lienshan Posted October 16, 2008 Hi from Denmark I'm interested in the Guodian Laozi ... the oldest known version of Dao De Jing dating 315 BCE I've translated book A into danish language and published the text on a blog My source is pics of the bamboo slips at the bottom of this site: http://www.daoisopen.com/GuodianLaozi.html There I too found a link to this forum lienshan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Procurator Posted October 16, 2008 Hi from Denmark I'm interested in the Guodian Laozi ... the oldest known version of Dao De Jing dating 315 BCE I've translated book A into danish language and published the text on a blog So. What is it about? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lienshan Posted October 18, 2008 So. What is it about? The Guodian Laozi consists of Dao De Jing chapters and part-chapters written on bamboo slips, and contains about 40% of the the received Dao De Jing text. When I started to translate the text I thought, like anyboby else, that the Guodian Laozi was a collection of special quotations, choosen of some reason from an already existing Dao De Jing. Now I've changed my mind. The Guodian Laozi is one of the philosophical manuscripts from which the Dao De Jing was compiled probably at the Jinxia Academy in Qi about 300-275 BCE. The Guodian Laozi is this way an very early example of pre-daoist thoughts written before scholars (shi) from various schools agreed on the philosophical daoist platform, that we today know as the Mawangdui Dao De Jing. lienshan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Procurator Posted October 20, 2008 The Guodian Laozi is one of the philosophical manuscripts from which the Dao De Jing was compiled probably at the Jinxia Academy in Qi about 300-275 BCE. The Guodian Laozi is this way an very early example of pre-daoist thoughts written before scholars (shi) from various schools agreed on the philosophical daoist platform, that we today know as the Mawangdui Dao De Jing. lienshan Thanks. That is all well and good, but what does it actually say? If you were to summarize its meaning ina a couple of sentences, what would it be? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taiji Bum Posted October 21, 2008 Welcome to da Bums. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lienshan Posted October 21, 2008 If you were to summarize its meaning ina a couple of sentences, what would it be? The interval between heaven and earth is like a double-action piston bellows How? Emptied but not crunched up When the position is changed all the more emit Arriving at the zenith of emptiness Defending in the middle sure-footed All living things on the side come into being to live just waiting to return Heaven and Dao rotate around and each one return to their origin The above Guodian text corresponds to two Dao De Jing quotations from the chapters 5 and 16. The double-action piston bellows was invented about 350 BCE. The principle of the apparatus is in short, that the space in the double-action piston bellows consist of two spaces separated in the middle, so that emptying one space is filling the other space at the same time. The separating middle inside a double-action piston bellows is connected with the handle, like a sage is connected with heaven and Dao. hi DarinHamel Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taiji Bum Posted October 21, 2008 Hi! How do you feel about translating the rest of it into English? You just did a fantastic job with that passage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
