Customer Reviews

Tao Te Ching

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For me, the Tao Te Ching is the most profound book ever written. This version is my personal favorite. I find the the gorgeous pictures go a long way to helping my limited understanding of the text.

the tao te ching is awsome. it comes from one of the most profound ways of thinking and is by far one of the most inspirational books ever. this tanslation is great. its probably the best i have seen.

This rendition of the Tao Te Ching is beautiful and accessible, although some points in the translation are questionable. It seems this version was made for the Western audience rather than sticking closely to the original. For those who love the Chinese text, this may be problematic. The strength of the original lies in its ambiguity--in the presence of light and darkness, a play of light and darkness, an indistinctness of light and darkness. This version seems to choose the light over the dark. I also highly recommend "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life" by Taro Gold, which is an excellent collection of Eastern wisdom.

I first encountered this translation in college as part of a comparative Chinese/Western philosophy course. At the time it went completely over my head; I preffered Confucius' "Anelects" and "Mencius." While I would highly recomend both of those to anyone interested in Eastern philosophy, it's impossible for me to describe the profound effect that the Tao Te Ching has has on my life. When I picked up this book again a few years after college I was stunned by it's simple beauty and staggering relevance and depth. A rare and priceless book, it touches on all aspectes of human existence- from metaphysics, to ethics, to the completely mundane.

I've had the chance to check out a few different translations but this one is by far the most effortles and poetic. Not wordy or didactic It allows the reader to "experience" Lao Tsu's words and to draw their own conclusions. (along with some helpful notes by the translator) This is essential in conveying the words of a thinker who "Teaches without teaching" and, in itself, is more true to the elusive "Tao" than versions that attempt to explain Lao Tsu's words. At the same time this ellegant translation is both clear and accesible.

The bottom line is that anyone interested in this work, whether they are aproaching it from a scholarly, aesthetic, religious, philisophical, or purely personal perspective, whether they are new to these words or not, will find far more than they expect in these pages.

I picked up this book two years ago, when I was a sophmore in High School...I felt so alone, because all my friends had turned thier backs on me, calling me a monster who wanted to blow them all away in the school yard. I spent a long time depressed, until the day my family decided to move to a different school district.
While cleaning out my Father's bookshelves, we found an old copy of this book from the 1970's. I flipped through it, and found the one poem in here that has comforted me the most by disaster...

"What do you mean by "Accept misfortune as the human condition"?
Misfortune comes from having a body.
Without a body, how could there be misfortune?"

I asked him if I could keep it, and he allowed it. I am a much better person now, no longer so mopey as I once was.

This book is awesome. The simple pictures seem to provide scenery in your mind for when you think about these poems. The caligraphy is beautiful...and out of the many other translations of the Tao Te Ching I've seen, the old book from my father's college days is the one I keep with me every day.

(4.25 Stars)

Here are 2 statements that sum up the difficulty in writing a review of the Tao Te Ching:

The Tao is forever undefined -
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao -

This book is 81 chapters of Lao Tsu's teachings. It's an easy read. I read it in about an hour and I'm one of the slowest readers to ever read.

Lao Tsu's teachings are simple and complex - like the back of the jacket says - "...accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is. Study the natural order of things and work with it rather than against it..." - simple and complex.

This specific edition being the 25th anniversary edition has very pretty and captivating black and white photos that accompany each of the 81 chapters.

It's a good book - give Lao Tsu an hour of your time. Have a cup of tea with him.

This was the only personal book I had in my possession during my junior year of highschool when I was living with my paternal grandparents (most of the rest of my family's possessions were in storage in my other grandparents' house; long story). Since I discovered it on my parents' bookshelves in January of 1995, I have read it many times and never fail to experience the same sense of awe and agreement as I did the very first time. The ancient and beautiful words of Lao-Tzu helped to get me through a very tough year, and the description of the Tao as one, eternal, forever unchanging, the mother of the ten thousand things, unfathomable, unable to be truly grasped, nameless, elusive and intangible, and hidden deep yet ever present, strikes me as very similar to the Jewish belief in one God, one Divine Force which never changes and is unable to be fully grasped either. There are so many beautiful lines in here, so many true observations about human character, the Tao (or God, the Divine, Vishnu, Goddess, Great Spirit, however you call it), virtue, human nature, the nature of things. So many times Lao-Tzu points out that we cannot know something (like beauty, good, high, low, short, long, harmony, or softness) without experiencing its opposite. We are only able to see good as good because there is Evil in the world too, and beauty as beauty because there is ugliness. He also often mentions how these opposites can contrast and complement one another, follow one another, and overcome one another. One such example is that a small country can overcome a large nation which conquers it by submitting to it. I also love Chapter 31, which states that "[g]ood weapons are instruments of fear; all creatures hate them," going on to say that a wise man (or woman) only uses weapons when one has no choice, and that "war is conducted like a funeral."

This is one of the most famous and important holy books in world religion, yet unlike the longer and more complex works such as the Bible, Koran, and Vedas, this is amazingly simple, easy to interpret, not hard to read or to study, and easy to sum up: "Simply be."

I found this book one summer in the early 1970s in a little bookstore in a mall, shortly after it was published. I stood there for half-an-hour or so puzzling over the text and admiring the calligraphy and the photography, then, realizing it was getting late, set it back on the shelf and left.

As I emerged from the mall, I noticed a tree growing in the parking lot that the mall developers had spared. It was a maple, and I still retain an almost photographic image of it in my mind, so vivid was the impression it made on me. I was sure I'd seen this tree before, but now it was as if I was "really" seeing it. Don't ask me what that means, I don't even know myself. But I had a pretty good idea why I was suddenly seeing it in that heightened way.

I turned around, went back into the mall and bought the book.

Since then, I've read and heard comments by many other people about the transforming effect this particular book had on them. There are people who own three and four copies of it -- one for the house, one for the office, one for the car. Some people carry it from room to room just to have it near them. There are people who seem to feel almost embarrassed about their attachment to it, as if it were something to feel guilty about.

If I had to guess why this particular edition has had such a magical effect on so many readers, I would say it is the combination of the mysterious yet elevating text, the calligraphy by Gia-fu Feng, the photographs by Jane English, and the spacious art-book layout. It is a potent combination. I hope you will buy this book and then find a tree of your own to look at.

This translation of the Tao Te-Ching is the best I have seen. The language is clear and the poetic nature of the work is left intact. While there are no illustrations as in the larger, earlier version, it is portable. This is a translation that does not require one to be a scholar. It gives everyone easy access to the ideas of the Tao. Hah ! Which is what the Tao is about. For example, here is part of verse Eleven: Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful. Shape the clay into a vessel; It is the space within that makes it useful... The book also contains a precise 27 page introduction which may be read or ignored.If you are at all interested in understanding the essence of Taoism you will not be disappointed by this translation.

One of the best, most readable interpretations of Tao Te Ching I have come across over the years. The supporting illustrations are bold yet do not take away from the text.

Certainly one of those classic coffee table books I'd like to pick up from time to time and ponder over a few pages.. highly recommended!