The Canon of Reason and Virtue [Paperback]

Lao-Tze (Author), Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (Editor), Paul Carus (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 1974

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company (April 19, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875480640
• ISBN-13: 978-0875480640
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,544,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Alternative, December 25, 2005

By 

John Paul Jaubert (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Paperback)

I have to very much disagree with the previous reviewer who it seems was misinformed. This is by no means the only english translation. I've read five myself and I'm sure there are others. If you only read one, I would suggest The Way and its Power by Arthur Waley. If you only read one other, I would suggest this very different one. If you're really into taoism and don't read chinese, read as many translations as you can get.

The previous reviewer is right in his claim that this translation is perhaps not the most pleasant to read (though that's a matter of taste) and that the poetic effort can be distorting but I think that there are very strong counterclaims to be made here.

Firstly, any translation from archaic chinese even to modern chinese, much less to english, must be distorting. How many of us can really understand Beowulf or even Chaucer without help? And the Tao Te Ching was written many centuries before either of those (no one really knows when). Waley's introduction to his translation goes some distance in explaining exactly what some of the translation involves.

Secondly, as I understand it, the original did have a poetic element so that translating it as poetry or even rhyme is not altogether wrong.

Thirdly, the book is supposed to be largely an exercise in paradox, dramatic conceptual contrast, overthrowing presumptions and assumptions, etc. So if you find it jarring, consider that maybe that's exactly what it should be.

Fourthly, the translation of even basic words is extremely unorthodox. Examples appear already in the title itself: "tao" as "reason" and "te" as "virtue". But this is no criticism... the translation is right on target in some ways. Let me explain.

The Tao Te Ching was meant to be a book that lay at the intersection of philosophy and religion. It's writer(s) and adherents were concerned with metaphysics, logic and language, naturalized ethics, and tying all of these together. They believed that the good life (the te-life) was simply the product or correlate of the wise life, which was the life in obedience to nature or heaven's way or the divine way (the tao-life). A central, critical concept of theirs was that of the sage: a morally superior being who, by tao-following, had powers vastly beyond the rest of us and who could never really suffer harm. They believed that ordinary morality is a kind of game in which we follow rules, and that true morality comes when we know exactly when to break the rules. They were fond of making strikingly counterintuitive statements. They were skeptical in regards to authority and convention. Though intellectual, they were concerned with the practical, common, ordinary life.

Now there was another, roughly contemporaneous but western, group that was like the taoists in all of these regards and more. They were the stoics; with roots in Greek and, likely, Persian thought (it's intrigueing but implausible to push the roots further east than that). And on a translation of their parallel concepts, "reason" and "virtue" would be really quite appropriate. In fact, the intellectual and even historical parallels get really quite eerie at times... both were imports from another culture; both were in competition and dialogue with an opposing dominant philosophy; both largely died out after leaving an indelible mark.

So my point is that this is a brazenly "westernized" translation and that, contrary to some opinion, that's no bad thing if done well. In fact, since westernization is inevitable in a translation, one might as well tackle it head on, which this does. If the translation is to speak to us like the original spoke to the ancient chinese, something like this has to happen. I like to think that it's like a change of accent rather than a change of substance or meaning: we hear the same thing they hear but in a way that's already familiar to us.

I would give this translation five stars precisely because it's so strikingly different from others (though they're all quite diverse!) and it helps one make the east-west connection. The only reason I gave it four is that the price is somewhat high. I assume that's because of lower demand and consequent lower availabilty. If so, I think it's rather unfortunate.

One last note that I am, laughably, including here at the end because, at the time of writing the review, I had failed to either recognize the editor or to take note of the author. Paul Carus was the founder and editor of The Monist, a major philosophical quarterly. D.T. Suzuki is a leading translator of asiatic languages and, specifically, buddhist texts. I think these facts jointly explain and support much of what I have said. They would also, together with the fact that the book is a dual english/chinese translation on facing pages, explain the price.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars wisdom mired in guck, December 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Paperback)

This unfortunately seems to be the only English edition of this classic that is available. "Unfortunately", because the translator has indulged in putting sections of the text into a horrible singsong archaic rhyme form. Here's a random selection: "How eluding and vague/ All types including!/How vague and eluding,/All beings including!/How deep and how obscure./ It harbors the spirit pure,/Whose truth is ever sure,/ Whose faith abides for aye/ From of yore until to-day." If you can tolerate this, there are some stunning thoughts here - but that's a big if.