Paperback. White title on the blue cover.

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A very well kept book, please view the photographs. Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching is one of the most important and profound texts of world literature. A guide to transcending everyday appearances and dilemmas in order to find peace in the immortal spirit of Tao, the book is divided into eighty-one short sections that are both eloquent and inspiring. This edition of Arthur Waley’s definitive translation includes a comprehensive introduction, commentary, and notes section and offers the reader a perfect introduction to this timeless spiritual document.

Arthur Waley’s brilliant and definitive translation of one of the foremost of all mystical books, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, has become a modern classic in its own right. Unlike previous translations, it is founded not on the medieval commentaries but on a close study of all the early Chinese literature, and it provides a singular example of authoritative scholarship skillfully blended with brilliant, precise writing. In his introduction, Dr. Waley gives an extensive scholarly account of Chinese thought down to the end of the third century B.C. Here, the author presents a full picture of Chinese prehistory, early philosophy, and literature, showing the original, lofty conception of Taoism before the gradual corruption through the course of centuries, tracing this conflict of philosophies and its background of politics.

Review: Waley is of course a very well known academic and translator of many Chinese works. For the highly telegraphic form of the original, terse formulation, my favorite is S. Addiss S. Lombardo’s who, as they say, used Anglo-Saxon monosyllables keeping to the bare bones of the translation to English. They avoided gender specific pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ which the Chinese does not have. They attempt to translate and not interpret or explain nor paraphrase. Beautifully printed with ink calligraphy of Addis. My other favorite Tao te ching is trans. by David Hinton, who is a top trans. of classical Chinese poetry and literature, a scholar and poet in his own right. Hinton brings out subtle points of a secular spiritual nature which he came to see embodied in Classical Chinese poetry.