Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Mar 13, 2010

Monk rated it:

This is, by far, my favorite translation of the Tao Te Ching. I own a few others and they're all well and good, but this one is the one I continually read from and refer to when people ask me about the Tao.

The translation is well done, it captures the nature of the text well, and it flows fairly evenly. It's not overly flowery or ornate, it gives you the basics of what you need to understand the various entries and assist in understanding what Tao is (i.e. the the Tao named Tao is no More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Gerry rated it:

I'm an unbeliever and have been since the first time I played hooky from Sunday services and the Eye in the Sky didn’t say boo. So it may seem strange that I’m reviewing the Tao Te Ching, the widely known and influential Taoist text, written by Lao-Tzu and poetically translated in this edition by Stephen Mitchell. For me, the Tao Te Ching is more folk wisdom than religious treatise and is more useful than a million sermons.

Where the Tao Te Ching parts company with religious attempts More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Isaiah rated it:

The book that can be reviewed is not the constant book.

The review which reviews can be neither full of review nor lacking.

But as the river changes course over seasons must the reviewer neither review nor not review, but follow the constant review.

25 comments like (24 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2010

Bruce rated it:

I'm always reading this little book containing the essence of wisdom. For years I've read it again and again, one chapter every morning.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Dan rated it:

I am tempted to select this as my all-time favorite book. I just lack the nerve required to narrow the field to one.

There are many versions of the Tao Te Ching, both with and without commentaries. I comment on this version and the rather ancient 1944 version by Witter Bynner. I recommend reading at least two. Like floral bouquets, each one draws the eye to different expressions of beauty.

I have several of Stephen Mitchell’s books because I am very fond of his prose. He e More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2010

Alex rated it:

To a Westerner, the Tao Te Ching presents another perspective for understanding meaning and effectiveness. For example, the Tao Te Ching shows how movement towards progress creates movement against progress, "Do not exalt the worthy, and the people will not compete... Do not display objects of desire, and the people's minds will not be disturbed. Therefore the ordering of the sage empties their minds, fills their bellies... and causes the wise ones not to dare to act. He does nothing, and t More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Jeremy added it

This has got to be one of the most perennially beguiling, elliptical things ever written. And it seems all the more mysterious to me because so much of it is couched as this extremely practical, almost Machiavellian political advice. Having been schooled entirely in the western intellectual tradition, with its notions of hierarchy, dualism and progression (historical, socio/cultural or otherwise), this was a complete mind-fuck to me. It sort of reminds me of Heidegger, with those really crazy, c More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Evan rated it:

The description of this book is wrong:

"Like Stephen Mitchell, acclaimed author and poet Ursula K. Le Guin has attempted a nonliteral, poetic rendition of the Tao Te Ching"

It's nothing like Mitchell's pretty but totally opaque translation. LeGuin gives you readable ideas, arguments in poetry, a philosophy to ponder. Of all the translations I have encountered, this is the only one that gives you a point of entry into the rich treasury of ideas in the Tao Te Chin

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Kat rated it:

I first read this some time during the 80's, and found its eastern view of the world delightfully different. I particularly recall reading a passage that admonished against war:

"Even the best weapon
is an unhappy tool,
hateful to living things.
So the follower of the Way
stays away from it."

It reminded me of a scene in Dune where young Paul has just survived a grown man's challenge to a duel to the death, and Paul's mother (Jessica) compress More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2009

Eddie rated it:

There are many translations of the Taoteching, nearly every one of which is probably worth reading, but this is my favorite version. I can’t attest to the accuracy of the translation, but having read so many different translations of the same text I feel like in some strange way I have a grasp of the original; as if a blank space (the Chinese original) has been given shape and definition by all the English versions surrounding it. But anyway, while I like the spare sensitivity of the language in More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2010

James rated it:

The Tao Te Ching is a book that cannot be read directly. Unfortunately, I have little experience reading books indirectly, so I found this a difficult book to read, end even more difficult to discern what was being said by the author.
A friend told me that he thought Heraclitus, the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, was somewhat like Lao Tzu. Heraclitus said "you can't step in the same river twice". He believed that reality was a flux composed of a unity of opposites. I suppose More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Poo1987 rated it:

Ancient poems contain numerous interesting things, pleasure of silent air; coolness of still water; beauty of trees; perfume of blossom; riches of emotion; and the most important thing, brightness of wisdom. What does appear to the readers depends on their ways of interpretation. It is, in my opinion, the law of philosophy.

Tao Te Ching is not good for ones impatient and unimaginative. Short and complex, but sound-like-mad poems might bore you easily. I don't advise you using it for s More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Rob rated it:

highlights:
3 - not collecting treasures prevents stealing.
13- accept disgrace willingly
23- he who does not trust will not be trusted
46- he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough
57- the more rules and regulations, the more thieves and robbers there will be

lowlights: eh, pretty much the whole translation. i guess this version is popular because it has nice calligraphy of the original chinese and BW photos of nature accompanying the engli More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Anne rated it:

First, a disclaimer. I do not read the Tao To Ching as a Taoist, a student of Chinese philosophy, or a secularist. I don't read it within its own proper social context. I read it as a Wiccan, and I look to it to inform my practice of my own, separate religion. But that being said, I think the Tao has principles which are applicable to everyone, and which provide a valuable counterweight to the baffling complexity of modern society.

As a Wiccan, I've found that the tao provides a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Charles rated it:

I've literally read 10 different translations of the Tao Te Ching. If I was going to recommend just one to a friend, this would be it.

There are more careful and scholarly translations (such as Robert G. Henricks'), but Le Guin's translations is highly readable and poetic. She takes poetic liberties with the language (favoring the pithy), but - unlike most of the translations that take liberties - she stays close to the spirit of the original. It rarely feels like she is projecti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 06, 2008

Nick rated it:

I collect translations of the Tao Te Ching because I figure that if I read enough different ones I may finally understand this beautiful but elusive work. Ursala K. LeGuin did one (not bad; not as good as I hoped). Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English did one that is still my favorite, because it's clear and simple. But recently I stumbled on this one by Stephen Mitchell from 1988, and it's wonderful. The language is straightforward and colloquial and puts some of the more opaque chapters in a new l More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2008

Matt rated it:

This is my favorite presentation of the dao de jing; the best one i've seen semantically (by which I mean not just accurate but also creative fullness) is by a guy named Bradford Hatcher. The translation on this one is a native Chinese speaker, but the composition of the book is what makes this really special. The book is a physical object, you can't forget it, because like a glyph, it takes your attention in and expands it in a microcosm....heh...The photos are stunning, full-page black and whi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2009

Sidhartha rated it:

the tao that can be told is not the eternal tao...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2009

Leah rated it:

I own this, but have never sat down and read it. I thought putting it on my shelf would make me seem more cultured.

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2009

Peter rock added it

hello to whom it may concern
my name is
Peter rock "the maze" treacy campbell
dear reader whomever ya are
the "lighter game" is not a game
the lighter game is a book.....an epitaph
taoism is a process of thought, meditation, and action....in the bible it would be the same as "faith without works is dead" again think,meditate,action, contemplation,repeat,refine,breath,teach,learn,observe,
practice,practice,pra More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Nick rated it:

Red Pine (the translator) has created a prosaic version of the Tao Te Ching that's all about the textual variations. As such, it's fascinating to see the possibilities amongst the various texts and the disputes about textual errors, misreadings, and so on. But I prefer the more poetic versions of this classic for reading. I had hoped that Red Pine's version would make the book clearer to me, but I seem to get more out of the Mitchell or English versions. Still, Red Pine's version is earthier More...

0 comments like

Sep 20, 2011

Phyllis rated it:

The Tao Te Ching originated in the 6th century BCE during the Zhou Dynasty. Written by Laozi, the document has 81 short chapters, the majority of which are written more like poetry than prose (at least in my English translation). Here's where I have to admit that poetry is not my best subject. Most of the time I can get a feeling, a wispy idea of the essence of the poem, but when it comes to fully understanding the specifics of this beautiful, but metaphoric language, well I'm more idiot than sa More...

0 comments like

Sep 04, 2011

Tommy rated it:

I acquired this book many years ago but put it aside to study the Legge translation. The 'read this' icon here at GoodReads leads to the James Legge translation.

I am not sure if this is the same as the Gia Feng – Jane English translation. I think it may not be. I could be wrong.

The thing being, if you grok the Legge translation then that's all you need to know. It may be the finest translation of a volume of Chinese philosophy that exists, but who is to say. The Wilhelm-B More...

1 comment like

Jun 10, 2011

Danielle rated it:

"In its transcendent, self-contained fullness the Tae is ineffable, but our words can point toward it as fingers point to the moon." xii

"Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools. It accommodates by assuming the shape of any vessel it is poured into. An More...

0 comments like

Apr 25, 2011

TJ rated it:

A friend told me this was his favorite translation of Tao Te Ching. I found it very interesting. Minus the double statements, of course. Good is not always bad, as bad is not always good. Really?

Okay but here were some of my real favorites.

1.
"The wise person acts without effort
and teaches by quiet example.
He accepts things as they come,
creates without possessing,
nourishes without demanding,
accomplishes without t More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2010

Billie rated it:

The Tao Te Ching is charming and thought-provoking, even if some of it is completely obscure and still other parts constituting some unsound advice. According to legend (this is what the introduction stated), Lao Tsu, fed up with the ways of men, was getting ready to ride off and live alone when someone asked him to leave a record of his wisdom; the Tao Te Ching was the result. The attachment of this legend to Lao Tsu is strange because the Tao Te Ching appears to be advice for how to lead a spi More...

0 comments like

Apr 28, 2010

Roy rated it:

"In the crowded field of translating the "Tao Te Ching," this new version" "...is a landmark traslation of the ancient Chinese classic..."
It is based on newly discovered manuscripts that are approximately five centuries older and far more authentic than the most commonly translated texts.
"Victor Mair, on of the country's foremost translators of ancient Chinese, has stripped away the distortions of previous translation, restored lost lines, reinterp More...

0 comments like

Feb 03, 2010

A.J. rated it:

(My translation by R.B. Blakney)

Because I'm a born again skeptic, I do my best to avoid the obligatory respectful concessions towards mystical texts, especially ones that celebrate the 'wisdom of ancient China' on the cover. I arch an eyebrow at the thought that ancient peoples were in any way privy to profound revelations that have somehow escaped us modern folk, what with our freaky science and all. We do stand both technologically and philosophically on the shoulders of giants, bu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

yellow tree rated it:

i barely ever read a book before that has been so full of contradiction and paradox as this one, and i am sure i still didn't really get it. however, it's a pleasure to hold it in your hands and read it every once in a while; for even those that don't share the ideas that stand behind the verses, or the ideas that most people think to stand behind them, can find some wisdom in them, especially in the second half. therefore, on of my favorites is chapter seventy-six:

"people are b More...

0 comments like

Jan 18, 2008

Michael rated it:

This is an excellent translation based on the Mawangdui silk texts. Note the unusual inversion of the title; in the Mawangdui scroll, the Te Ching appeared in front of the Tao Ching. This translator, Henricks, also provides the best translation of the Guodian discovery, the oldest known version of the text (dated to before 300 BCE), though that translation is best thought as a supplement to this one, as they only overlap by about 2,000 characters. Check it out here: 0231118171

1 comment like (1 person liked it)