Assignment 2: Tao Te Ching
Write an essay of 1300 words on the topic you choose.
1. How does Lao-tzu describe and criticize human behaviour and attitudes in chapters 2, 9, 12, 16, 24, 30, 47, 64 (and others as you see fit). Assess the strength of these criticisms and Lao-tzu’s recommendations for change.
2. There are well over a hundred different English translations of the Tao Te Ching. You should not assume that any single translation (or interpretation) of the text is definitive.
From the following six translations of the first chapter, choose two (2) translations and compare them to the course translation by Addiss and Lombardo. As you compare, note significant differences and explain how these translations might affect our understanding of the Tao, the world, and ourselves. (This assignment highlights the extent to which translation is at the same time interpretation.)
I. God (the great everlasting infinite First Cause from whom all things in heaven and earth proceed) can neither be defined nor named.
For the God which can be defined or named is but the Creator, the Great Mother of all those things of which our senses have cognisance.
Now he who would gain a knowledge of the nature and attributes of the nameless and undefinable God, must first set himself free from all earthly desires, for unless he can do this, he will be unable to penetrate the material veil which interposes between him and those spiritual conditions into which he would obtain an insight.
Yet the spiritual and the material, though known to us under different names, are similar in origin, and issue from the same source, and the same obscurity belongs to both, for deep indeed is the darkness which enshrouds the portals through which we have to pass, in order to gain a knowledge of these mysteries.
Translated by G.G. Alexander (1895)
II. Even the finest teaching is not the Tao itself.
Even the finest name is insufficient to define it.
Without words, the Tao can be experienced,
and without a name, it can be known.
To conduct one’s life according to the Tao,
is to conduct one’s life without regrets;
to realize that potential within oneself
which is of benefit to all.
Though words or names are not required
to live one’s life this way,
to describe it, words and names are used,
that we might better clarify
the way of which we speak,
without confusing it with other ways
in which an individual might choose to live.
Through knowledge, intellectual thought and words,
the manifestations of the Tao are known,
but without such intellectual intent
we might experience the Tao itself.
Both knowledge and experience are real,
but reality has many forms,
which seem to cause complexity.
By using the means appropriate,
we extend ourselves beyond
the barriers of such complexity,
and so experience the Tao.
Translated by Stan Rosenthal (1984)
III. The Tao is that on which one can always tread.
That on which one cannot always tread is not the Tao.
And fame is that of which one can always remember.
That of which one cannot always remember is not fame.
All things are without names prior to the formation of Heaven and Earth.
And names are brought out to classify various things.
Since there is no name in the very beginning, why should one care about fame!
Hence, those who are constantly free of desire of fame shall see the Tao’s subtle secret.
Those who bear desire shall see the end lying in front of them.
Both two types of men ferment their thinking in the same place, yet they will experience different fates.
Both their fates shall be up to Heaven.
Beyond our heaven, there are other heavens: whoever knows this shall find the gate of the Tao.
Translated by Shi Fu Hwang (1987)
IV. If you can talk about it, it ain’t Tao.
If it has a name, it’s just another thing.
Tao doesn’t have a name.
Names are for ordinary things.
Stop wanting stuff. It keeps you from seeing what’s real.
When you want stuff, all you see are things.
These two statements have the same meaning.
Figure them out, and you’ve got it made.
Translated by Ron Hogan (1994)
V. There are things that cannot be described by or understood through language. A complete description and understanding of the purpose and operation of the Way is beyond the power of language.
Whether you try to reason your way through life or act through emotion, the words associated with each path can be traps, not bridges, because they hide what is common to each: the presence of mystery.
Translated by Richard Degen (1999)
VI. This book can tell you nothing;
the Tao leaves you where you began.
A maiden can leave things nameless;
a mother must name her children.
In innocence or experience, you still return.
Calling things by name loses what unites them.
Failing to call things by name loses them into what unites them.
Words are limits that make experience possible.
But form and formlessness are the same.
Tao and the world are the same,
though we call them by different names.
This unity is dark and deep, but on the other hand it is deep and dark.
It opens into the center of everything.
Translated by Crispin Sartwell (2004)
3. Lao-tzu uses a number of different images to describe the Tao such as water (chapters 8, 15, 32, 61, 66, and 78), infancy (chapters 10, 20, 28, 49, and 55), motherhood (chapters 1, 6, 10, 20, 21, 25, 52, and 59), and the uncarved block (chapters 28, 32, 37, and 57). Using two of these symbols explain what they are meant to tell us about the Tao and what direction they provide for developing moral and/or appropriate behaviour. Critically assess both the effectiveness of the image and its usefulness in determining how to act.
4. Explain how Lao-tzu’s ethical system is related to his metaphysical and epistemological beliefs.
