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About Tao Te Ching
Product Description Traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius (551 - 479 BC), it is now thought that the work was compiled in about the fourth century BC. An anthology of wise sayings, it offers a model by which the individual can live rather than explaining the human place in the universe. The moral code it encourages is based on modesty and self-restraint, and the rewards reaped for such a life are harmony and flow of life. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Review "It would be hard to find a fresh approach to a text that ranks only behind the Bible as the most widely translated book in the world, but Star achieves that goal. . . . As fascinating to the casual scholar as it is for the serious student." -NAPRA ReView "Jonathan Star's Tao Te Ching achieves the essential: It clarifies the meaning of the text without in the slightest reducing its mystery." -Jacob Needleman About the Author Lao Tzu is a Chinese philosopher and founder of the Taoist religion in China. His name means 'Old Master'. He worked as a librarian at the court of Chou. When the kingdom showed signs of decay, Lao Tzu left and was never heard of again. Tao Te Ching is said to be his the principles of his philosophy. D. C. Lau read Chinese at the University of Hong Kong and in 1946 he went to Glasgow where he read philosophy. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1 Gateway to All Marvels The Tao that can be Told Is not the True Tao; Names that can be Named Are not True Names. The Origin of Heaven and Earth Has no Name. The Mother of the Myriad Things Has a Name. Free from Desire, Contemplate the Inner Marvel; With Desire, Observe the Outer Radiance. These issue from One Source, But have different Names. They are both a Mystery. Mystery of Mysteries, Gateway to All Marvels. The River Master The Tao that can be Told is the mundane Tao of the Art of Government, as opposed to the True Tao of Nature, of the So-of-Itself, of Long Life, of Self-Cultivation through Non-Action. This is the Deep Tao, which cannot be Told in Words, which cannot be Named. The Names that can be Named are such worldly things as Wealth, Pomp, Glory, Fame, and Rank. The Ineffable Tao Emulates the Wordless Infant, It resembles The Unhatched Egg, The Bright Pearl within the Oyster, The Beauteous Jade amongst Pebbles. It cannot be Named. The Taoist glows with Inner Light, but seems outwardly dull and foolish. The Tao itself has no Form, it can never be Named. The Root of the Tao Proceeds from Void, From Non-Being, It is the Origin, The Source of Heaven and Earth, Mother of the Myriad Things, Nurturing All-under-Heaven, As a Mother Nurtures her Children. Magister Liu The single word Tao is the very Core of this entire Classic, its lifeblood. Its Five Thousand Words speak of this Tao and of nothing else. The Tao itself Can never be Seen. We can but witness it Inwardly, Its Origin, Mother of the Myriad Things. The Tao itself can never be Named, It cannot be Told. And yet we resort to Words, such as Origin, Mother, and Source. Every Marvel Contemplated, Every Radiance Observed, Issues from this One Source. They go by different Names, But are part of the same Greater Mystery, The One Tao, the Origin, the Mother. In freedom from Desire, We look within And Contemplate The Inner Marvel, Not with eyes But inwardly By the Light of Spirit. We look outward With t
