Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way [Paperback]

Ursula K. Le Guin (Author), Lao Tzu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1998

No other English translation of this greatest of the Chinese classics can match Ursula Le Guin's striking new version. Le Guin, best known for thought-provoking science fiction novels that have helped to transform the genre, has studied the Tao Te Ching for more than forty years. She has consulted the literal translations and worked with Chinese scholars to develop a version that lets the ancient text speak in a fresh way to modern people, while remaining faithful to the poetic beauty of the work. Avoiding scholarly interpretations and esoteric Taoist insights, she has revealed the Tao Te Ching 's immediate relevance and power, its depth and refreshing humor, in a way that shows better than ever before why it has been so much loved for more than 2,500 years. Included are Le Guin's own personal commentary and notes on the text. This new version is sure to be welcomed by the many readers of the Tao Te Ching as well as those coming to the text for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like Stephen Mitchell, acclaimed author and poet Ursula K. Le Guin has attempted a nonliteral, poetic rendition of the Tao Te Ching. She brings to it a punctuated grace that can only have been hammered out during long trials of wordsmithing. The wisdom that she finds in the Tao Te Ching is primal, and her spare, undulating phrases speak volumes. By making the text her own, Le Guin avoids such questions as "Is it accurate?" By making it her own, she has made it for us--a new, uncarved block from which we are free to sculpt our own meaning. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Reading [Le Guin's] translations is like taking a shared walk down a familiar trail where we discover rocks and water that we somehow missed before. . . . undeniably refreshing, capturing a language that is casual and clear, reflective and pointed, full of the wise humor of the Way."—Parabola



"A student of the Tao for several decades, Le Guin has created an English text that will speak to modern readers in a fresh and lively way, while conveying the humor, insight and beauty of the original."—Shambhala Sun

"Ursula K. Le Guin's translation of the Tao Te Ching is a personal and poetic meditation. Through her own careful study of these ancient teachings, she brings the Way into contemporary life. Each day, I open this book at random and receive a contemplative gift. These words are akin to water in the desert."—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge



"Among the many translations of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching , Ursula K. Le Guin's new version is a special treasure—a delight. There is something startlingly fresh and creatively alive here, brought forth by Ms. Le Guin's intuitive and personal ingenuity. Her rendering has moved me to return to the original Chinese text with rejuvenated fervor, rejoicing in the ineffable sageness that lies in and between Lao Tzu's lines."—Chuangliang Al Huang, founder of the Living Tao Foundation, coauthor (with Alan Watts) of Tao: The Watercourse Way

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Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; First Paperback Edition edition (October 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570623953
• ISBN-13: 978-1570623950
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Tao Te Ching

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

148 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This way, please..., November 18, 2000

By 

Mauricio C. Quintana "cintain" (Mexico City, DF Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Hardcover)

Like other reviewers, I have read some translations of the Tao Te
Ching (Daodejing) and looked at many others. Like Mrs. Le Guin points
out in her note at the end of the book, I also believe that the one by
Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English is the most satisfactory in a literary
sense. However, sometimes it lacks the simplicity and immediacy which
this rendition gives to Lao Tzu's "very easy to understand"
words. Also, Mrs. Le Guin stayed with me throughout the book, and what
she had to say amounted to a fantastic commentary to the wisdom of the
Tao. Take for example Chapter 11 in page 14. At the bottom is a note
that says: "One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so
funny. He's explaining a profound and difficult truth here, ....[and]
goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots."
This kind of comment conveys, in my opinion, exactly the essence of
Taoism as predicated by Lao Tzu. There's nothing complicated, nothing
intrincate about Taoist wisdom. And Mrs. LeGuin sticks to this
(taoist) simplicity throughout the book. Being a translator myself, I
dare say that some of Lao Tzu's translators became obsessed with
"extracting" deep meaning from the Tao Te Ching, trying to
retain the tone, now looking for complicated words to convey
"exact" meaning, now glossing over a passage, losing the
reader along the way. As Mrs. LeGuin points out in the introduction to
this book "Scholarly translations of the Tao Te Ching as a manual
for rulers use a vocabulary that emphasizes the uniqueness of the
Taoist "sage", his masculinity, his authority." The
result is dry, unsatisfactory, nihilistic, detached. This rendition
is, like Ursula Le Guin says of the original, "...the purest
water....the deepest spring". I daresay that if Lao Tzu could
read all the modern English versions of his work, he would enjoy
Ursula LeGuin's the most, laughing heartily at every page. There is no
way that someone who reads this version will not want to re-read it,
or fail to come out of the reading with a new perspective on life, one
that recognizes the simplicity, unity, and changeable nature of
everything. Thank you, Ursula Le Guin, for rendering Taoism for the
modern Western rader. This book is my bedside companion, I have given
it to everyone I love, and recommend it to anyone who has ever
wondered about Taoism, and to all other translators, not for its exact
use of English equivalents for Chinese words, but for the perfect way
in which the idea behind the words has been committed to
paper. "...I was lucky to discover [Lao Tzu] so young, so that I
could live with his book my whole life long" says Ursula LeGuin
in her introduction. I think I was very lucky to read her version,
which has helped me see the beauty, the magic, the simplicity, the
Tao.

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Le Guin's work is natural, simple, straightforward., February 23, 2004

By 

Alan (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way (Paperback)

There are many 'translations' of Lao Tsu's words. Which is the best? Perhaps it is not measured by the literal accuracy of the translation, or the poetic artestry of the word, but by it's ability to help the reader gain the perspective that Lao Tsu envisioned as the Tao. A translation that works for one, may not yield the same result for another.

Le Guin's rendition of Lao Tzu's 'Tao te Ching' was, for me, a good addition to my understanding. I have many copies. I almost always compare one with another when I sit down to think. Some 'translations' are better than others for different passages, or moods. With more than 15 years of experience in Asian cultures, primarily Japanese, and many years of contemplating Lao Tzu's writings, I recognize that some translations rely more heavily on a broader asian perspective than others. What seems natural or obvious to one steeped in asian culture may be contradictory or even 'silly' to a westerner This doesn't mean the message is wrong, but that the wording is not suited for that reader. One interpretation alone was insufficient to help me comprehend the simple nature of the Tao.

Once I began to see my world from within the understanding of the Tao, rather than see the Tao from the outside through others' words, I found a new enjoyment in seeing how others perceive the Tao. This is why I enjoyed Ursula K. Le Guin's approach immensely. Clearly, Ms. Le Guin feels the awe and wonder of the simple way, as I am beginning to enjoy it.

Hers is not as literal or as historically steeped as some, and not as contemporary as others (Stephen Mitchell). Not a hard-hitting philosophical analysis (Wing-Tsit Chan), nor an obscure or remote work [Asian feeling] (Gai-Fu Fen/Jane English). Her words invited me to enjoy the comprehension of the simplicity of it all.

Her approach was natural, simple, straightforward. In her fresh wording, I saw an elegence in the principles, a form of beauty. Her words reminded me of how I felt when I began to understand.

Thank you, Ms. Le Guin, for your contribution to my enjoyment of the Tao.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those on a spiritual journey, June 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way (Paperback)

I have been a big fan of Ms. Le Guin's writing for many, many years now. I now understand some source of the depths of meaning I have always found in her science fiction (cf. "Left Hand of Darkness"). It speaks to me. So does this translation.

I have it on good authority that the translation is about as good as one can get, and still preserve the glimpses of the author's personality. My good friend from Beijing has the Tao in its original language: even he has difficulty with the ancient dialect at times. He is using this version, in English, to share with his teenage son, because it seems to preserve the sense of the text.