Tao Te Ching: Annotated and Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)

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A. Morellis, October 21, 2008 (view all comments by A. Morellis)
I first noticed this book on Amazon, where it is ranked by customers as the best Tao Te Ching (it has the highest rating of all). Curious, I looked into it, and was not disappointed.

In fact, it is no stretch to say that this author currently towers above all the rest. I've come to that conclusion because of the following: 1) He is completely fluent in both Chinese and English, and also writes beautifully. 2) He has another book, The Tao of Daily Life, that is full of Taoist stories told in an entertaining yet informative fashion. No other Tao Te Ching translator can claim similar storytelling ability. 3) He has a web site with much quality material that is one of the highest ranking Taoism web sites on the internet. 4) He has a blog and an internet forum where he answers questions from the public. 5) He has a weekly seminar that anyone can join through the browser for free.

In short, this fellow seems to give away as much information for free as he possibly can, and yet never seems to run out of material. After several months of research, I must conclude this is the real deal. There is, at least for now, no better source of authentic Taoist information (and it is hard to imagine anyone outdoing him any time soon). Truly remarkable.

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Profchan, April 9, 2007 (view all comments by Profchan)
My qualifications--not to toot my own horn, just sticking to the facts--I am a senior lecturer on classical Chinese literature at the university level; I am also a professional translator of 27 years specializing in English-to-Chinese work. I have a personal interest in Chinese-to-English and do it from time to time to keep my skills sharp.

As one would expect from a background like mine, I am very picky when it comes to other people's translations. A popular Tao Te Ching translation like Mitchell's may be okay for the masses, but would never measure up to my standards due to the massive mistakes it contains. It is painfully obvious to me that Mitchell doesn't know Chinese from hot rocks. I have always said that a translation by a real Chinese speaker like D.C. Lau is far superior.

Until now, that is. This translation smashes all previous standards in a couple of ways. The first is that this is, as of now, the most accurate translation bar none. I may be able to do a better job myself if I devote a year or two to the task, but most of my word choices are going to be pretty close to Lin's and will probably look like plagiarization.

The second is that the commentaries in this book are also the best available right now. I have one or two quibbles here and there, but have to admit that overall the commentaries range from very good to excellent. This is to me a more dramatic difference because most other Tao Te Ching books contain either no commentaries, incorrect commentaries, or more often than not dry and boring academic details that most people would not care about.

One thing I really like about this translation is Lin's use of the plural form. It's a brilliant solution to an old problem. Now everyone will wonder why they didn't think of applying it to Tao Te Ching first. Also, I feel there's not enough commentaries to whet my appetite and would like to see more, perhaps in a future edition.

So here is my bottom line recommendation. You can stick to whatever translation appeals to you. If you don't know Chinese, the translation quality probably won't matter to you anyway. But if you ever get a burning curiosity to know what Laozi really, really says, this book will probably be your best bet. The highest praise I can offer is this: If your translation differs significantly from this one, you can pretty much be sure that yours is wrong.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781594732041

Author:

Lin, Derek

Publisher:

Skylight Paths Publishing

Foreword by:

Das, Lama Surya

Foreword:

Das, Lama Surya

Subject:

Taoism

Subject:

Laozi

Subject:

Religion Eastern-Taoism

Copyright:

2006

Series:

SkyLight Illuminations

Publication Date:

20060831

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Language:

English

Pages:

169

Dimensions:

8.58x5.58x.56 in. .56 lbs.