Read Online Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching by Ursula K. Le Guin, Laozi, Jerome P. Seaton - Free Book Online
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The idea seems to be a big irritable animal with horns.
My "live in the right way" is literally "take
care of your life," or "hold on to your life." The context
indicates care without anxiety, holding without grasping. I read the poem as
saying that if you can take life as it comes, it doesn't come at you as your
enemy. Lao Tzu's "nowhere for death to enter" isn't a promise of
invulnerability or immortality; his concern is how to live rightly, how to
"live till you die."
Chapter 52
The last two lines of the first verse are the same as the
last two lines of chapter 16. I wonder if some of these repetitions were
insertions by people studying and copying the book, who were reminded of one
poem by another and noted down the relevant lines. They are indeed relevant
here, but they don't fit with perfect inevitability, as they do in chapter 16.
This is of course a purely aesthetic judgment, subject to destruction by
scholarship at any moment.
Chapter 54
Gibbs and Cheng, finding both the language and the message
"discordant with the teachings of Lao Tzu," won't even discuss this chapter. Waley's reading saves it, but the listing "self,
family, community, country, empire/world" (a conventional series in
ancient Chinese thought), and the list of rules and results is
uncharacteristically mechanical. Though he uses many commonplaces, familiar phrases,
rhymed sayings, and so on, Lao Tzu's thought and language are usually more
unconventional and unpredictable than this.
Chapter 56
Another repetition: the first four lines of the second verse
are the same as the second verse of chapter 4. They carry a different weight here.
I vary my translation of them in the fourth line to make it connect to the
next.
Hsuan t'ung ,
"the deep sameness": hsuan is "deep" or "mysterious"; t'ung is
variously translated "identification," "oneness,"
"sameness," "merging," "leveling," "assimilation."
It is an important theme, met with before in chapter 49.
Chapter 57
The phrase "How do I know? By this," has become a
kind of tag by its third repetition; but as Waley points out, it still implies intuitive knowing, beyond reason—knowing the way.
The words I translate "experts" literally mean
"sharp weapons," but the term implies "pundits, know-it-alls."
I was tempted to say "smart bombs," which is too cute and topical,
but which would certainly lead neatly to the next lines.
Chapter 58
Waley points out that words in the
last verse, with such meanings as "square, right, angular," are
typical Confucian virtues. Henricks remarks that all
these words and operations refer to carpentry. The verse is about how to cut
the uncut wood without cutting it.
Chapter 59
Se , my
"gather spirit," is variously translated "frugality,"
"moderation," "restraint," "being sparing," or, by Waley , "laying up a store." Evidently the
core idea is that of saving.
The chapter is usually presented in the manual-for-princes
mode. Waley makes sense out of it by complex
technical references; other versions make only gleams of sense. To persuade or coerce
it into the personal mode meant a more radical interpretation than I usually dare
attempt, but Waley's reading, which points to the symbology of the breath ( ch'i ) and the "long
look" of the meditator, gave me the courage to try. Here is a version closer
to the conventional ones:
In controlling people and serving
heaven
it's best to go easy.
Going easy from the start
is to gather power from the start ,
and gathered power keeps you safe.
Safe, you can do what you like.
Do what you like, the country's yours.
If you can make the country's Mother yours ,
you'll last a long time.
You'll have deep roots and a strong trunk.
The way to live long is to look long.
Chapter 61
The first seven lines continue the themes of
"sameness" or assimilation, and of "being woman,"
"being water," the uses of yin. From there on, the language goes
flat, and may be interpolated commentary. There's an even feebler fourth verse:
A big country needs more
My "live in the right way" is literally "take
care of your life," or "hold on to your life." The context
indicates care without anxiety, holding without grasping. I read the poem as
saying that if you can take life as it comes, it doesn't come at you as your
enemy. Lao Tzu's "nowhere for death to enter" isn't a promise of
invulnerability or immortality; his concern is how to live rightly, how to
"live till you die."
Chapter 52
The last two lines of the first verse are the same as the
last two lines of chapter 16. I wonder if some of these repetitions were
insertions by people studying and copying the book, who were reminded of one
poem by another and noted down the relevant lines. They are indeed relevant
here, but they don't fit with perfect inevitability, as they do in chapter 16.
This is of course a purely aesthetic judgment, subject to destruction by
scholarship at any moment.
Chapter 54
Gibbs and Cheng, finding both the language and the message
"discordant with the teachings of Lao Tzu," won't even discuss this chapter. Waley's reading saves it, but the listing "self,
family, community, country, empire/world" (a conventional series in
ancient Chinese thought), and the list of rules and results is
uncharacteristically mechanical. Though he uses many commonplaces, familiar phrases,
rhymed sayings, and so on, Lao Tzu's thought and language are usually more
unconventional and unpredictable than this.
Chapter 56
Another repetition: the first four lines of the second verse
are the same as the second verse of chapter 4. They carry a different weight here.
I vary my translation of them in the fourth line to make it connect to the
next.
Hsuan t'ung ,
"the deep sameness": hsuan is "deep" or "mysterious"; t'ung is
variously translated "identification," "oneness,"
"sameness," "merging," "leveling," "assimilation."
It is an important theme, met with before in chapter 49.
Chapter 57
The phrase "How do I know? By this," has become a
kind of tag by its third repetition; but as Waley points out, it still implies intuitive knowing, beyond reason—knowing the way.
The words I translate "experts" literally mean
"sharp weapons," but the term implies "pundits, know-it-alls."
I was tempted to say "smart bombs," which is too cute and topical,
but which would certainly lead neatly to the next lines.
Chapter 58
Waley points out that words in the
last verse, with such meanings as "square, right, angular," are
typical Confucian virtues. Henricks remarks that all
these words and operations refer to carpentry. The verse is about how to cut
the uncut wood without cutting it.
Chapter 59
Se , my
"gather spirit," is variously translated "frugality,"
"moderation," "restraint," "being sparing," or, by Waley , "laying up a store." Evidently the
core idea is that of saving.
The chapter is usually presented in the manual-for-princes
mode. Waley makes sense out of it by complex
technical references; other versions make only gleams of sense. To persuade or coerce
it into the personal mode meant a more radical interpretation than I usually dare
attempt, but Waley's reading, which points to the symbology of the breath ( ch'i ) and the "long
look" of the meditator, gave me the courage to try. Here is a version closer
to the conventional ones:
In controlling people and serving
heaven
it's best to go easy.
Going easy from the start
is to gather power from the start ,
and gathered power keeps you safe.
Safe, you can do what you like.
Do what you like, the country's yours.
If you can make the country's Mother yours ,
you'll last a long time.
You'll have deep roots and a strong trunk.
The way to live long is to look long.
Chapter 61
The first seven lines continue the themes of
"sameness" or assimilation, and of "being woman,"
"being water," the uses of yin. From there on, the language goes
flat, and may be interpolated commentary. There's an even feebler fourth verse:
A big country needs more
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