Gender and the Tao Te Ching

[surfingbudda]

I thought this was an interesting article I found about gender in the Tao Te Ching My link. The article says that Lao Tzu originally wrote the Tao Te Ching gender neutral however english speaking people have interpreted chinese meaning as either feminine or masculine which appears in their translations. For example it says most english translation interpret the chinese charachers for person or sage as man. The article also gives a comparison of Douglas Allchin's translation and Hu Xuezhi's version, which is pretty interesting to see how one translation is obviously feminine and the other is entirely different and contains no gender qualities. Just makes you think how accurate your Tao Te Ching translation actually is. I think I am going to go ahead and buy Hu Xuezhi's version and see how it compares.

[Marblehead]

I have seen it argued that Lao Tzu used the feminine quite a bit. It was also suggested by the same translator that if Tao were ever personified God would be a woman.

Edited December 4, 2010 by Marblehead

[surfingbudda]

It was also suggested by the same translator that if Tao were ever personified God would be a woman.

 

Are you referring to Hu Xuezhi?

[themaninthesuit]

Hey guys, unfortunately i do not have my version of the TTC to verify (its a Stephen Mitchell version). And i believe in the introduction he states that the TTC was written genderly neutral and the translators add he or she as they see fit. I also believe it states that you could interchange the he for she (or vice versa) if you want. It is pretty interesting to consider, because gender really has no effect on the ability to achieve harmony. But in western culture there is certain actions can seem more appropriate for a certain gender.

[surfingbudda]

Hey also just wondering, from the article I originally listed it says the purpose of cultivation is to convert our yin energy into yang so that eventually we are all yang and lose the yin/yang polarity. Is this true? I have never heard of this before, anyone know the details?

[Marblehead]

Are you referring to Hu Xuezhi?

 

I wish I could remember. It was one of the translations I checked out from a library many years ago. Hey, I don't even remember which library I checked it out of because at that time I had access to a number of libraries in my area.

[Marblehead]

Hey also just wondering, from the article I originally listed it says the purpose of cultivation is to convert our yin energy into yang so that eventually we are all yang and lose the yin/yang polarity. Is this true? I have never heard of this before, anyone know the details?

 

I wouldn't buy into this. It is my understanding that we are to rest in Yin. Through resting in Yin we build up a reserve of Yang so that when we are called upon to action even the tigers will run and hide.

 

Beside, I believe that we should keep a comforable harmony (balance, if you will) between the two. I try to live my life this way; active for a while then a rest period. It allows work to be much more enjoyable.

[dawei]

At birth, we are the most Yang; after that day, it is all downhill

 

Your actual practice to take away from here to add to there needs to consider the gender issues titled.

[dawei]

which is pretty interesting to see how one translation is obviously feminine and the other is entirely different and contains no gender qualities.

Consider that the oldest Guodian manuscript actually does not have many of the feminine or water symbols... Not that I want you to stop further research as I think ultimately these symbols are important.