Read Online Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching by Ursula K. Le Guin, Laozi, Jerome P. Seaton - Free Book Online Page B
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and if death were the penalty for abnormal behavior, nobody
would dare behave abnormally; and so there would be no executions and no
executioners. But this is not the case; as Lao Tzu says, there are times when
even normal people lose their normal fear of death. So what is the poem about?
I read it as saying that since we are inconsistent both in our behavior and in our
fear of death, no person can rightfully take on the role of executioner, and
should leave the death penalty to the judgment of heaven or nature.
Chapter 80
To dismiss this Utopia as simply regressivist or anti-technological is to miss an interesting point. These people have labor-saving
machinery, ships and land vehicles, weapons of offense and defense. They
"have them and don't use them." I interpret: they aren't used by
them. We're used, our lives shaped and controlled, by our machines, cars,
planes, weaponry, bulldozers, computers. These Taoists don't surrender their
power to their creations.
The eleventh line, however, is certainly regressive if it
says knotted cords are to replace written literature, history, mathematics, and
so on. It might be read as saying it's best not to
externalize all our thinking and remembering (as we do in writing and reading),
but to keep it embodied, to think and remember with our bodies as well as our
verbalizing brains.
Chapter 81
This last poem is self-reflexive, wrapping it all up tight
in the first verse, then opening out again to praise the undestructive ,
uncompetitive generosity of the spirit that walks on the Way.
To my mind, the best reason for following the Ma wang tui text in reversing the order of the books is that
the whole thing ends with a chapter (37) that provides a nobler conclusion than
this one. But if you reverse the order, chapter I turns up in the middle of the
book, and I simply cannot believe that that's right. That poem is a beginning.
It is the beginning.
would dare behave abnormally; and so there would be no executions and no
executioners. But this is not the case; as Lao Tzu says, there are times when
even normal people lose their normal fear of death. So what is the poem about?
I read it as saying that since we are inconsistent both in our behavior and in our
fear of death, no person can rightfully take on the role of executioner, and
should leave the death penalty to the judgment of heaven or nature.
Chapter 80
To dismiss this Utopia as simply regressivist or anti-technological is to miss an interesting point. These people have labor-saving
machinery, ships and land vehicles, weapons of offense and defense. They
"have them and don't use them." I interpret: they aren't used by
them. We're used, our lives shaped and controlled, by our machines, cars,
planes, weaponry, bulldozers, computers. These Taoists don't surrender their
power to their creations.
The eleventh line, however, is certainly regressive if it
says knotted cords are to replace written literature, history, mathematics, and
so on. It might be read as saying it's best not to
externalize all our thinking and remembering (as we do in writing and reading),
but to keep it embodied, to think and remember with our bodies as well as our
verbalizing brains.
Chapter 81
This last poem is self-reflexive, wrapping it all up tight
in the first verse, then opening out again to praise the undestructive ,
uncompetitive generosity of the spirit that walks on the Way.
To my mind, the best reason for following the Ma wang tui text in reversing the order of the books is that
the whole thing ends with a chapter (37) that provides a nobler conclusion than
this one. But if you reverse the order, chapter I turns up in the middle of the
book, and I simply cannot believe that that's right. That poem is a beginning.
It is the beginning.
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