Taoist Texts Posted January 5, 2015 ZZ - trans. by Legge (ctext) Yes I totally agree that ZZ provides the backdrop for LZ, but not for a real LZ but rather for already mythologised LZ. The real LZ is explicated in Wen-zi http://thetaobums.com/topic/37307-5-daode-the-virtue-of-the-way/?p=602039 with the last line of this chapter being a military-political paradigm Accomplish enough military victories to become famously invincible to scare off the aggressor, after that refrain from aggressive wars so as not to fall victim to hubris and overstretching the army and the economy. In this way you will comply with the will of Heaven. What is the will of Heaven or dao of Heaven? Well remember the bunch of commonsense folksy proverbs in part 1? they are there to demonstrate how the things work in this world, which is the dao of Heaven. The logic is 'all things are good in moderation so is aggressing and plundering'. Thats the dao. Of heaven. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crow With No Mouth Posted January 8, 2015 Welcome, CWNM It seems you have done the translation. Now, it is a matter of understand the philosophy behind it by one's own interpretation.....??? What do you think that the metaphor is hinting...??? Actually, the second line "will only make it spill" is a liberty I took. Literary translation for that line would have been "it's better to stop in time". In this case I liked the metaphor better as it is pretty obvious. Those 4 lines point to knowing when to stop and not over doing things. They also speak for moderation and at least for me warn against obsessing to reach perfection, which often just wastes time and energy and often even the results are worse (like a blunt blade). This to me is obvious for example when mixing music. After certain time my ears (and mind) get tired and I end up making decisions that actually make it sound worse, which can be heard very obviously after taking a break. In short enough is enough and too much is too much and the skill is to know when to stop. Sorry it took so long to answer. I was out of town for few days. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
