Customer Reviews

The Wisdom of Laotse

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There are more than one hundred translations of Lao-tzu's TAO TE CHING in Western languages, and more than forty versions in English alone. Lao-tzu speaks to those searching for a more meaningful way of life in a society degraded by economic, militaristic, modern values. Robert Henricks' translation is notable in that it is one of several new translations based upon the Ma-wang-tui texts. These texts were discovered in 1973, preserved in the tomb of an official's son. That tomb has been dated to 168 B.C.

Professor Henricks is Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, and he is a well-known scholar of the Ma-wang-tui texts. His translation is a work of impressive scholarship. He follows the classic two-part, eighty-one stanza form of the TAO TE CHING, giving us two versions of the text, the first his bare-text translation and the other delineated with his commentary and notes. His translation is more literal than Stephen Harrison's more popular poetic rendering of the TAO TE CHING, and more scholarly than Red Pine's translation. It is easy to compare Henricks' translation to Moss Roberts' more recent scholarly translation. Professor Henricks has given us a superior translation of Lao-tzu's TAO TE CHING.

G. Merritt

The full title of the present book is: 'LAO-TZU TE-TAO CHING: A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts, Translated, with an introduction and commentary, by Robert G. Henricks.'

Those who haven't the foggiest idea what the Ma-wang-tui Texts are, should betake themselves to Red Pine's translation of 'Lao-tzu's Taoteching,' a book far more suited to the beginner, where they will find a very clear explanation on pages xvii-xviii. The present book is more for the advanced student, and preferably one who knows a little Classical Chinese.

Red Pine tells us that two copies of the Tao Te Ching were discovered in Ma-wang-tui in 1973 which had been brush-written on silk over two thousand years earlier, buried with a nobleman along with other of his prized possessions, and that they were in a remarkable state of preservation.

Here was something to fire the imagination of all Tao Te Ching scholars, whether amateur or professional, an innocent class of folks who, rather than plotting such things as the overthrow of the state, prefer to busy themselves with puzzling over the minute textual differences between the various recensions of the Tao Te Ching and deciding for themselves what Lao Tzu - who may or may not have been an actual person - really meant.

The Ma-wang-tui discovery was a bonanza for such folks, for although the differences between the received text/s and the newly unearthed manuscripts were minute, they were many. And what was most wonderful of all, the MW manuscripts had been brushed in the wrong order, with the received Part I (Chapters 1-37) on Tao coming last, and Part II (Chapters 38-79) on Te coming first.

Gleefully seizing on this unprecedented and amazing factoid, our hearty band of TTC scholars, both amateur and professional, formally declared that the texts of the MW manuscripts were henceforth to be known, not as the Tao Te Ching (TTC) but as the Te Tao Ching (TTC), and that they should be printed in that order. Such are the ways of the delightful species to which we have the honor of belonging. Those who are bothered by the new order have a simple remedy at hand - read the last Part first and the first Part last.

Professor Henricks' edition of the TTC, after a brief though interesting Introduction of just 20 pages, consists of two parts. In the first part we are given the bare English text of his very fine and readable (though occasionally wordy) translation, wholly uncluttered by scholarly impedimenta, and it's a great pleasure to read.

In the second part Professor Henricks' brings out his big guns, and we are given another copy of the English translation we have just read, but this time lineated, and accompanied with full philological Comments and Notes, with, on facing pages, the Chinese texts of the two MW Texts A and B, punctuated as in the manuscripts, and with many of the usual tiny empty square blocks to indicate lost or illegible characters. These little blocks measure precisely 3mm x 3mm, and I shall touch on the significance of this later.

Since more of Text B has been lost than of Text A, the translation is based mainly upon Text A, helped out occasionally with bits and pieces from B. But it gets better. For - yes, you guessed it - Texts A and B are not exactly the same! You can imagine the dizzying complications that have resulted from this, more than enough to keep TTC-ites happily scribbling away for at least a century. Professor Henricks' scholarly edition of the MW Texts is rounded out with a section of Additional Notes, and with a 6-page Bibliography.

I have only two criticisms. The first is that the Chinese on each facing page of Part 2 is printed in such an incredibly miniscule 3mm x 3 mm font that it is impossible to make out the structure of unfamiliar complex characters without recourse to a magnifier of some sort.

The Chinese text, in other words, can be barely readable, and on some pages takes up only five percent or so of the total area so that we are left with large areas of totally blank space, more than enough in which to have printed a large, bold, and clear Chinese text - if only someone had given a thought to our eyes, and to our not-always optimal lighting conditions. Publishers might note that every Chinese character is an *exquisitely balanced and supreme work of art* and was intended to be writ BOLD.

My second criticism has to do with the Bibliography, where all Chinese names and book titles are given only in romanized form, which means that they might as well not have been given at all. No less a luminary than the eminent British scientist and Sinologist, Professor Joseph Needham, in his magisterial multi-volume 'Science and Civilization in China,' has pointed out that it is an extreme discourtesy to omit the Chinese graphs (ideograms, characters) from bibliographical descriptions, since even native Chinese scholars will often be totally baffled by the results. Also it's easy enough to add the characters in a separate list at the end, as Professor Ellen M. Chen has done in her superb edition of the TTC. ...

All in all then, though not an edition for the beginner, Professor Henricks' TTC is one calculated to appeal to all TTC enthusiasts and other specialists, who ought certainly to consider adding it to their libraries. The English reads well, the notes are interesting, and it's fun to explore the Chinese MW Texts provided you keep a magnifier handy.

Forget Stephen Mitchell. Not only is Henricks' translation more accurate and insightful, but his brief introducion is much more valuable than Mitchell's entire interpolation and endnotes. The text itsef is beautifully rendered and captures the spirit of Tao perfectly, and the duplication of the entire book, with notes on the meaning and technical details of the text, should be quite valuable for scholars and dedicated Taoists who can't read Classical Chinese.

Yes, there _are_ better translations of the Tao Te Ching out there, but Henricks's is the best one still available in bookstores.

The first version of the TTC that really left me feeling closer to Laozi than farther away. Henricks has put a lot of effort and love into this work and it shows. A bonus feature is that there are two versions: First, the bare text of the TTC, printed without commentary for those times when you just want to absorb the beautiful words. Next, the full text, but with lots of useful notes and commentary to help you understand what the author is saying. I find the commentary to be very thoughtful; Henricks defers at times to other translators and tells us WHY he chose to translate certain passages the way he did, and the alternatives that exist for those who want to disagree with him. Essentially, a non-egotstical approach that many scholars would do well to emulate. Because of the innumerable ways it can be translated, the best way to read the Laozi is to read as many versions as you can get, I suggest that this one will be one of your favorites right away.

Competent and caring interperetation of Tao te ching, focused on the 1973 Ma Wang Tui findings, including the Chinese original texts and extensive explanatory comments.One of the best I have come across.