I'm not a huge fan of poetry. I've added poetry to my reading diet as a way of stepping outside my comfortable frame and discovering other ways of seeing the world – something I do more comfortably when reading multicultural fiction.

Lao Tzu's poetry, as translated by Ursula LeGuin, is simple. I imagine a quickly sketched but incisive line of characters gracing Lao Tzu's parchment. These poems, despite their simplicity and brevity, are challenging and profit from rereads – thus this is my fourth reread. Lao Tzu describes The Way as both itself and its opposite, as yin and yang:

To bear and not to own;
to act and not lay claim;
to do the work and let it go:
for just letting it go
is what makes it stay. (Loc. 241-243)

Lao Tzu described a simple, yet difficult pathway.

And so the wise
shape without cutting,
square without sawing,
true without forcing.
They are the light that does not shine. (Loc. 1007-1009)

He encourages us to be genuine rather than striving to be something other than what we are (or even striving). Wise souls – to whom he refers to 45 times in this short book – do not force things, do not attempt to be what they are not:

So the wise soul
doesn’t go, but knows;
doesn’t look, but sees;
doesn’t do, but gets it done. (Loc. 841-843)

Doing by not doing.

LeGuin did two things in her translation. First, she returned the poetry to English translations of the Tao Te Ching: "I wanted to catch that poetry, its terse, strange beauty. Most translations have caught meanings in their net, but prosily, letting the beauty slip through. And in poetry, beauty is no ornament; it is the meaning. It is the truth." Second, LeGuin also provided commentary on the metaphors found in Lao Tzu's poetry and her interpretations of them. As his metaphors are often unfamiliar to a Western ear like mine, this was helpful. Lao Tzu frequently referred to "uncut wood," for example, a metaphor I would never have successfully decoded without her edits. She said, Uncut wood – here likened to the human soul – the uncut, unearned, unshaped, unpolished, native, natural stuff is better than anything that can be made out of it. Anything done to it deforms and lessens it. Its potentiality is infinite. Its uses are trivial.

LeGuin did not speak or read Chinese; instead, she wrote this translation while reading previous translations and in collaboration with scholars of the Tao Te Ching. Her description of the translation process expands my thinking about translations and understanding others, which even five years ago was more a one-to-one substitution. Le Guin worked on this translation since she was a young adult (completing it at 88): understanding others well takes a lifetime.

***

I only remember one Christmas present from my father alone: a book of LeGuin's essays, which he gave me almost 40 years ago. I treasured it. I had previously enjoyed LeGuin's science fiction and fantasy. That book, which I've somehow misplaced, changed my perceptions of LeGuin and opened up my eyes to different ways of seeing writing, writers, and people: Just because someone writes/behaves one way in one setting does not mean that they don't write/behave differently in other settings. Be cautious about assuming you know the whole story.

Rest in peace, Ms. LeGuin. You will be missed.

This was edited and updated from my 2017 review.

(2024: Review to Minford's translation, on Penguin, ISBN 9780143133803)(older Barnes & Noble review after that)

Second or third reading, this time in a 2018 translation, but mainly got this one because the cover was *really* pretty haha. I would say that this reading opened up the text more to me (because the commentaries were really helpful, both Eastern and Western views included), and the translation was very well done. I can easily see why these texts (that may be collected here as an anthology, really) could be meant to be read slowly and meditatively – and it would be very fitting with the Tao beliefs 8)
I feel this book version is more connected to Taoism as a religious practice than the Barnes&Noble version I have; I find that the list of Taoist key themes and images gather together well all the essential points that appear within the poems.

The Tao is the unused block of wood, water getting everywhere, the yin and yang symbol, feminine side, working on inner self, practiced quite hidden, to live a better, kinder, gentler life. This is "The Tao and The Power", contemporary to Confucius (more southern, versus C's northern), LT not being a fan of Sun Tzu 'The Art Of War'. Here is what to do as a person, but also how good Tao practice would be for a nation, and ruling a nation, and at war. The influence on Zen, and certain art pieces in China and Japan, is also easy to see.

I am the Tao,
The Tao is Me.
(reminds me of Star Wars: Rogue One)

I can see how it in some ways could be fitting into Christian beliefs, if one peers at it hard enough. What Tao is like, how one lives one's life, detachment from owned things, honors, wealth, fame, pleasures of the sense, etc. Now I also found things I don't agree with, like the aim for no-self, lack of interest in things beyond one's nation's borders (not all would be disruptive to the practice), or culture, or traveling. But it's easy to see how these beliefs could be practiced secretly, for a lot practice happen within the person, and one's actions outside it don't declare what one beliefs that loudly either.

It was a pleasure to read, opening up these poems more, and this deluxe edition was also pleasant to hold while reading. And now it's nice to own two copies of this book.

=

(review after rereading:)
This book's contents and history have both a sense of vagueness, but not in a bad way, in my opinion. It's somewhat uncertain when it was written (circa 4th-3rd century BC), the author's life details are largely invented, and the existence of the author is not quite certain either (Lao Tzu is just his title, and also it's not known if the text is by one author, or a group of authors worked over some years). It was first translated in the late 1700s, and the oldes existing copy is from circa 300 BC.

It's a bit hard to categorise: ethics? religious? philosophy? But really, in my view any of those would do. In a way it felt a bit like Dhammapada, which I've read earlier, in that even if you're not interested in the religion it's part of, it will still appeal, and is a pretty easy a read. I read it quite quickly now.

Taoism is clearly put as an opposite way of thinking against Confucianism - which shows in some parts of this text - the latter being based on duties to the community and the family, but somewhat rigidly black and white at its hardest. Taoism is in its end less rigid, putting weight on the coexistence of the opposites, reverence of nature, flexibility and not being too controlling. The Tao is a force in the world, not completely graspable or something one can give a finite meaning, but which balances our world. It is gentleness, avoiding conflict of grasping, seeking peacefulness, simplicity, detachment and humility. Making the point without engaging in rhetoric and arguments.

The book's message is simple, the prose spare with plenty of natural imagery. The wisdom (the Tao) of the book is feminine, yin in balance with the yang (while in Confucianism the yang seems sometimes bit heavily-leaned on).

The message seems simple, yet is deep. Quite a few sentences bounced out of the text as familiar, things I've seen quoted. Reading and rereading each page will most certainly happen for me in the future. The whole thing reads just like a beautiful ancient Chinese nature painting... and the view is beautiful, peaceful. Such is this book.

This was immensely interesting to read, though I found myself somewhat aggravated by the passivism that ran through the writing.

It's almost like a poetical treatise on humility, but what of ambition and a drive to make the world a better place? Should we all accept our station in life and never aim to improve? I think not. It accepts things as they are (however they are) and cannot conceive of a better future. Everything should stay the same, and exist within the natural order of things.

But how do we define the natural?

n  VI

The Spirit of the valley never dies
This is called the mysterious female.
The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the route of heaven on earth.
Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,
Yet use will never drain it. n  
n  
n  n

The poem speaks of mother nature as replenishing and everlasting; she will always endure and is the gateway to heaven on earth, to our own nirvana. We can never completely spend her. The metaphor is for the path as Taoism and nature are one and the same here. For the speaker, Taoism (or the way) is the most natural of things we can partake in. We will also never drain the benefits of it and they will also last perpetually. And these ideas for me felt strong and real, but the writing also muses over empire.

n  XXIX

Whoever takes the empire and wishes to do anything to it
I see will have no respite. The Empire is a sacred vessel and
nothing should be done to it. Whoever does anything to it
will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Hence some things lead and some follow;
Some breath gently and some breathe hard;
Some are strong and some are weak;
Some destroy and some are destroyed.
Therefore the sage avoids excess, extravagance and arrogance.n

I take so much issue with this quote. In what way can we ever refer to an Empire as natural? Empire's are always built with the blood of someone else. The quote also shows how people are all different, though it concludes that this is simply the way of things. A weak person should not try to make himself strong. Such a thing is an excess. We should simply stay humble and never challenge the norms of an Empire. (Seriously?)

And that's when I stopped listening to what the book had to say. As an historical piece it's interesting to study, but I take absolutely no stock in the words.

"تائو" یعنی راه و روش یا قانون حاکم بر هستی و حیات و "تِ" به معانی فضیلت، نفوذ و نیروی اخلاق است. این واژه، در خط چینی، از سه نشانه ترکیب یافته که یکی به معنای "رفتن"، دیگری به معنای "مستقیم" یا "سرراست" و سومی به معنای "دل" است.وقتی این سه نشانه با هم گذاشته می شوند معنی "راه سپردن در خط مستقیم درک درونی" را می دهد. "چینگ" به معنی "متن" یا "نوشته" است. پس روی هم رفته تائو ت چینگ را می توان به صورت "متن پیروی مستقیم از راه و روش هستی و حیات به راهنمایی درک درونی (دل)" ترجمه کرد.
....
تائو ت چینگ را در شمار آثار ادبی نیز آورده اند و آن را شعر شمرده اند. اما واقعیت آن است که آن را خاصه به معیارهای امروزین نمی توان شعر نامید، هر چند در بعضی از فصل ها، رگه هایی از شعر، در حال و هوای شعر عرفانی ما، دیده می شود. این کتاب را باید در شمار آثار فلسفی آورد و بیش تر کتابی است در علم سیاست یا در آیین کشورداری بر بنیاد فلسفه ی دائوی؛ نوعی فلسفه ی سیاست است که اصول دائوی را به کار می بندد.

آيا مي توانيد ذهنتان را از پرسه زدن باز داريد
و آن را به يگانگي ابتدايي - با هستي - باز گردانيد؟
آيا مي توانيد بدنتان را همانند نوزادان دوباره نرم و انعطاف پذير كنيد؟
آيا مي توانيد ديد دروني تان را پاك كنيد
تا چيزي جز نور نبينيد؟

آيا مي توانيد ديگران را دوست بداريد
و آن ها را بدون تحميل خواسته هاي خود راهنمايي كنيد؟
آيا مي توانيد در برخورد با مسائل مهم و حياتي زندگي هيچ دخالتي نكنيد
و اجازه دهيد آن چه بايد، رخ بدهد؟
آيا مي توانيد از ذهن خود دست بكشيد
و بدون دخالت ذهن درك كنيد؟

داشتن بدون احساس مالكيت،
عمل كردن بدون انتظار داشتن
و راهنمايي كردن بدون سعي در حكم راندن
فضايل عالي محسوب مي شوند.

The description of this book is wrong:

"Like Stephen Mitchell, acclaimed author and poet Ursula K. Le Guin has attempted a nonliteral, poetic rendition of the Tao Te Ching"

It's nothing like Mitchell's pretty but totally opaque translation. LeGuin gives you readable ideas, arguments in poetry, a philosophy to ponder. Of all the translations I have encountered, this is the only one that gives you a point of entry into the rich treasury of ideas in the Tao Te Ching.

“The Tao is always nameless” (Chapter 71)

Trying to narrow down the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching with limiting words is to violate its primordial essence. How can one describe the Universe, the natural order of things, the incessant flowing from being to non-being, the circular unity of a reality traditionally mismatched in dualistic terms?

The Tao Te Ching doesn’t provide answers because there needn’t be questions, just the harmony of moulding to the landscape rather than trying to impose a particular shape on it.
The Tao Te Ching is the route in itself, the path to emptying the human mind of ambitions, schemes and desires and allow it to be flooded with the smoothness of humility and the exhilarating liberation of a simple life.
The Tao Te Ching exults the feminine yin over the masculine yang in the eternal interdependence of opposites, identifying its indwelling suppleness with the intrinsic elements of the Tao.

“The great state should be like a river basin.
The mixing place of the world,
The feminine of the world.
The feminine always overcomes the masculine by its softness
Because softness is lesser.” (Chapter 61)

Thus the Tao cannot be expressed, it has no name, it is indivisible, inaudible and immutable but also the origin of multiplicity that gives way to ambivalent interpretation, which in turn engenders the befuddling suspicion that the more one wants to unravel the Tao the less one masters it because its aim relays precisely in attaining unforced wisdom.

Composed of eighty one aphorisms with aesthetic lyricism reminiscent of ancient riddles or even taunting wordplay, the Tao Te Ching dismisses moral teachings, embraces paradoxical dichotomies and differentiates itself from other doctrines like Confucianism because it relays in intuition rather than in duty rooted on imposed moral principles or any other contrived authority.
According to the introduction (*), some schools of thought have accused the Tao of endorsing chaotic anarchy and of not responding to consistent criteria, but such ambiguity in the use of language and its playful axioms are in fact a pure reflection of its skeptical views on measuring all actions according to artificial rules disguised as traditional rituals.

I can’t claim to have found everlasting serenity in connecting to the natural flow of Taoism and accepting its philosophy of “action through inaction”, but the idea of finding comfort in the constant contradiction of the positive and negative forces within oneself in order to embrace the convoluted intricacies of existence casts an overwhelming shadow to the absolute dichotomies and blind beliefs prompted by the more familiar monotheistic “fear based” religions, where guilt, punishment and suffering are the conduits to salvation.
Why crave for redemption if we learn to follow the “way things are” and welcome the natural interdependence between opposites, accepting disorder, nothingness and non-being as part of the indestructible unity of all things?

“There is nothing better than to know that you don’t know” (Chapter 71)

(*) Note: The Barnes & Nobles edition comes with an explanatory introduction about the origins of the Tao, a very useful epilogue and an historical timeline of the identity of its mysterious author(s). Highly recommended edition.

This was just my first read through. I'd like to read it a few times more, though. I connected with much of the philosophy in the early chapters of the book but, further on, I'd occasionally find a chapter that seemed to contradict itself. I hoped to find some "harmony" in the Tao but, at this point, I've found more discord than expected. I imagine it'll become clearer with additional readings.

Một tư tưởng sống nổi tiếng trên thế giới. Tuy vắn gọn nhưng chứa đựng được nhiều triết lý sống tinh túy. Tư tưởng của Lão Tử đề cao cách sống thuận với đạo, thuận với tự nhiên, sống không vị lợi, không chạy theo số đông, không chạy theo tiền tài vật chất danh vọng ở đời - tức sống VÔ VI. Tư tưởng này rất thực tế để đào luyện bản thân, nhân cách của mỗi người. Đạo đức kinh gồm có 81 chương được NDC phiên dịch Hán Việt, dịch nghĩa cũng như chú giải rất kỹ, có nhiều chương tư tưởng lặp lại. Cũng có những chương cụ Cần chú giải cực kỳ rõ nghĩa, hiểu được đọc thấy mê cực kỳ. Tóm lại, đây là một quyển chứa đựng giá trị không thể cân đo đong đếm mà thẩm định chính xác được.

third time reading it

- dare I say it: it is extradimensional compared to its western counterparts -- what if the law of non-contradiction simply isn't true? western philosophy is predicated on and has disseminated from that proposition.

- can be read and applied to any context

- one to reread for the ages

- one of the proudest chinese works

STRONGLY recommend the Ziporyn translation - he was my prof and is fluent in classical chinese. he is the best of the best. The Ken Liu translation will be fun to read next time.

5 stars

if people are still reading this after 2500 years, how can you rate it lower?

The introduction by Dr Lau was immensely valuable in explaining the context and meaning behind the language, even in translation. We easily read what we think into translated works.

I read this after watching the TV series The Longest Day in Chang'an. The head of the city peacekeepers (community police) is a daoist philosopher. His decision making under pressure to take instant action, is always concerned by the impact on the population - no one should be harmed - a new take on combatting terror and crime - a new thinking and moral reckoning found in the past.

What's in it for a westerner brought up in liberal democracy and the freedom to pursue one's interests? Expanding outside my bubble.

The notion of survival - "He who can live out his days has had a long life" - that you submit in order to survive.

The submissive also informs us - "know contentment" and "he who knows contentment is rich" - "There is no crime greater than having too many desires"

The ceaseless pursuit of wealth, endless coveting, desire for gratification, are the opposite of surviving and living this one life well. That opposite describes the intellectual and material milieu of my entire upbringing.

highlights:
3 - not collecting treasures prevents stealing.
13- accept disgrace willingly
23- he who does not trust will not be trusted
46- he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough
57- the more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers there will be

lowlights: eh, pretty much the whole translation. i guess this version is popular because it has nice calligraphy of the original chinese and BW photos of nature accompanying the english translation. but despite not having read any of the other translations, i'm pretty sure this one is pretty bad. there is an essay by the editor at the end, where she tells the story of how the book came to be, 25 years ago, and she admits that she knows no chinese, and what she did was read the author's proposed translation, then read 12 other published translations of the same line, then try to write something that had the author's idea but sounded different from the other 12 versions. that came as no surprise to me. many, many lines read exactly like someone had gone through a thesaurus and chosen not the best word, or the second best, but yeah, about the 13th best word for the situation. clunkity clunk. that's how i wrote social studies essays in fifth grade. go through the encyclopedia and try to write the same thing but change a bunch of words. one day i will definitely read another version.

عرفت الان بعد قراءة هذا الكتاب سر التواضع والاحترام التي تسود سكان شرق اسيا عموما والصين واليابان خصوصا.
التاو تدعوا الى التكامل وليس التناقض.
الفلسفة السائدة في الشرق الأوسط وأوروبا هي فلسفة التناقض:
الخير ضد الشر، السلام ضد الحرب، الليل ضد النهار.....الخ.
فلسفة التاو ان الكل مكمل لبعضه:
فلولا الشر لما كان هناك خير، لولا الليل لما كان هناك نهار، لولا الحرب لما كان هناك سلام.
وتطرقت فلسفته أيضا الى التعامل بين البشر بالتواضع والاحترام وليس قيادتهم والتأثير عليهم.
وكلما قل تدخل الحكومة كلما كانت قيادة الشعب اسهل. والحاكم يسير في الخلف وراء الشعب ولا يقودهم.
والقسوة تؤدي الى الموت لان الشعب يبدأ بعدم الخوف من الموت.

فلسفة رائعة رغم أني أراها مثالية زيادة عن الحد.
والتعرف الى هذه الفلسفة شيء جميل.