Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way (Paperback)

by Laozi (Author), Moss Roberts (Translator) "COMMENT Laozi opens with a creation myth..." (more)
Key Phrases: gong commentary, xue yanjiu, jinzhu jinyi, Han Feizi, Warring States, Book of Odes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is a work of great creativity and impressive scholarship. Roberts has achieved a translation that replicates, as closely as possible, the literary merit of the original, its rhythms and its rhymes. He repeatedly brings to our attention fresh insights and interpretations that deserve careful consideration. He not only makes use of the Mawangdui manuscripts but, even more importantly, the recent Guodian finds, the latter opening a whole new page in Laozi studies." - Stephen Durrant, author of The Cloudy Mirror; "This new translation of the Dao De Jing is an exceptional literary effort." - John Major, author of Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought "Moss Roberts provides a scholarly reading of the Dao De Jing so generous, so vivid, you can feel valley mist on your face and smell the straw dogs. Here are the furious warlords, craggy landscapes teeming with the ten thousand creatures of Taoist philosophy; China's careful arts of government and war; science, yoga, alchemy, erotics; old bamboo texts hidden in caves for millennia. This book is for anyone who has met Laozi's 'dark' mind and wants a closer look." - Andrew Schelling, author of The Cane Groves of Narmada River; "Reading Professor Moss Roberts's new translation of Dao De Jing gives one a sense of pleasure and surprise. He is a diligent and rigorous scholar, while at the same time possessing a poetic aculty to deeply penetrate the words and read between the lines.... His superior translation has deepened my own comprehension of this famous Chinese classic." - Fang Ping, former editor-in-chief, Shanghai Literary Translations Press --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Dao De Jing is one of the richest, most suggestive, and most popular works of philosophy and literature. Composed in China between the late sixth and the late fourth centuries b.c., its enigmatic verses have inspired artists, philosophers, poets, religious thinkers, and general readers down to our own times. This new translation, both revelatory and authentic, captures much of the beauty and nuance of the original work. In an extensive and accessible commentary to his translation, Moss Roberts reveals new depths of Dao De Jing.
This edition is distinguished by the literary quality of the translation, its new renderings for a number of the stanzas, and by Roberts's knowledgeable contextualizations. Utilizing recently discovered manuscripts and Chinese scholarship based on them, he is able to shed new light on the work's historical and philosophical contexts. This translation shows that Dao De Jing is far more than a work of personal inspiration; it is also a work of universal scope that makes penetrating comments on politics, statecraft, cosmology, aesthetics, and ethics. Roberts brings these themes to our attention, shows how they are integrated into the work as a whole, and demonstrates the relevance of these topics for our own times.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520242211
• ISBN-13: 978-0520242210
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #406,279 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional translation., May 8, 2002

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way (Hardcover)

Moss Roberts' fine translation of TAO TE CHING is one of several recent translations based upon the Ma-wang-tui texts of Lao-tzu's reflective book of wisdom. Those texts were discovered in 1973, preserved in the tomb of an official's son. That tomb has been dated to 168 B.C. (p. 4). Professor Roberts' translation also draws from the Guodian LAOZI, discovered in 1993 in a royal tutor's tomb. As such, Roberts' translation could be considered the most definitive translation of the TAO TE CHING presently available.

Roberts is a Professor of Chinese at New York University, and the goal of his work is to assist his reader in understanding Lao-tzu's difficult poem. His book includes a twenty-three page Introduction that offers the historical background of the TAO TE CHING. He then annotates his literal translation of the two-part, eighty-one stanza poem with his insightful commentary. His translation is just as scholarly as Robert Henricks' translation, more literal than Stephen Harrison's poetic rendering of Lao-tzu's TAO, and more challenging than Red Pine's excellent translation.

G. Merritt

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "different" translation, March 8, 2007

By	Ann Cartee (Northern Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Contains extensive introductory information, including discussion of recent archeoligical discoveries, and interesting endnotes (although I prefer footnotes - less fumbling with pages).

However, I found this translation to be a bit difficult. One of the reviewers on the back of the book refers to it as "poetic" - well, maybe; mostly I found it a bit of a struggle to make sense of it, and had to read through it with several parallel translations to figure out what Roberts was translating. However, in that situation, read with several parallel translations, this translation provides an worthwhile "spin". I find Mair's translation much cleaner, simpler, and more comprehensible. The two together are nice.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best versions of the Tao., June 11, 2009

By	L. Power "nlp trainer" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I own about 10 different versions of the Tao Te Ching. Recently, I was in a bookstore, and browsed through several versions I had not read.

I put the others back, and purchased this one. Based on the Mawangdui and Guodi texts recovered from tombs in the mid 1970's, the graves were believed to date back to 170 BC, and the texts possibly to 300 BC. If so, this Moss Roberts version is from the oldest recorded texts available.

As you might appreciate portions of text were missing or in different order, and so he has reconciled them with the received text.

I find this particular version to be excellent, the author, a lecturer in Chinese, took a great deal of care in his research. His original use of language, being different from popular translations, conjures up different potential meanings and interpretations. He includes a valuable commentary which gives a context of the time and the text, which facilitates further understanding.

Here is a selection from Verse 1, so you can compare:

1 The Way as "way" bespeaks no common lasting Way.
2 The name as "name" no common lasting name.
3 Absent is the name for sky and land's first life,
4 Present for the mother of all ten thousand things.

He also clearly has a high level of intellectual understanding of being and negation, which i find useful.

In any event, if I was going to a desert island and allowed 3 versions of the Tao, I would definitely choose this one, not necessarily because it's the best, but because I have already read and gotten the inspiration from other versions, and I would be more likely to get fresh inpsiration from this one.

I love this version, and I hope you will too.

I hope you find this review helpful, and if you do, please click yes.