Chapter 71 of DDJ

[Eric Woon]

Chapter 71: 知不知上，不知知病。夫唯病病，是以不病。圣人不病，以其病病。夫唯病病，是以不病。

Chapter sub-title: Admit one’s mistake readily

^[LP194a]It is rather unusual for someone to acknowledge (知¹) that he had not clearly understood certain things (不知²) and openly declares it as a fact (author’s supplementation to知¹). Nevertheless, this is absolutely the correct attitude (上). ^[LP194b]Whoever does not understand something or certain knowledge (不知³), he better checks it up or carries out research (知⁴) in order to remedy his shortcomings (病¹). ^[LP194c]In humility, he admits (夫唯¹) there is a possibility of a personal oversight (病²), which is indeed an inadequacy in knowledge (病³). Henceforth (是以¹), he will not fret, or be apprehensive anymore (病⁴).

^[LP195a]A humble leader (圣人) will not be unduly worried over his blunder (不病⁵), since he readily confessed that (以其) his mistake (病⁶) is purely a fault of his own[1] (病⁷). ^[LP195b]In view of the fact that he had openly affirmed (夫唯²) that his slip-up (病⁸) is a personal lapse in judgment (病⁹), thereafter, he corrects that error immediately (author’s supplementation). ^[LP195c]This is the reason why despite having stumbled in his duty (是以²), he rarely feels fidgety (病¹⁰) about having committed a boo-boo (author’s supplementation).

 

Notes:

1)      There are 4 知, 10病, 2夫唯and 2是以. The superscripts indicate its sequence number.

2)      知 : acknowledge, understood, understand and check it up and carry out research.

3)      病 : shortcomings, oversight, inadequacy in knowledge, fret or apprehensive, blunder, mistake, fault, slip-up, lapse in judgment and finally, fidgety.

4)      All thanks to the beauty of the English language, 知 and病 can be explained in multiple, elegant and stylish terms.

5)      Please see picture attached below where the source of the meaning of 病 was obtained from the 《汉典》 Han dictionary at www.zdic.net.

6)      In modern Chinese, the character 病 is often used to describe ill or sick. 2500 years ago, where there were around 8,000 Chinese characters, the equivalent for the English words mentioned in (3) were non-existence. This was why the character 病 was a generic text used to describe these English words’ equivalent.

7)      Perhaps, you might agree with me now, 99% of today Chinese readers simply cannot understand classical Chinese, especially Pre-Qin Chinese characters.

8)      This is a piece of advice. Whenever you read a piece or a string of Chinese texts that does not fall in as modern vernacular Chinese language, please refer to the Han dictionary, diligently. Short of that, you are certainly, not able to get a proper understanding of what they mean. This is especially so, if it is Pre-Qin Chinese.

9)      To rub salt into wounds, by now, after having read the above English translation, you can beat all the Chinese flat out, even the top 1%. Why? Human, by nature is lazy. I doubt any one of them would do the same level of research as I did.

I am a perfectionist. This is why despite having written a series of books all related to DDJ, I did not publish any one of them for a simple reason. I am not happy with some of my translations of these 5254 pre-Qin Chinese characters. Today (Mar 26, 2018), I am fully satisfied. Yet, it still has to go through a proofreading process before it is ready for publication. Well, all the 13 book cover designs were completed in advance on Feb 14, 2018, Valentine ’s Day. It is sort of putting the cart in-front of the horse.    

 

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[1] His subordinates (in fact, just any individual) would surely jump in to help him resolve the issue.

[Marblehead]

Nice work Eric.  Yes, you are taking advantage of the English language, aren't you?

 

 

Reminds me of Nietzsche in that he was disappointed with the German language as there were no words he could use to express his thoughts and concepts so he made up (created) his own German words for those expressions.

 

[Eric Woon]

1 hour ago, Marblehead said:

Nice work Eric.  Yes, you are taking advantage of the English language, aren't you?

 

 

Reminds me of Nietzsche in that he was disappointed with the German language as there were no words he could use to express his thoughts and concepts so he made up (created) his own German words for those expressions.

 

Yes, precisely that. I find that the English language is the most beautiful language. Of course, it has at least one critical weakness. That is, its vocabulary is far too large in number. A simple word 病 can give rise to more than a dozen words or phrases that allow me to precisely deliver what is in my thought.   

[Marblehead]

3 minutes ago, Eric Woon said:

Yes, precisely that. I find that the English language is the most beautiful language. Of course, it has at least one critical weakness. That is, its vocabulary is far too large in number. A simple word 病 can give rise to more than a dozen words or phrases that allow me to precisely deliver what is in my thought.   

That's one of the things I look for when reading a translation of Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu - how much transliteration was used?  For me, if the translation/transliteration doesn't remain consistent with the flow of Tao I will question it if possible.

 

I'm not doing that much with our on-going study of Chuang Tzu by Mair because it is a given for me that he did a lot of transliteration.  I basically just want to present the study.  Taoist Texts and Stosh have been doing a good job at questioning the the sections as we move through the text.

 

 

[Stosh]

I like the use of boo boo.  Well chosen. 

This translation you have presented , is nice and structured , it makes a sensible rendering , its fine. 

 

However reading the other translations , I take them as indicating that one should , yes , be aware of their shortcomings, but in a position of leadership one may have to gloss over them  re Machiavelli  being a practical approach to leadership) , if not quite sweet to hear. ( Gibbs translation ) 

Another rendering seems to suggest that the sage , is less corrupt , simply because he is tired of the self-defeating nature of his own corruption.  Which seems like a spiritually justified  attitude. ( Correa's translation ) 

So while all of these may indeed be justified. I feel most comfortable with one of them , the last. It resonates with me,

and corruption has connotations which broadly covers falsity , illness, and maladministration, in one comprehensive swoop. 

 

But , like I said , I appreciate the rendering as it stands too.