[TTC Study] Chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Laozi wrote Tao Te Ching while the negotiation character wú became popular replacing cang.....

....

 

If so then tao isn't a name and is a name. That's how I understand his pointe!

 

Can you show me the character for cang?

 

 

Though we may differ on translation of the phrases, I think we agree on this point (in bold) as you'll see.

 

Here is my translation (and understanding of the meaning) of the rest of the chapter. It's quite a bit different than others, but I think the grammar flows in the following direction:

 

 

07 故常無欲,

gù cháng wú yù ,

The sages of the past always maintained absence of desire

08 以觀其妙。

yĭ guān qí miào,

And so were able to observe 妙The Subtle Underlying Beauty (of life)

 

09 常有欲,

cháng yŏu yù,

“always, existing, desire”

Most people try to grasp it in the desire to possess it

10 以觀其徼。

yĭ guān qí jiăo.

Thereby only observing the surface (and names)

 

11 此兩者同出,

cĭ liăng zhě tóng chū ,

(In learning of the Dao today,) it is a mixture of these two (ways of knowing which speak to us and have) thus emerged (as the teachings of Dao)

 

12 而異名,

ér yì míng

Nevertheless, the names and concepts are so strange and esoteric (that they are inaccessible)

13 同謂之玄。

tóng wèi zhī xuán.

The competing names create more obscuration

14 玄之又玄，

xuán zhī yòu xuán

Mysteries become further mysterious

15 眾妙之門。

zhòng miào zhī mèn

And this becomes a gate between people and the beautiful subtleties of life.

 

 

 

So, going back to my earlier point, desireless and open observation is one way of knowing, while names and terminologies are the other. Both play a part in learning the Dao, but finite terminologies and paths are potentially misleading.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Harmonious Emptiness

[lienshan]

Can you show me the character for cang?

 

亡

 

I remembered wrong; the character is named wang and not cang

[lienshan]

07 故常無欲,

gù cháng wú yù ,

The sages of the past always maintained absence of desire

08 以觀其妙。

yĭ guān qí miào,

And so were able to observe 妙The Subtle Underlying Beauty (of life)

 

09 常有欲,

cháng yŏu yù,

“always, existing, desire”

Most people try to grasp it in the desire to possess it

10 以觀其徼。

yĭ guān qí jiăo.

Thereby only observing the surface (and names)

 

The two lines 5 and 6 are preceeded by the character 故 "therefore".

That'll say they are by logic the consequences of the lines 1 to 4 statements.

 

The grammatical structure of the lines 5 and 6 is in the Mawangdui version marked by two 也 ye characters:

 

常無欲 也 以觀其妙

常有欲 也 以觀其徼

 

The first three characters in the two lines are marked as a subject phrase to the verb 觀 "to observe".

That'll say the first three characters describe a person who is observing either mysteries or manifestations.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Yes, however, Yi 以 pretty much makes all of this apparent in the phrase.

[lienshan]

There were two standard phrases in pre-Qin classical chinese:

 

無 以 to not have whereby which

有 以 to have whereby which

 

The 也 characters in between in the Mawangdui version exclude to read the lines this way.

That'll say the desire occurs when observing the manifestations and doesn't occur when observing the mysteries.

 

I'm not familiar with the Han classical chinese, the language of the Received version, but reading your translation

I get the impression, that sages only observe the mysteries and everybody else only observe the manifestations?

[Harmonious Emptiness]

yes, the YI character here means "thereby." It's difficult to put all the senses given by the combination of words when translating this, however, it comes out close to "so long as there is no desire/whenever there is no desire, they observe/(know/experience) mysterious beauty.

Personally, I think Miao and De (ch. 28) are the same. I'm writing some commentary on Chapter 28 which will explain this further if it isn't yet perceived easily enough.

[lienshan]

Personally, I think Miao and De (ch. 28) are the same.

 

妙 miao occurs too in the last line so let's see. Here's how I read the end of Mawangdui version:

 

兩者同出異名同謂

It's a pair of the same origin, different parts of speech and the same meaning.

 

玄之又玄眾妙之門

Darkening dark and the gate of all mysteries.

 

The majority translates 異名 as "different names" but this doesn't match with the second line:

 

名可名也非恆名也

 

It's a name or to name. It isn't always the name.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

妙 miao occurs too in the last line so let's see. Here's how I read the end of Mawangdui version:

 

兩者同出異名同謂

It's a pair of the same origin, different parts of speech and the same meaning.

 

玄之又玄眾妙之門

Darkening dark and the gate of all mysteries.

 

The majority translates 異名 as "different names" but this doesn't match with the second line:

 

名可名也非恆名也

 

It's a name or to name. It isn't always the name.

 

I think that people miss the cadence that Lao Tzu creates here as in many other chapters. The comparisons lead up to a single point.

 

Dao that can be spoken of not true Dao

Title that can be designated not true title

Without name...

With name...

Without desire see Miào, (inner!) beauty

With desire see surface

 

兩者同出異名同謂

兩All of 者these 出appear 同together when 異different 名names are 同simultatneously 謂spoken

(see chapter 2 "by knowing beautiful, knowing ugliness; by knowing good, knowing not-good.")

 

玄之又玄

Deep Mystery becomes deeper, darker, and more mysterious

(又repeating 玄mystery)

 

zhòng miào zhī mèn

眾妙之門

All doors to 妙miào inner beauty.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

For the similarities between Miao (inner beauty), Xuan (deep mystery), and Dè, see the following from Chapter 28:

 

 

- my translations

 

Chapter 28

 

知其雄，

Know the male

守其雌，

Conserve the female

(Miao means mysterious subtle beauty, especially feminine(妙)subtlety and beauty)

為天下谿

Being preferential towards the great canyon under the heavens
為天下谿，

Being preferential towards the great canyon under the heavens

(the position of Wei at the beginning without another verb gives it this meaning rather than "be/make/do")

 

常德不離，

Thus De remains, never fleeing like a small bird

復歸於嬰兒。

"Returning to infancy"

(which suggests a baby boy needing his mother.. more on this later.. but the feminine imagery is still there, subtly, more subtly than with Miao)

 

知其白

Know the bright
守其黑，

Conserve the dark

(dark; mystery; absence of desires; Miao; Xuan. Xuan is used poetically as both dark and mystery at different times.)

 

為天下式。

Being preferential to the pattern under the heavens
為天下式，

Being preferential to the pattern under the heavens

(usually translated approx.“be an example to the world”, but see earlier comment about position of Wei)

常德不忒，

De will endure without fail

復歸於無極

Returning to the embrace of the Wu Ji, the great emptiness

 

(the allusions to embrace were set earlier, and so I have added it here as well, given the feminine allusions and imagery within which all of these phrases are saturated)

[lienshan]

I'm not ready to look at chapter 28 because I still struggle with reading the last lines of chapter 1

 

玄之又玄

Deep Mystery becomes deeper, darker, and more mysterious

(又repeating 玄mystery)

 

zhòng miào zhī mèn

眾妙之門

All doors to 妙miào inner beauty.

 

your vocabulary (又repeating 玄mystery) isn't like the standard (又 additional/more 玄 mysterious/dark)

 

"mysterious becoming more mysterious" or "darkening dark" are the two primary choices.

I prefer the last choise, because that's simply what I see when looking into a gate.

 

Your "All doors" is a grammatical incorrect translation.

The term to translate is (眾 multitude/crowd 妙 mystery/inner beauty) so speaking your language:

 

The gate of all inner beauties.

[lienshan]

Personally, I think Miao and De (ch. 28) are the same.

 

Miao 妙 (mysterious/subtle/inquisite) is the character in the Received version.

Miao 眇 (blind in one eye/miniscule) is the character in the Mawangdui version.

 

Jiao 徼 (frontier/border/patrol) is the contrasting character in the Received version.

suo Jiao 所噭 (that which shout) are the contrasting characters in the Mawangdui version.

 

I read Miao as describing the hole of a gate and Jiao/suo Jiao as describing the physical gate.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'm not ready to look at chapter 28 because I still struggle with reading the last lines of chapter 1

 

 

your vocabulary (又repeating 玄mystery) isn't like the standard (又 additional/more 玄 mysterious/dark)

 

"mysterious becoming more mysterious" or "darkening dark" are the two primary choices.

I prefer the last choise, because that's simply what I see when looking into a gate.

"Deep Mystery becomes deeper, darker, and more mysterious" was my translation. "repeating, mystery" was just added in brackets to show the words that are being translated for English.

 

Your "All doors" is a grammatical incorrect translation.

The term to translate is (眾 multitude/crowd 妙 mystery/inner beauty) so speaking your language:

 

The gate of all inner beauties.

眾 also means many and numerous.

 

妙之門 means "gate of Miao," "subtle gate", because zhi modifies it's following character with its preceding character.

We could assume that zhong/numerous/crowd is modifying Miao to mean "crowd of subtlety" and thus "gate" is modified by "all subtleties/inner beauties" to make "gate of all inner beauties," or, we can see that "Miao gate" becomes one thing which is modified by "crowd/numerous," to become "numerous - doors to inner beauty." These both work fine, but at the same time, we have look at how this comes about and appears in the lines of the Chapter:

 

"Dao that can be spoken of not true Dao

Title that can be designated not true title

Without name...

With name...

Without desire see Miào, (inner!) beauty

With desire see surface

 

兩者同出異名同謂

兩All of 者these 出appear 同together when 異different 名names are 同simultatneously 謂spoken

(see chapter 2 "by knowing beautiful, knowing ugliness; by knowing good, knowing not-good.")

 

玄之又玄

Deep Mystery becomes deeper, darker, and more mysterious

(又repeating 玄mystery) "

 

zhòng miào zhī mèn

眾妙之門

(the gate of all inner beauties)

 

Looking at these lines, what is the gate? Is it a gate that creates access to the inner beauties? or the gate which is standing between us and inner beauties? Is it a gate that exists before "兩All of 者these 出appear 同together when 異different 名names are 同simultatneously 謂spoken" or does it appear after the different names are simultaneously spoken? Is it only after the names are simultaneously spoken that we find ourselves on one side or the other side of the gate?

 

Well, while were thinking about that we read the next line which begins Chapter Two: "When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created."

 

There is a seamless thread woven through Chapter One into Chapter Two, like one Christmas tree with a number of self-sufficient ornaments which can be appreciated on their own even apart from the tree. It's important also not to "miss the forest for the trees" or in this case, not to "miss the tree for the ornaments."

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Miao 妙 (mysterious/subtle/inquisite) is the character in the Received version.

Miao 眇 (blind in one eye/miniscule) is the character in the Mawangdui version.

 

Jiao 徼 (frontier/border/patrol) is the contrasting character in the Received version.

suo Jiao 所噭 (that which shout) are the contrasting characters in the Mawangdui version.

 

眇Miniscule would be the effective meaning here "without desire they see the miniscule/subtle"

Also 眇眇miaomiao means "distant or remote" as well as "sublime."

 

suo Jiao 所噭 (that which shout) in this context would suggest "that which is obvious" and so was made altered to "徼 (frontier/border) surface/superficial."

 

 

I read Miao as describing the hole of a gate and Jiao/suo Jiao as describing the physical gate.

 

Again, I think the "ornaments on the tree" which can stand alone with their own meaning are beautiful and offer much to be contemplated.

[lienshan]

Miao occurs in one more chapter; in the last line of chapter 27:

 

是謂要妙 in the Received version: This is called the necessary mystery / the mystery of necessity

 

是胃眇要 in the Mawangdui version: This is called the mysterious necessity / the necessity of mystery

 

It looks as if the 妙 Miao is a noun while the 眇 Miao is an adjective / or are they both nouns?

 

It makes me remember a wellknown english phrase: to make a virtue of necessity

Edited April 5, 2013 by lienshan

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Ha ha, yes it's sort of both. An adjective for something else which is not stated and so using the adjective for the noun?

 

I think Chapter 27 would have to be discussed more at length for me to make much sense of how I understand the character in this place.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Harmonious Emptiness

[lienshan]

Personally, I think Miao and De (ch. 28) are the same.

.

You have convinced me, Harmonious

The character Miao must have had the meaning virtue/virtuous/virtuously/virtuousness when Laozi was writing.

 

The chapter 27 term is either the virtue of necessity or the necessity of virtue

 

The mother of everything is by logic not virtuous.

Everything at the beginning / the beginning of heaven and earth are both terms expressing virtuousness.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

For chapter 27, the chapter ends talking about how the non-virtuous are valued as teachers by those who strive for perfection, and if a person does not care for these "teachers and assets" then "to consider this man wise would be a great illusion." Followed by

 

是 謂 要 妙 。

It is correct to say that this is essential to the secret of life

 

 

What is "the secret of life?" Well, chapter 27 is talking about "聖 人 常 善 sages of unrelenting virtue" so virtue and wisdom, as modeled on the Dao (De is virtue modeled on Dao, sort of the "son" of Dao, perhaps "the image of the First Divine Lord" in Chapter 4 which is described as "profound depth!") and illustrated in this chapter, would (seem to) be their "secret of life."

 

[sorry for the formatting here, I'm working on writing something more readable ]

[lienshan]

以觀其妙。

And so were able to observe 妙The Subtle Underlying Beauty (of life)

 

 

是 謂 要 妙 。

It is correct to say that this is essential to the secret of life

 

 

What is "the secret of life?"

 

"the secret of life" is what swindlers sell

 

(sorry, if you fell personally offended, but that's my answer if anybody asked me that question)

 

Your chapter 1 miao 妙 is translated "The Subtle Underlying Beauty (of life)"

Your chapter 27 miao 妙 is translated "the secret of life"

 

I think that the simple word "virtue" is what the author had in mind when brushing 妙 on the bamboo slip.

女 means "breasts/woman" and 少 means "little/small" and together is "an innocent girl" a nearby reading.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Yes, it's a interesting word which does not exist in English with the same versatility - subtle, mysterious, feminine, beauty, wonder

 

yet also in subtle mysterious feminine beauty and wonder there is a wisdom and virtue, and all of this can suggest something more and yet more specific when used in certain contexts, such as following Chapter 27's descriptions.

 

I see the combination of woman 女 and small 少 to suggest subtle femininity or something of that sort. It's sort of an indefinable term.

[lienshan]

It's a tao or to tao; it isn't always the tao.

It's a name or to name; it isn't always the name.

In the beginning of everything isn't a name.

The mother of everything is a name.

As a consequence:

It is always desireless with regard to its virtue.

She is always desiring with regard to her offsprings.

It's a pair of the same origin.

They are different parts of speech having the same meaning.

Darkening dark and The gate of the numerous virtuous.

 

Commentaries:

 

In the beginning of everything means for example in the beginning of dark.

Darkening dark is a term showing Laozi's use of irony!

 

The gate of the numerous virtuous is in the same way to be read as an ironic term.

The mother of everything, litterally understood, makes all other mothers redundant.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Having a bit of trouble understanding what mean. Maybe write it out in your native tongue first? Or use more longer description rather than shorter terms?

 

 

It's a tao or to tao; it isn't always the tao.

(the Tao that is, nor the Tao that does, are not always the Tao?)

 

It's a name or to name; it isn't always the name.

(names that are named, are not always the name?)

 

In the beginning of everything isn't a name.

(In the beginning of everything is the absence of names?)

 

The mother of everything is a name.

As a consequence:

It is always desireless with regard to its virtue.

She is always desiring with regard to her offsprings.

It's a pair of the same origin.

They are different parts of speech having the same meaning.

Darkening dark and The gate of the numerous virtuous.

 

"numerous virtuous" - as in "many virtues?" "great virtue?"

 

 

In Chapter Six, to translate "valley spirit," which in the Mawangdui text actually shows "washing, spirit," I'm using "pure numinous force." While we're at it, I might as well say that I think this "pure numinous force" is also De (as described in Chapter 10 and Chapter 28)!

 

So I think in this case "gate of numinous virtue" would be a great translation.

 

Note that numinous is very different from "numerous" though most people are not too familiar with the term.

Edited April 6, 2013 by Harmonious Emptiness

[lienshan]

It's a name or to name; it isn't always the name.

(names that are named, are not always the name?)

 

In the beginning of everything isn't a name.

(In the beginning of everything is the absence of names?)

 

The mother of everything is a name.

 

The character 名 ming is both a noun (a name) and a verb (to name).

Modern english has eigth parts of speech while pre-Qin classical chinese had only two:

nouns (names) and not nouns (not names) = you ming 有名 and wu ming 無名

 

A noun / name is for example "the mother of everything"

 

A not noun / not name is for example "in the beginning of everything"

 

The character 始 shi was in pre-Qin classical chinese a verb: to begin

It became a time-term when followed by a 也 ye as in the Mawangdui version.

I've choosen to use the biblic term "in the beginning" to express the not noun time aspect.

 

The main pointe of the Mawangdui chapter 1 version is, that tao is neither creating nor the creator.

That'll say neither a not noun nor a noun.

That'll say the statement of the first line is false and Laozi is by logic quoting somebody else

[dawei]

For chapter 27, the chapter ends talking about how the non-virtuous are valued as teachers by those who strive for perfection, and if a person does not care for these "teachers and assets" then "to consider this man wise would be a great illusion." Followed by

 

是 謂 要 妙 。

It is correct to say that this is essential to the secret of life

 

 

What is "the secret of life?" Well, chapter 27 is talking about "聖 人 常 善 sages of unrelenting virtue" so virtue and wisdom, as modeled on the Dao (De is virtue modeled on Dao, sort of the "son" of Dao, perhaps "the image of the First Divine Lord" in Chapter 4 which is described as "profound depth!") and illustrated in this chapter, would (seem to) be their "secret of life."

 

[sorry for the formatting here, I'm working on writing something more readable ]

 

Interesting chapter to discuss... maybe in your 'practice' area? I would encourage you to see the original Mawangdui version too.

[dawei]

The main pointe of the Mawangdui chapter 1 version is, that tao is neither creating nor the creator.

That'll say neither a not noun nor a noun.

That'll say the statement of the first line is false and Laozi is by logic quoting somebody else

 

Maybe consider this:

道可, 道非, 恆道

名可, 名非, 恆名

 

As to quoting somebody else... You don't say...

 

I think you would enjoy researching the writings of Shen Zi: Shen Dao and Shen Buhai. I find that Laozi is borrow or re-organizing the thought of Shenzi in many places.

 

Shen Dao has:

道勝則名不彰

 

Shen Buhai has:

名自正也，事自定也。是以有道者自名而正之，隨事而定之也

 

The use of 自 in Shen Buhai is important. Later we see it in Laozi very similarly and as 自然. Also, 自名 was originally in Ch. 42 but was replaced by 為稱. The relationship of 自 and 為 is one to note too.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I find that Laozi is borrow or re-organizing the thought of Shenzi in many places.

 

'scuse my wikipedia reliance here, but Shen Dao and Shen Buhai both show up later than the Guodian manuscripts, no?