi of over 900 years old who had thirteen incarnates starting around
   the time of the Three Sovereigns, a view obviously rejected by
   scholars.

Principal versions

   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 (巖尊, fl. 80 BCE-10 CE). The
   "Heshang Gong Version" is named after the legendary Heshang Gong (河上公
   "Riverside Sage") who supposedly lived during the reign (202-157 BCE)
   of Emperor Wen of Han. This commentary (tr. Erkes 1950) has a preface
   written by Ge Xuan (葛玄, 164-244 CE), grand-uncle of Ge Hong, and
   scholarship dates this version to around the 3rd century CE. The "Wang
   Bi Version" has more verifiable origins than either of the above. Wang
   Bi (王弼, 226 – 249 CE) was a famous Three Kingdoms period philosopher
   and commentator on the Tao Te Ching (tr. Lin 1977, Rump and Chan 1979)
   and the Yi Jing.

   Tao Te Ching scholarship has lately advanced from archeological
   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 over 50 partial and complete Tao Te Ching manuscripts.
   One written by the scribe So/Su Dan (素統) is dated 270 CE, and
   corresponds closely with the Heshang Gong version. Another partial
   manuscript has the Xiang'er (想爾) commentary, which had previously been
   lost. In 1973, archeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books,
   known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb dating from 168 BCE. They
   included two nearly complete copies of the Laozi, referred to as Text A
   (甲) and Text B (乙), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and
   put the Te Ching section before the Tao Ching. Based on calligraphic
   styles and imperial naming taboo avoidances, scholars believe that A
   and B can be respectively dated to about the first and third decades of
   the 2nd century BCE (Boltz 1993:284). In 1993, the oldest known version
   of the text, written on bamboo tablets, was found in a tomb near the
   town of Guodian and dated prior to 300 BCE. The Guodian Chu Slips
   comprise about 800 slips of bamboo with a total of over 13,000
   characters, about 2,000 of which correspond with the Tao Te Ching,
   including 14 previously unknown verses. 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 (e.g., Lau 1989, Henricks 1989, Mair 1990,
   Henricks 2000, Allan and Williams 2000, and Roberts 2004) utilize these
   two versions, sometimes with the verses reordered to synthesize the new
   finds.

Interpretation and themes

   Many believe the Tao Te Ching contains universal truths that have been
   independently recognized in other philosophies, both religious and
   secular. Depending on interpretation, some ambiguous passages have
   multiple readings, ranging from political advice for rulers to
   practical wisdom for people. The following themes and concepts are
   central to interpreting the text.

Ineffability

          The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way;
          The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
          It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang;
          The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand
          creatures, each after its kind. (chap. 1, tr. Waley )

   These famous first lines of the Tao Te Ching ironically state that the
   Tao is ineffable. Wikipedia's List of snowclones includes "The X that
   can be Y is not the true X" and cites the original as "The Tao which
   can be spoken of is not the true Tao."

   Tao is nameless, goes beyond distinctions, and transcends language.
   Perhaps the Tao, like the Dharma, is what physicist David Bohm means by
   "that which is", perfectly being what is, both all and nothing. "My
   words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice.
   Yet no one under heaven understands them; no one puts them into
   practice" (chap. 70, tr. Waley )

The Mysterious Female

          The Valley Spirit never dies
          It is named the Mysterious Female.
          And the doorway of the Mysterious Female
          Is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang.
          It is there within us all the while;
          Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry. (chap. 6, tr. Waley
          )

   Like the above description of the ineffable Tao as "the mother that
   rears the ten thousand creatures", the Tao Te Ching advocates "female"
   (or Yin) values, emphasizing the fluid and soft qualities of water
   (which can overcome the solid and hard), and "having without
   possessing". This theme challenges "male" (or Yang) values such as
   stability, positive action, and domination of nature, which can be
   referred to as "Confucian values." Yin and Yang should be balanced,
   "Know masculinity, Maintain femininity, and be a ravine for all under
   heaven." (chap. 28, tr. Mair)

Returning

          In Tao the only motion is returning;
          The only useful quality, weakness.
          For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,
          Being itself is the product of Not-being. " (chap. 40, tr. Waley
          )

   Another theme is the eternal return, or what Mair (1990:139) calls "the
   continual return of the myriad creatures to the cosmic principle from
   which they arose."

   There is a contrast between the rigidity of death and the weakness of
   life: "When he is born, man is soft and weak; in death he becomes stiff
   and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees while
   they are alive are supple and soft, but when and dead they become
   brittle and dry." (chap. 76, tr. Waley ). This is returning to the
   beginning of things, or to one's own childhood.

   The Tao Te Ching focuses upon the beginnings of society, and describes
   a golden age in the past, comparable with the ideas of Jean-Jacques
   Rousseau. Human problems arose from the "invention" of culture and
   civilization. In this idealized past, “the people should have no use
   for any form of writing save knotted ropes, should be contented with
   their food, pleased with their clothing, satisfied with their homes,
   should take pleasure in their rustic tasks." (chap. 80, tr. Waley )

   However, "returning" is not a simplistic reactionary retreat. Two
   illustrations are the anti-Confucianist saying that, "Learning consists
   in adding to one's stock day by day; The practice of Tao consists in
   'subtracting day by day'." (chap. 48, tr. Waley ); and this strategic
   advice “If you doubt your ability to advance an inch, then retreat a
   foot”. (chap. 69, tr. Waley ) Diminishing one's ego, instead of
   "improving" it through study, is the path to real wisdom. Letting the
   enemy take the first step (thus reducing his range of possibilities) is
   the way to gain the upper hand. This theme is similar to psychological
   practices such as introspection or meditation, but one returns not to
   oneself but to nothingness, to "that which is".

Emptiness

          We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
          But it is on the space where there is nothing that the
          usefulness of the wheel depends.
          We turn clay to make a vessel;
          But it is on the space where there is nothing that the
          usefulness of the vessel depends.
          We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
          And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the
          usefulness of the house depends.
          Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should
          recognize the usefulness of what is not. (chap. 11, tr. Waley )

   Philosophical vacuity is a common theme among Asian wisdom traditions
   including Taoism (especially Wu wei "nonaction"), Buddhism, and some
   aspects of Confucianism. One could interpret the Tao Te Ching as a
   suite of variations on the "Powers of Nothingness". This resonates with
   the Buddhist Shunyata philosophy of "form is emptiness, emptiness is
   form."

   Looking at a traditional Chinese landscape, one can understand how
   emptiness (the unpainted) has the power of animating the trees,
   mountains, and rivers it surrounds. Emptiness can mean having no fixed
   preconceptions, preferences, intentions, or agenda. Since "The Sage has
   no heart of his own; He uses the heart of the people as his heart."
   (chap. 49, tr. Waley ). From a ruler's point of view, it is a
   laissez-faire approach:

          So a wise leader may say:
          "I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves."
          But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a single
          word
          That when his task is accomplished, his work done,
          Throughout the country every one says: “It happened of its own
          accord”. (chap. 17, tr. Waley )

Knowledge

          Knowing others is wisdom;
          Knowing the self is enlightenment.
          Mastering others requires force;
          Mastering the self requires strength;
          He who knows he has enough is rich.
          Perseverance is a sign of will power.
          He who stays where he is endures.
          To die but not to perish is to be eternally present. (chap. 33,
          tr. Feng and English)

   The Tao Te Ching praises self knowledge but criticizes rational
   understanding. For example: "Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, And the
   people will be benefited a hundredfold." (chap. 19, tr. Waley )
   Knowledge, like desire, should be diminished. "It was when intelligence
   and knowledge appeared that the Great Artifice began." (chap. 18, tr.
   Waley ).

Connections with Christianity

   Since Christian missionaries were among the first Westerners to study
   the Tao Te Ching, it is not surprising that they connected Taoism with
   Christianity. There are many parallels between the New Testament and
   the Tao Te Ching, for instance, "Do good to those who hate you" (Luke
   6:27, tr. NASB) and "Requite injuries with good deeds" (chap. 63, tr.
   Waley ). Note that the Chinese Bible translates logos as Tao.

   Two particular Tao Te Ching chapters are perceived as exemplifying
   Christian themes. Chapter 42 bears a resemblance to the Trinity
   doctrine: "The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality,
   Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad
   creatures." (tr. Mair 1990:9). In 1823, the French sinologist
   Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat suggested that Yahweh was signified by three
   words in Chapter 14; yi ( 夷 "calm; level; barbarian"), xi ( 希 "rare;
   indiscernible; hope"), and wei ( 微 "tiny, small; obscure").

     We look for it but do not see it; we name it "subtle." We listen for
     it but do not hear it; we name it "rare." We grope for it but do not
     grasp it; we name it "serene." These three cannot be fully fathomed,
     Therefore, They are bound together to make unity." (chap. 14, tr.
     Mair 1990:74)

   James Legge (1891:57-58 ) dismissed this hypothetical yi-xi-wei and
   Yahweh connection as "a mere fancy or dream". According to Holmes
   Welch:

     It is not hard to understand the readiness of early scholars to
     assert that the doctrine of the Trinity was revealed in the Tao Te
     Ching and that its fourteenth chapter contains the syllables of
     "Yahveh." Even today, though these errors have been recognized for
     more than a century, the general notion that Lao Tzu was Christ's
     forerunner has lost none of its romantic appeal. (1965:7)

   Present day researchers, such as Damascene et al. (1999), continue to
   explore the similarities between Taoist and Christian teachings.

Other themes

   Here are some other topics related to the Tao Te Ching:
     * Force begets force.
     * One whose needs are simple can fulfill them easily.
     * Material wealth does not enrich the spirit.
     * Self-absorption and self-importance are vain and self-destructive.
     * Victory in war is not glorious and not to be celebrated, but stems
       from devastation, and is to be mourned.
     * The harder one tries, the more resistance one creates for oneself.
     * The more one acts in harmony with the universe (the Mother of the
       ten thousand things), the more one will achieve, with less effort.
     * The truly wise make little of their own wisdom for the more they
       know, the more they realize how little they know.
     * When we lose the fundamentals, we supplant them with increasingly
       inferior values which we pretend are the true values.
     * Glorification of wealth, power and beauty beget crime, envy and
       shame.
     * The qualities of flexibility and suppleness are superior to
       rigidity and strength.
     * Everything is in its own time and place.
     * Duality of nature that complements each other instead of competing
       with each other — the two faces of the same coin — one cannot exist
       without the other.
     * The differences of opposite polarities — i.e. the differences
       between male and female, light and dark, strong and weak, etc. —
       helps us understand and appreciate the universe.
     * Humility is the highest virtue.
     * Knowing oneself is a virtue.
     * Envy is our calamity; overindulgence is our plight.
     * The more you go in search of an answer, the less you will
       understand.
     * To lift something, first push down on it.
     * When many people are killed in battle, it is no time for
       celebration. Treat your victory like a funeral.
     * Know when it's time to stop.

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