Lao Tzu’s (Old Master) Tao Te Ching [Way and Virtue The Ancient Text] is one of the oldest meditations we have on the mysteries of existence and non-existence, light and dark, appearance and reality. Lao Tzu, to whom the text of some 81 verses [slightly different in some editions] is attributed, was likely a man by the name of Li Ehr, a keeper of the Royal Archives in the state of Chou about 516 BCE. He was known in his own time as a formidable intellect, immersed in the shamanistic and in the rationalized and organized systems of the court. He was a seer even Confucius was in awe of.

As the story goes, Confucius, from the state of Lu, came to seek Lao-tzu’s knowledge of the ceremonies and rituals of ancient kings. Li Ehr replied:

The ancients you admire have been in the ground a long time. Their bones have turned to dust. Only their words remain. Those among them who were wise rode in carriages when times were good and slipped quietly away when times were bad. I have heard that the clever merchant hides his wealth so his store looks empty and that the superior person acts dumb so he can avoid calling attention to himself. I advise you to get rid of your excessive pride and ambition. They won’t do you any good. This is all I have to say to you.

Afterwards, Confucius told his disciples: “Today when I met Lao-Tzu, it was like meeting a dragon.”

I have over a dozen translations of the Tao Te Ching, some in Spanish, some over-size gift editions, some miniature pocket editions, most in verse, some in stilted textual analysis.  The touchstone for all has long been the Witter Bynner translation of 1944, still available and still fresh and poetic.  Copper Canyon Press has just released a new edition by Red Pine which may not compete lyrically with Witter Bynner but is a very welcome addition for those of us whose appreciation lies somewhere between the two-verse casual reader and the life-lived-in-the-ideograms academic.

Red Pine is the authorial name of Bill Porter, a Vietnam war resister even as he served in the Army, an independent scholar of Chinese texts, Buddhism and Taoism.   His exhaustive translation and study of the Buddha’s Diamond Sutra [and many who have made commentaries on it] has a place of pride on my book shelf. He has done the same for the Heart Sutra.   His collection and translation of Hanshan‘s Cold Mountain is a must read, along with Gary Snyder’s more selected collection.

In the Witter Bynner Verse 4 goes like this:

4

Existence, by nothing bred,
Breeds everything.
Parent of the universe,
It smooths rough edges,
Unties hard knots,
Tempers the sharp sun,
Lays blowing dust,
Its image in the wellspring never fails.
But how was it conceived?–this image
Of no other sire.

and like this in Red Pine

The Tao is so empty
those who use it
never become full again
and so deep
as if it were the ancestor of us all
it dulls our edges
unties our tangles
softens our light
and merges our dust
it’s so clear
as if it were present
I wonder whose child it is
it seems it was here before Ti.

All translation is difficult. Translation of 2500 year old rational mystics is merely impossible. You’ll want several to support you on your own Way. Red Pine and Witter Bynner are two trustworthy guides. With each verse Red Pine offers commentary to help us enlarge the space in which the cryptic words float. If you like, the ideograms are there, carrying with them nuance and echo of already ancient beliefs and ways of being. The introduction has some fascinating ideas about the place of the moon underpinning many of the images of the Tao — not the bright full moon of western romance but the absent, dark moon between old and new.

You can order the Copper Canyon edition directly from them. I got mine at City Lights in San Francisco. You will try your local books store or Powells, or Alibris or ABE on-line before sending another nickel to Amazon….

Ursula LeGuin, the science fiction writer, feminist and anarchist, is another devotee and translator of the Tao. Here is her verse 4:

The was was empty,
used, but not used up.
Deep, yes! ancestral
to the ten thousand things.

Blunting edge,
loosing bond,
dimming light,
the way is the dust of the way.

Quiet,
yes, and likely to endure.
Whose child? born
before the gods.

Another verse which caught my eye decades ago is 17. 18 follows and for some the two were originally one verse. Here is the Witter Bynner rendition:

17
A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
‘Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you;’
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’

18
When people lost sight of the way to live
Came codes of love and honesty,
Learning came, charity came,
Hypocrisy took charge;
When differences weakened family ties
Came benevolent fathers and dutiful sons;
And when lands were disrupted and misgoverned
Came ministers commended as loyal.

Leguin:

17
True leaders
are hardly known to their followers.
Next after them are the leaders
the people know and admire;
after them, those they fear;
after them, those they despise.

To give no trust
is to get no trust.

When the work’s done right,
with no fuss or boasting,
ordinary people say,
Oh, we did it.

18
In the degradation of the great way
come benevolence and righteousness.
With the exaltation of learning and prudence
comes immense hypocrisy.
The disordered family
is full of dutiful children and parents.
The disordered society
is full of loyal patriots.

Red Pine offers this:
17
During the High Ages people knew they were there
then people loved and praised them
then they feared them
finally they despised them
when honesty fails
dishonesty prevails
hesitate and weigh your words
when their work succeeds
let people think they did it.

[The Chinese of Lao-tzu’s day believed their greatest age of peace and harmony occurred during the reighs of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperorors, or 2,000 years earlier…]

18
When the Great Way disappears
we meet kindness and justice
when reason appears
we meet great deceit
when the six relations fail
we meet obedience and love
when a country is in chaos
we meet upright officials.

[Sung Ch’ang-Hsing says, “It isn’t the Great Way that leaves Humankind and goes into hiding. It’s Humankind that leaves the Great Way and replaces it with kindness and justice.”]