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Chapter of the Week: #33 [Archive]
chronicles of the tao.
deng ming dao
and i like a little clive cussler now and again.
deng ming dao
and i like a little clive cussler now and again.
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Chapter 33
He who knows others is clever;
He who knows himself has discernment.
He who overcomes others has force;
He who overcomes himself is strong.
He who knows contentment is rich;
He who perseveres is a man of purpose;
He who does not lose his station will endure;
He who lives out his days has had a long life.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
(This turned out to be a long comment, so I put a Pithy part first, followed by The rest...)
Pithy part...
Desire (likes and dislikes) pulls awareness away from [chref=16]one's roots[/chref], and toward it's 'objects'. 'Life' is [chref=14]the thread running through the way[/chref]. Each action, no matter how mundane, is a 'bead' on that thread. Care given to each bead benefits the whole. At least knowing when our 'care' is flagging helps us reel the mind back to the bead at hand. We lose our [chref=33]station[/chref] when we are not even aware that we have drifted away. Desire has then captured our whole consciousness; [chref=40]turning back[/chref] to [chref=59]the way of deep roots and firm stems[/chref] becomes all the more [chref=63]difficult[/chref], if not impossible.
The rest...
This chapter give a good example of a point I'm always trying to make. Namely, the 'true' meaning of the Tao Te Ching lies in the eye of the reader, not in any particular translation. Of course, some translations (or 'originals') slant things to conform to what is politically correct in a particular era. How do we know when something is thus slanted? In the end, only our mind can guide us... 'enlighten' us. What we 'see' reflects our private agenda (needs and fears). We tend to look out there for answers, when in truth the answers we seek come via 'seeing' ourselves. 'Seeing' ourselves as we truly are (enlightenment) comes easily if we use what we believe we 'see' as being all about us (our mind, our agenda), and not about what we think we 'see' out there.
Anyway, I just compared the Ma Wang Tui version with the Standard one - geez! Both D.C. Lau and Victor Mair translated it the same way which leads me to think the 'problem' lies with the original and not with the translation. Lines 6 and 8 of Ma Wang Tui are especially curious:
5 Contentment is wealth
6 Forceful conduct is willfulness
7 Not losing one's rightful place is to endure
8 To die but not be forgotten is longevity
So I went to Zhongwen to check out the original Chinese for the standard version. We put this on our paltry resources page because it gives a very simply way to check out the Tao Te Ching in the original Chinese, character by character and the translation for each. First, here is a fairly word for word translation of the line 8 of both versions: (Note: The whole Tao Te Ching is written in similar terse fashion.)
Standard Version: To die, but not flee is longevity
Ma Wang Tui: To die, not forgotten is longevity
Now, what does this mean? What do you want it to mean? To die but not be forgotten version certainly conforms to the common urge to 'have a place in history' or to be remembered at least by one's descendants. But, why waste words on this common human desire? To do so seems very un-Taoist to my mind. To die, but not flee is longevity conforms much better to my experience from several different angles. For example, to surrender my agenda (a type of dying) but not abandon the situation (fleeing) is another way of thinking about [chref=61]being still [and] taking the lower position[/chref], or being [chref=8]like water which does not contend [/chref]. After all, in life we [chref=22]contend[/chref]; in death we don't.
Next, let's look at line 6. The Chinese characters in both the Standard and Ma Wang Tui original manuscripts are the same for the second line, but DC Lau translated this line differently when he did his Ma Wang Tui translation. There, he put it the same way as other translators have.
Literally the Chinese translates to something like "strong stubborn doing has will / aspiration". Lau puts this more poetically in his first (standard) translation as: "He who perseveres is a man of purpose". In his Ma Wang Tui translation he and the others put it as: "Forceful conduct is willfulness". So, which is correct? What is the difference?
Here are a few observations. First, the later translation (Ma Wang Tui) seems out of context with the other lines (5, 6, 7, 8 ) at the end of chapter 33, even though it may conform, at first glance, to the literally meaning of the characters.
The first two characters, qiangxing translates to: "force one's way in" which on the face of it, agrees with the translators. However, the qiang also means stubborn. Taken this way, the line could be read as something like "persevere one's way through life" instead. You see, forceful, stubborn, and persevere all mean the same thing, depending on whose eyes are 'seeing' the action. In other words, persevere is when you stubbornly do what someone wants you to do. Stubborn is when you stubbornly do what someone does not want you to do.
Now what about the last character, youzhi? This translates to "have will", "aspiration". This boils down to and is connected with 'life meaning', isn't it? Taken together this second line can say something like: "Persevering one's way through life gives life meaning".
So what is the bottom line, the truth. Based on my life experience, "Persevering one's way through life gives life meaning" is what it is 'really' saying. Ha! This sheds light on how much human reality is a case of the blind leading the blind. What ever 'light' we seek, we must look within to 'see' it. I love it. It is so democratic.
MMmm..... I've run out of bubble juice. One final thought: As the later version seems more Taoist than the earlier, it may be that Taoism became more tightly Taoist as civilization evolved. As time went on the view naturally became more consolidated. Personally, heretic that I am, I find a few chapters could use a little more Taoist consolidation and focus.