Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)

This book is one of the fundamental texts of civilization. It is distinctly Chinese, yet it now belongs to the world. Or at least it should belong to anyone interested in a unique and inviting perspective on the world. Of course, English language readers have a huge number of translations to choose from, but of the several that I’ve read, this is my favorite. Ames is the China scholar, while the late David Hall comes out of the traditions of process philosophy and pragmatism. Together, they bring a sense of scholarly precision about the source and context of the original texts (and sources and completeness always becomes an issue with a text this old and revered) along with a perspective about how we can understand this work in the contemporary world. For instance, they identify the concept of the focus and field as a central metaphor in the work. Their commentaries on each chapter often refer to ideas familiar to current readers as consistent with process philosophy and pragmatism. (Daoism isn’t consistently with a static metaphysics, that’s for sure.) The commentary helps readers grasp the often allusive words and implicit references in the text that would otherwise leave readers baffled and confused. For contemporary readers from the West, the text communicates in terms of metaphor and allusion that are alien to our normal way of thinking. This is how they define their project: We will argue that the defining purpose of the Daodejing is bringing into focus and sustaining a productive disposition that allows for the fullest appreciation of those specific things and events that constitute one’s field of experience. The project, simply put, is to get the most out of what each of us is: a quantum of unique experience. It is making this life significant. Ames, Roger; Hall, David (2010-05-12). Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation (Kindle Locations 285-288). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. There are no doubt many fine translations available for this classic, and each one no doubt sheds insight and re-creates the intention of the text, but this one is my reigning favorite. I feel like I’m viewing a new field with two trusted guides who help me gain the proper focus.

I have quite a few books on Daoism with at least 7 different translations of the Daodejing. So, I was hesitant to acquire yet another translation. However, Roger Ames name kept popping up in various blogs. Ultimately, I began to feel that I should look into his work. And I have not been disappointed. I found a short essay online and viewed one or two online videos of his lectures. I decided to purchase this book partly because of my lifelong interest in Daoist thought and partly because I felt Ames might have different perspective. To be sure, this is not just another labor in translation. It goes far beyond that. Ames approaches this translation with the depth and rigor that one might expect of a western philosopher. This might be off-putting to some students of the Daodejing as we generally tend to want simplicity in our translations. However, Ames does not go into this depth simply for the sake of emulating western philosophy. What makes this work unique is the interest Ames has in Linguistics and how language shapes and forms our world view. So, equipped with his knowledge of language and philosophy in general he sets about translating the Daodejing. So that the reader is prepared for the translation, the firat 50ish pages of this work are an intense explication of certain daoist concepts introducing the unusual use of certain words and phrases that have specific philosophical meaning that are used later in the analysis of the 81 chapters of the Daodejing. These well developed concepts open the reader to a much broader understanding of the passages. This book does much to bridge eastern and western thought. It is a must read for those with more of a philosophical interest in the Daodejing.

The Dao, like any esoteric writing, is inherently difficult to translate. So reading multiple translations helps reveal more of the essence of the original text. This edition provides a history of the Dao and takes some recently discovered translations into account. This is fascinating and a helpful context for understanding the work as an historical work that evolved over centuries through many contributors. To their credit, the authors treat the Dao as a serious philosophical work on par with Western philosophy, a welcome relief from the perspective that something so short and essential could compare with the weighty tomes of Western thought. This academic approach is helpful in an intellectual sense but it's a bit like some literary criticism of poetry; too much explaining can obscure the essence. The authors genuinely admire the Dao but the academic nature of the book makes me wonder if it really touches them. Perhaps it does but they excluded that dimension to keep to a more academic approach. In any case, this leads to translations that feel a little flat, that don't fully capture the essence. It can be said that good poetry feels like a transmission. When we read it, something happens in us that bypasses our analytical processes. The essence of the poem "arrives" in us as a feeling in our deeper sense of beingness. We may not even have an intellectual understanding of the poem, but that doesn't matter if the poem has that transmissive quality. This is when we read poetry in our own language. Translated poetry has to find new words to transmit the essence of the original, always a daunting task. The same can be said of the Dao, only more strongly because the Dao is concerned with the deepest truths about the nature of reality. So the measure of a particular translation of the Dao, an admittedly highly subjective measure, is how well it transmits its essence. By this measure, Ames and Hall's translation is at least adequate, though often not inspiring. Still, for those of us who want to draw on multiple translations of the Dao, this book should be one of them, more for its historical and textural contributions than its translations.

Original copy. Nice

Per chi cerca una spiegazione chiara e ben scritta di questa opera fondamentale, questa è l'edizione migliore. L'introduzione spiega i termini-chiave usati in modo ricorrenti nel testo. Poi c'è il testo cinese, con rimandi a note filologiche e varianti, e la traduzione, capitolo per capitolo. Subito dopo la spiegazione di ogni aforisma. Utile e ben fatta.

Great book, very thought provoking

Unknown

Wonderful publication, service and quality.