This Paperback Book item from Mercury House was reviewed on 25-Oct-2008.
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1) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. Of all the tranlations of the Tao, Red Pine´s is by far the best. I´ve read a lot of other Tao translations and none offer the clear interpretation that Red Pine offers. This is a must have book by the most qualified voice on the subject and at a price that cannot be beat.¤ 2) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. I have a friend who´s library includes some 20+ translations of this work and I have to date, read 4 of my own. Red Pine´s TTC with Commentaries is much easier to follow and understand than other translations and the commentaries offer even more ways to consider each verse. To read what other Chinese scholars took from reading Lao Tsu´s work will also make obvious that many have had very different understanding of this work, and that maybe, they are all useful.
This translation does, in my mind, further disproves those who so misunderstood Lao Tsu to call him a libertarian and an anarchist and does more to convince me that he, maybe above all the great teachers, was a true spiritualist, truly understanding what he chose not to define, not to personify, or to name...other than to simply call it The Way.
I have only two thirds of the book complete, but have to join those who claim it their favorite TTC so far.¤ 3) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. I liked this book. the commentaries are interesting and provide insight into the Tao. I would have liked more commentaries on how to apply them to daily life, but overall it´s a good book. I would recommend it.¤ 4) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. The only language in which the Taoteching could have been written is Classical Chinese, a medium seemingly open enough to accomodate any translation without losing anything at all. But we should keep in mind, as the good book here says, ". . . the Tao in words is not the real Tao . . ." We could say that Classical Chinese could not really, in our day and age, be served up in literal translation, and we can be grateful to Red Pine, once again, that in this fabulous rendering, he does not begin with the words, but rather with the Tao.
Paul Reps once told me that we humans "are on the outside looking in". Like the space between the kanji strokes, as with the Chinese, thus with the Tao, and even the Truth. (Chapter 11: "Thirty spokes converge on a hub, but it´s the emptiness that makes a wheel work . . ."
This translation does work. As in his other impressive translations (I especially love his moving early 1990´s translation of Bodhidharma - recommended to all who wish to learn more of Ch´an or Zen) there breathes an immediacy which flows forth into the consciousness of our moment, resonant in these teachings. Relatively obscure in the West not half a century ago, they thus have been recognized for their pith, their eternal relevance, their vision.
Each Chapter in this well-bound, well-designed volume is accompanied by a series of commentaries or alternative translations from various sages in the Taoist tradition, a process which itself, once again, reveals the Tao, ever changing, always unchanged.
Chapter 19: "Get rid of wisdom and reason
and people will live a hundred times better
get rid of kindness and justice
and people once more will love and obey
get rid of cleverness and profit
and thieves will cease to exist
but these sayings are not enough
hence let this be added
wear the undyed and hold the uncarved
reduce self-interest and limit desires
get rid of learning and problems will vanish"
I´ve been reading this book since the early 1960´s in various English renditions - this one is far and away my current favorite - a real delight!¤ 5) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. In Asia, sacred texts like the Tao Te Ching are read with reference to the commentaries of its key historical luminaries. Only in the west is it read by itself, with no guidance. Finally, we have a TTC with key commentaries. Plus, the author has here given a translation that may come as close as possible to expressing the Chinese in English. It is concise, even pithy.
A number of other features make this volume unique and particularly valuable. Pine´s extensive introduction covers an intriguing linguistic insight into the Chinese written character for Tao, Lao Tzu´s historical background, the usual issues of authorship, etc., and some of the deeper understandings of the important themes of philosophical Taoism. Also, he has provided black and white photos of the famed Hanku Pass and the Loukuantai where tradition holds that Lao-tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching. The Chinese text is provided along side Pine´s clear and unadorned translation. He utilizes the earlier but more recently discovered Mawangtui texts, and explains his preferences in choosing among textual variants. But most important for me, and for any student of the Tao Te Ching are his carefully selected commentaries which follow each verse. These show how the Chinese have traditionally understood the passages of the TTC in selected commentaries from the last 2000 years. Also, the book provides an extensive glossary of the Chinese terms and the commentators. Highly recommended!¤ 6) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. Red Pine´s translation of the most revered of Chinese texts corrects errors in previous interpretations, truly breathes new poetic life into the English version, and includes selected commentaries-judged by Chinese scholars to be essential to understanding the wisdom of Taoism. Pine incorporates the commentaries of emperors and prime ministers, Taoist monks and nuns, Buddhist priests, poets, scholars, and the country´s most famous philosophers of the past 2,000 years. This marks the first time that non-Chinese speakers have been given access to such a range of wisdom explaining the deeper meaning of China´s famous ancient classic. With its clarity and scholarly range, this version of the Taoteching works both as a readable text and a valuable resource of Taoist interpretation.
Lao-tzu, founder of Taoism, is supposed to have written the Taoteching around 600 BC in the Chungnan Mountain region, where Red Pine (Bill Porter) interviewed contemporary hermits as described in his book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. Bill Porter is also the translator of The Zen Works of Stonehouse, of Sung Po-jen´s Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom, and of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain.
¤ 7) Paperback Book Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years by Mercury House. Red Pine (a.k.a. Bill Porter) offers a new perspective on the Chinese classic Taoteching. A competent translator and interpreter of Chinese religion, he renders his work with an eye for detail and a spiritualism cultivated during years of Zen monastery living. It´s odd that many read translations of Chinese classics as bare-bones texts, whereas no Chinese would tackle such obscurity in the absence of a helping hand from previous pundits. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to rely on mystical insight in order to understand the Taoteching. Instead, we can look to the 12 or so commentators that Red Pine resurrects from Chinese history. With its clarity and scholarly range, this version of the Taoteching works as both a readable text and a valuable resource of Taoist interpretation.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 22-Nov-2008, 15627908549781562790851, 031-501-541-621-251-681-4QB-8 
Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years, Book, Image © Mercury House
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