Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
by Lao Tzu, D. C. Lau
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Book Summary Information
Author: D. C. Lau, Lao TzuEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-05
ISBN: 014044131X
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Product features:
- Penguin Classics)
- Tao Te Ching (
- Classic
- Penguin
- Classics)
Book Reviews of Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
Book Review: "The Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way..."
Summary: 5 Stars
TAO TE CHING is ascribed to Lao-Tzu ("The Old Boy"), an approximate contemporary of Confucius, who when asked to summarize his own philosophy, produced this incredible little volume before vanishing into the trackless wastes of central Asia. Long considered by Westerners to be the very essence of Oriental inscrutability, TAO TE CHING attempts to quantify the immeasurable and speak the ineffable. The Old Boy is far less opaque than he is accused of being; it is simply that human language is too limited to concretize the ideas of TAO TE CHING. Many people have attempted to describe the Tao (pronounced "Dow" or "Taw" depending on the local dialect). No one has yet succeeded. The mere act of description is a delimitation. Conceptually linked to flowing water or a candle flame, Tao is the natural order of things (but even that fails to suffice). The Tao, like Quantum Physics, must be grasped intuitively.
The Book of the Way had a grand effect on Chinese Confucianism, on Japanese Shinto, and on Indian Buddhism as they spread throughout the Far East. Lao-Tzu's spare, clear and indescribable vision ultimately gave rise to Zen, with which it shares the necessity of direct experience. Neither religion nor philosophy, TAO TE CHING is one of the most brilliant and enigmatic writings to come from the mind of man.
This edition of TAO TE CHING was the first I ever read as a zealous young seeker after the Mysteries (i.e., a self-important, pompous high-schooler, circa 1977). Although there are many, many translations of the Old Boy's book, and even though some of them are less academic, more accessible, and more contemporary, the smell of aloeswood permeates this slim paperback. This particular take on the Tao has an elegance and an erudition that is very much in keeping with the Orient.
More Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology) reviews:
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Summary of Tao Te Ching (Penguin Books available free when packaged with Damrosch World Literature Anthology)
Traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius (551-479 BC), it is now thought that the work was compiled in about the fourth century BC. An anthology of wise sayings, it offers a model by which the individual can live rather than explaining the human place in the universe. The moral code it encourages is based on modesty and self-restraint, and the rewards reaped for such a life are harmony and flow of life.Poetry Books
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