Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching by Ursula K. Le Guin, Laozi, Jerome P. Seaton Read Free Book Online

roughly in the order of their usefulness to me, these
are the translations that I collected over the years and came to trust in one
way or another and to use as my exemplars and guides:
    Paul Carus . Lao- Tze’s Tao-The-King . Open Court
Publishing Company, 1898. The book has recently been republished, but the
editors chose to omit its unique and most valuable element, the character-by-character romanization and translation.
    Arthur Waley . The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Tê Ching and Its Place in Chinese Thought . First published
in 1958; I have the Grove edition of 1968. Though Waley’s translation is political where mine is poetical, his broad and profound
knowledge of Chinese thought and his acutely sensitive tact as a translator
were what I always turned to when in doubt, always finding secure guidance and
illumination.
    Robert G. Henricks . Te -Tao Ching : Lao- Tzu, translated from
the Ma- wang - tui texts .
Modem Library, 1993. It was exciting to find that new texts had been
discovered; it was exciting to find their first English translation an
outstanding work of scholarship, written in plain, elegant language, as
transparent to the original as it could be.
    Gia ,Fu Feng and Jane English. Tao Te Ching . First
published 1972; I have the Vintage edition of 1989. Arising from a sympathetic and
informed understanding, this is literarily the most satisfying recent
translation I have found, terse, clear, and simple.
    D. C. Lau. Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching . First
published 1963; I have the Penguin edition of 1971. A clear,
deeply thoughtful translation, a most valuable reference.
Lau has also translated the Ma wang tui text for Everyman’s Library (Knopf, 1994).
    Michael Lafargue . The Tao of the Tao Te Ching . State University of New York Press, 1992.
    Tam C. Gibbs and Man- jan Cheng. Lao-Tzu: "My words are very easy to
understand." North Atlantic Books, 1981.
These books, though somewhat quirky, each proved useful in casting a different
light on knotty bits and obscure places in the text and suggesting alternative
readings or word choices.
    Witter Bynner . The
Way of Life According to Lao Tzu. Capricorn Books,
1944. In the dedication to his friend Kiang Kang- hu , Bynner quotes him: "It is impossible to
translate it without an interpretation. Most of the translations were based on
the interpretations of commentators, but you chiefly took its interpretation
from your own insight . . . so the translation could be very close to the
original text even without knowledge of the words." This is true of Bynner’s very free, poetic "American Version,"
and its truth helped give me the courage to work on my own American Version
fifty years later. I did not refer often to Bynner while I worked, because his style is very different from mine and his vivid
language might have controlled my own rather than freeing it. But I am most
grateful to him.
    I started out using translations by Stephen Mitchell and
Chang Chung- yuan , but found them not useful. Since I
began working seriously on this version so many Tao Te Chings have
appeared or reappeared that one begins to wonder if Lao Tzu has more
translators than he has readers. I have looked hopefully into many, but none of
the new versions seems to improve in any way on Waley , Henricks , Lau, or Feng -English, and many of
them blur the language into dullness and vagueness. Lao Tzu is tough-minded. He
is tender-minded. He is never, under any circumstances, squashy-minded. By
confusing mysticism with imprecision, such versions betray the spirit of the
book and its marvelously pungent, laconic, beautiful language.*
    *If you want to know more about Taoism, or would like some
help and guidance in reading the Tao Te Ching , the best, soundest,
clearest introduction and guide is still Holmes Welch's Taoism: The Parting of the Way (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957).

Notes on Some Choices of Wording
    For tao ,
I mostly use "Way," sometimes "way, "
depending on context. "Way" in my text always