[TTC Study] Chapter 70 of the Tao Teh Ching

[lienshan]

The MWD A and Fu Yi text have 'Ren' (人) instead of (天下). Give that a go

The Mawangdui B version of chapter 70:

 

吾言 易知也 易行也

而天下 莫之能知也 莫之能行也

 

My words are what's easy to practice of what's easy to know.

You in the world is what no one is able to practice of what no one is able to know.

 

The Mawangdui A version of chapter 70:

 

吾言 甚易知也 甚易行也

而人 莫之能知也 莫之能行也

 

My words are what's very easy to practice of what's very easy to know.

But a man is what no one is able to practice of what no one is able to know.

 

The A version has in the first line two extra 甚 'very'

which mark the following 易 as 'easy' and not as 'change'.

 

The A version has in the second line 人 instead of 天下

The syntax of the line is what's called 'the exposure of the object' equal to 'the underlining of the object'.

The object is placed in the front of the sentence and is repeated by 之 preceeding the verb by general rule:

 

而人 莫之能知也 莫之能行也 is equal to 而 莫人能知也 莫人能行也

 

The syntax of the B version is the same and that's why I choose 'you in the world' as the object translation.

The alternative treating only 天下 'in the world' as the object seems wrong gramatically,

because I think that an object meaning 'the world' would be expressed 天地 (heaven and earth).

 

My reading is:

That one person's words can reach everybody but everybody can't meet this one person in person.

What counts is thus 'who you are' and not 'what you are' e.g. what clothes you wear.

The clothes were very important in the confucian philosophy as symboles of the rites.

This chapter 70 might relate to 'Black Robes', one of the Guodian bamboo slips texts?

Edited September 16, 2011 by lienshan

[Marblehead]

The clothes were very important in the confucian philosophy as symboles of the rites.

This chapter 70 might relate to 'Black Robes', one of the Guodian bamboo slips texts?

 

This is interesting because the Confucian ideals of colors of robes had not yet been established during Lao Tzu's lifetime. It was likely speaking to the shamanistic rituals.

 

But then Chuang Tzu, when commenting to this concept did point directly to the Confucian ideals.

[lienshan]

Lao Tzu's lifetime.

From year ? To year ?

[Marblehead]

From year ? To year ?

 

Hehehe. No, you are not going to pin me down on this.

 

My understanding is that Lao Tzu (if he really ever existed) was at least 60 years older than Confucius. Highly unlikely that they ever met or that Lao Tzu ever knew of Confucius. However, Confucius would have known of Lao Tzu and of Taoist thought.