Tao Te Ching

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The Tao Te ChingTemplate:NoteTag (Template:Lang-zh) or Laozi is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, although the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref> The oldest excavated portion dates to the late 4th century BCE. While tradition places Laozi earlier, modern versions of the text could more conservatively be estimated to date back to the late Warring States period (475 – 221 BCE), not having been recovered that early.<ref name="Stanford">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

The Tao Te Ching is central to both philosophical and religious Taoism, and has been highly influential on Chinese philosophy and religious practice in general. It is generally taken as preceding the Zhuangzi, the other core Taoist text.<ref name="stanford">Template:Harvp.</ref> Terminology originating within the text has been reinterpreted and elaborated upon by Legalist thinkers, Confucianists, and particularly Chinese Buddhists, introduced to China significantly after the initial solidification of Taoist thought. One of the most translated texts in world literature, the text is well known in the West.<ref name="stanford">Template:Harvp.</ref>

Title

In English, the title is commonly rendered Tao Te Ching, following the Wade–Giles romanization, or as Daodejing, following pinyin. It can be translated as The Classic of the Way and its Power,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The Book of the Tao and Its Virtue,Template:Sfnp The Book of the Way and of Virtue,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp The Tao and its Characteristics,<ref name="legge" /> The Canon of Reason and Virtue,<ref name="suziq" /> The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way,Template:Sfnp The Book of Virtues,Template:Citation needed or A Treatise on the Principle and Its Action.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Ancient Chinese books were commonly referenced by the name of their real or supposed author, in this case the "Old Master",Template:Sfnp Laozi. As such, the Tao Te Ching is also sometimes called the Laozi, especially in Chinese sources.<ref name="stanford" />

The title Tao Te Ching, designating the work's status as a classic, was first applied during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han (157–141 BCE).<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Other titles for the work include the honorific Sutra of the Way and Its Power (Template:Zhi) and the descriptive Five Thousand Character Classic (Template:Zhi).

Authorship

The Tao Te Ching is traditionally ascribed to Laozi, whose historical existence has been a matter of scholarly debate. His name, which means "Old Master", has only fueled controversy on this issue.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Legends claim variously that Laozi was "born old" and that he lived for 996 years, with 12 previous incarnations starting around the time of the Three Sovereigns before the 13th as Laozi. Some scholars have expressed doubts about Laozi's historicity.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Laozi riding a water buffalo

The first biographical reference to Laozi is in the Records of the Grand Historian,<ref>Template:Harvnb, tr. Chan 1963:35–37.</ref> by Chinese historian Sima Qian (Template:Circa), which combines three stories.<ref>Template:Cite Shiji</ref> In the first, Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius (551–479 BCE). His surname was Li (Template:Zhi), and his personal name was Er (Template:Zhi) or Dan (Template:Zhi). He was an official in the imperial archives, and wrote a book in two parts before departing to the West; at the request of the keeper of the Han-ku Pass, Yinxi, Laozi composed the Tao Te Ching. In the second story, Laozi, also a contemporary of Confucius, was Lao Laizi (Template:Lang), who wrote a book in 15 parts. Third, Laozi was the grand historian and astrologer Lao Dan (Template:Lang), who lived during the reign of Duke Xian of Qin (Template:Reign).Template:Sfnp

Textual history

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 (Template:Lang, Template:Fl.). The "Heshang Gong" version is named after the legendary Heshang Gong ("legendary sage"), who supposedly lived during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han (180–157 BCE). This commentary has a preface written by Ge Xuan (164–244 CE), granduncle of Ge Hong, and scholarship dates this version to Template:Circa. The origins of the "Wang Bi" version have greater verification than either of the above. Wang Bi (226–249 CE) was a Three Kingdoms-period philosopher and commentator on the Tao Te Ching and I Ching.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Archaeologically recovered manuscripts

Tao Te Ching scholarship has advanced from archaeological 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 more than 50 partial and complete manuscripts. Another partial manuscript has the Xiang'er commentary, which had previously been lost.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 1973, archaeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books, known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb dated to 168 BCE.<ref name="stanford" /> They included two nearly complete copies of the text, referred to as Text A (Template:Lang) and Text B (Template:Lang), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and put the Te Ching section before the Tao Ching, which is why the Henricks translation of them is named "Te-Tao Ching". Based on calligraphic styles and imperial naming taboo avoidances, scholars believe that Text A can be dated to about the first decade and Text B to about the third decade of the 2nd century BCE.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 1993, the oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo slips, was found in a tomb near the town of Guodian (Template:Zhi) in Jingmen, Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BCE.<ref name="stanford" /> The Guodian Chu Slips comprise around 800 slips of bamboo with a total of over 13,000 characters, about 2,000 of which correspond with the Tao Te Ching.<ref name="stanford" />

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 utilise these two versions, sometimes with the verses reordered to synthesize the new finds.<ref>Template:Multiref</ref>

Chronological theories

Although debated more in early scholarship, early modern scholars like Feng Youlan and Herrlee G. Creel still considered the work a compilation;Template:Sfnp Gu Jiegang believed it to have been written over three centuries.Template:Sfn Most modern scholarship holds the text to be a compilation, as typical for long-form early Chinese texts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Discussing concepts of names and realities, Feng Youlan's early work theorized the school of names as preceding the work, but it does not demonstrate school of names influence the way the Zhuangzi does.Template:Sfnm

Derived of Sima Qian's perspective in the mid-early Han dynasty, the term Daoist would typically bring Laozi and Zhuangzi to mind. Alongside the Han Feizi, the Tao Te Ching was likely becoming more influential than Shen Buhai and the Zhuangzi by Sima Qian's time, if they were not already influential going back to the late Warring States period. Sima Qian discusses them together, but names the chapter "Biographies of Laozi and Han Fei".Template:Sfn Though influencing the Han Feizi and Huangdi Sijing,Template:Sfn Shen Dao does not appear to have comparable influence to Shang Yang and Shen Buhai by the Han dynasty.Template:Sfn

Based on Shen Dao, academic activity developing some earlier Tao te Ching versions would theoretically emerge in the early-mid Warring States period.Template:Sfn But the Guanzi would theoretically have been influential among late Warring States period nobles.Template:Sfnm Early survey considered the Guanzi most prominent in the recovered Daoistic Huangdi Sijing, which didn't quote the Tao te Ching yet.Template:Sfn It is easier to place a subsequent more marked increase in Tao te Ching influence closer to the end of Warring States period, where it is found in the Han Feizi.Template:Sfnm

Though scholar Pei Wang primarily treats the similarities and differences of Laozi, the Huangdi Sijing and Han Feizi, at least in review with Pei Wang, Yuri Pines Dao Companion to China's fa tradition has modernly expressed openness to the "indebtedness" of early Warring States thinkers like Shen Buhai to Laozi.Template:Sfn

Before Zhuangzi

Linguistic studies of the Tao Te ChingTemplate:'s vocabulary and rime scheme point to a date of composition after the early Classic of Poetry (or Book of Songs), but before the Zhuangzi,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and would generally be taken as preceding the Zhuangzi.Template:Sfn This is the traditional "before Zhuangzi" theory.Template:Sfn Although the Book of Songs is a diverse work, they do not bear any especial resemblance.Template:Sfn Upholding the traditional early dating of Sima Qian, Hong Kong Sinologist Liu Xiaogan argued that the Tao Te Ching's poetic structure resembles the Book of Songs more than the later, Warring States period Songs of Chu.<ref name="stanford" />

Compared by Sima Qian with Laozi, the text would traditionally be taken as preceding Shen Buhai. Questioning their chronology, Creel proposed that Shen Buhai may have preceded it as well,Template:Sfnp but Shen Buhai does bear a "striking" resemblance to Laozi.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb (citing Template:Harvnb); Template:Harvnb</ref> Although not enough to eliminate a late dating, the discovery of the early Mawangdui silk texts and Guodian Chu Slips again made a dating before the third-century BCE more probable.Template:Sfnm Admittedly, the Mawangdui's Huangdi Sijing itself is considered a late compilation, but it does increase the prominence of Laozi or similar currents late in the Warring States period.Template:Sfn

As one suggestion the work is an ancient text, ancient texts are arguably divided in two parts. The Mawangdui versions divide the text in two parts, and one version also didn't have chapters yet.Template:Sfn When the Tao te Ching did get chapters, they weren't given titles.Template:Sfn Alongside the Huangdi Sijing, late Warring States texts Xunzi and Han Feizi are the first to give titles to chapters.Template:Sfnm As another criticism of late theories for the work, although the earliest recovered versions are from late in the range of possible dating, their language is already "coherent and natural".Template:Sfn Benjamin I. Schwartz still considered the Tao Te Ching remarkably unified by the time of the Mawangdui, even if these versions swap the two halves of the text.Template:Sfn

After Zhuangzi

Essentially the dating of A.C. Graham, the Stanford Encyclopedia supposes compilation of the current text as dating back to the late Warring States period circa 250 BCE, drawing on a wide range of versions further dating back a century or two.<ref name="Stanford"/>

Termed the "After Zhuangzi" theory, representative of Ch'ien Mu and Graham, a lack of early references contributes to Graham's late dating. While the Zhuangzi is the first reference for the Tao Te Ching, its Inner Chapters do not demonstrate familiarity with it. Thus, an early stratum representative of the Zhuangzi's core Inner Chapters may have preceded it.Template:Sfnm As a work which includes discussion of government, the Tao te Ching's more governmentally complex ideas of Dao or wu wei could well be expected to come after early ideas of them in the Zhuangzi, which didn't as much involve government.Template:Sfn The Analects have wu wei as an idea of government, but one of virtue, not a technique of governmental control like the Tao te Ching.Template:Sfnm

Listed in the Outer Zhuangzi's history after Mozi but before Laozi and Zhuangzi, Shen Dao shares content with the Inner Zhuangzi,Template:Sfnm and can also be directly compared with the Tao Te Ching.Template:Sfn Less technically complex than Shen Buhai, Shen Dao's current might theoretically even precede him,Template:Sfn back to the fourth century BCE.Template:Sfn Sinologist Chad Hansen does not consider the Outer Zhuangzi entirely accurate chronologically, but positioned Shen Dao under "Pre-Laozi Daoist Theory" for the theoretical framework of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Daoism's 2024 edition. With Shen Dao being comparable, his time would theoretically form a grounding for its development, or might have existed by his time, if the Zhuangzi's (and other) indications are not chronologically accurate.Template:Sfn

The late Han Feizi has the work's earliest known commentaries,Template:Sfn though it can be argued that it influences the Huangdi Sijing. With a compilation supposed to date back to the late Warring States period, but including earlier Shen Dao content, Leo S Chang theorizes potential Laozi influences for the Sijing, with some passages similar to the Zhuangzi. But it does not actually quote the Laozi. As Chang notes, there are "no lengthy parallel expressions between" the Sijing and Laozi, arguably baring more resemblance to the Guanzi. The Sijing has similar ideas to Laozi of strategically "assuming feminine conduct", but the ruler switches to an active posture at "the right moment", countervailing against Laozi's passivity. In Laozi, the Dao gives birth to the One; in the Sijing, they are the same. Laozi disparages law; the Sijing's law 'derives from Dao'.Template:Sfn

Contents

Themes

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Structure and style

The Tao Te Ching is a text of around 5,162 to 5,450 Chinese characters in 81 brief chapters or sections (Template:Lang). There is some evidence that the chapter divisions were later additions—for commentary, or as aids to rote memorisation—and that the original text was more fluidly organised. It has two parts, the Tao Ching (Template:Lang; chapters 1–37) and the Te Ching (Template:Lang; chapters 38–81), which may have been edited together into the received text, possibly reversed from an original Te Tao Ching.<ref name="Austin 2010 158">Template:Citation</ref>

Contrasting with Confucianism, its general statements are free of narration or reference to "any particular persons, times, or places."Template:Sfn The written style is laconic, with few grammatical particles. While the ideas are singular, the style is poetic, combining two major strategies: short, declarative statements, and intentional contradictions, encouraging varied, contradictory interpretations. The first of these strategies creates memorable phrases, while the second forces the reader to reconcile supposed contradictions.<ref name="Austin 2010 158"/> With a partial reconstruction of the pronunciation of Old Chinese spoken during the Tao Te ChingTemplate:'s composition, approximately three-quarters rhymed in the original language.<ref name=":13">Template:Citation</ref>

The Chinese characters in the earliest versions were written in seal script, while later versions were written in clerical script and regular script styles.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Translation

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and French.Template:Sfnp According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved."<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The first English translation of the Tao Te Ching was produced in 1868 by the Scottish Protestant missionary John Chalmers, entitled The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze.Template:Sfnp It was heavily indebtedTemplate:Sfnp to Julien's French translationTemplate:Sfnp and dedicated to James Legge,<ref name="chalv" /> who later produced his own translation for Oxford's Sacred Books of the East.<ref name="legge" />

Other notable English translations of the Tao Te Ching are those produced by Chinese scholars and teachers: a 1948 translation by linguist Lin Yutang, a 1961 translation by author John Ching Hsiung Wu, a 1963 translation by sinologist Din Cheuk Lau, another 1963 translation by professor Wing-tsit Chan, and a 1972 translation by Taoist teacher Gia-Fu Feng together with his wife Jane English.

Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese language and philosophy who are trying to render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more popular translations are written from a less scholarly perspective, giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these versions claim that their translators deviate from the text and are incompatible with the history of Chinese thought.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Russell Kirkland goes further to argue that these versions are based on Western Orientalist fantasies and represent the colonial appropriation of Chinese culture.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Jonathan Herman,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> argue that while they do not pretend to scholarship, they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized versions aim to make the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more familiar cultural and temporal references.

Challenges in translation

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The Tao Te Ching is written in Classical Chinese, which generally poses a number of challenges for interpreters and translators. As Holmes Welch notes, the written language "has no active or passive, no singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood."<ref>Template:Harvp</ref> Moreover, the received text lacks many grammatical particles which are preserved in the older Mawangdui and Beida texts, which permit the text to be more precise.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref> Lastly, many passages of the Tao Te Ching are deliberately ambiguous.<ref name="Record_2022">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Chan_1993">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Since there is very little punctuation in Classical Chinese, determining the precise boundaries between words and sentences is not always trivial. Deciding where these phrasal boundaries are must be done by the interpreter.<ref name="Record_2022" /> Some translators have argued that the received text is so corrupted due toTemplate:Citation needed its original medium being bamboo strips<ref name="Harvard Gazette 2001 v799">Template:Cite web</ref> linked with silk threads—that it is impossible to understand some passages without some transposition of characters.Template:Citation needed

Notable translations

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See also

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Notes

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References

Citations

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Sources

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