Tao Te Ching by Laozi (reading comprehension books txt) 📕

儉欲, “The Moderating of Desire or Ambition.” The chapter shows how the practice of the Tao must conduce to contentment and happiness.

In translating par. 1 I have, after Wu Chʽêng, admitted a 車 after the 糞, his chief authority for doing so being that it is so found in a poetical piece by Chang Hêng (AD 78⁠–⁠139). Chu Hsi also adopted this reading (朱子大全, XVIII 7 a). In par. 2 Han Ying has a tempting variation of 多欲 for 可欲, but I have not adopted it because the same phrase occurs elsewhere. ↩

鑒遠, “Surveying what is Far-off.” The chapter is a lesson to men to judge of things according to their internal conviction of similar things in their own experience. Short as the chapter is, it is somewhat mystical. The phrase, “The Tao” or way of Heaven, occurs in it for the first time; and it is difficult to lay down its precise meaning. Laozi would seem to teach that man is a microcosm; and that, if he understand the movements of his own mind, he can understand the movements of all other minds. There are various readings, of which it is not necessary to speak.

I have translated par. 2 in the past tense, and perhaps the first should also be translated so. Most of it is found in Han Ying, preceded by “formerly” or “anciently.” ↩

忘知, “Forgetting Knowledge;”⁠—the contrast between Learning and the Tao. It is only by the Tao that the world can be won.

Chiao Hung commences his quotations of commentary on this chapter with the following Kumārajīva on the second par.:⁠—“He puts it away till he has forgotten all that was bad in it. He then puts away all that is fine about him. He does so till he has forgotten all that was good in it. But the bad was wrong, and the good is right. Having diminished the wrong, and also diminished the right, the process is carried on till they are both forgotten. Passion and desire are both cut off; and his virtue and the Tao are in such union that he does nothing; but though he does nothing, he allows all things to do their own doing, and all things are done.” Such is a Buddhistic view of the passage, not very intelligible, and which I do not endorse.

In a passage in the Narratives of the School (Bk. IX Art. 2), we have a Confucian view of the passage:⁠—“Let perspicacity, intelligence, shrewdness, and wisdom be guarded by stupidity, and the service of the possessor will affect the whole world; let them be guarded by complaisance, and his daring and strength will shake the age; let them be guarded by timidity, and his wealth will be all within the four seas; let them be guarded by humility, and there will be what we call the method of ‘diminishing it, and diminishing it again.’ ” But neither do I endorse this.

My own view of the scope of the chapter has been given above in a few words. The greater part of it is found in Chuang-tzŭ. ↩

任德, “The Quality of Indulgence.” The chapter shows how that quality enters largely into the dealing of the sage with other men, and exercises over them a transforming influence, dominated as it is in him by the Tao.

My version of par. 1 is taken from Dr. Chalmers. A good commentary on it was given by the last emperor but one of the earlier of the two great Sung dynasties, in the period AD 1111⁠–⁠1117:⁠—“The mind of the sage is free from preoccupation and able to receive; still, and able to to respond.”

In par. 2 I adopt the reading of 得 (“to get”) instead of the more common 德 (“virtue” or “quality”). There is a passage in Han Ying (IX 3 b, 4 a), the style of which, most readers will probably agree with me in thinking, was moulded on the text before us, though nothing is said of any connection between it and the saying of Laozi. I must regard it as a sequel to the conversation between Confucius and some of his disciples about the principle (Lao’s principle) that “Injury should be recompensed with kindness,” as recorded in the Con. Ana. XIV 36. We read:⁠—“Tzŭ-lu said, ‘When men are good to me, I will also be good to them; when they are not good to me, I will also be not good to them.’ Tzŭ-kung said, ‘When men are good to me, I will also be good to them; when they are not good to me, I will simply lead them on, forwards it maybe or backwards.’ Yen Hui said, ‘When men are good to me, I will also be good to them; when they are not good to me, I will still be good to them.’ The views of the three disciples being thus different, they referred the point to the Master, who said, ‘The words of Tzŭ-lu are such as might be expected among the (wild tribes of) the Man and the Mo; those of Tzŭ-kung, such as might be expected among friends; those of Hui, such as might be expected among relatives and near connections.’ ” This is all. The Master was still far from Laozi’s standpoint, and that of his own favourite disciple, Yen Hui. ↩

貴生, “The Value set on