I first read Lao Tzu's classic about four years ago, but, like a stone falling into the sea, it only made a tiny splash. So I was surprised to find how much difference Stephen Mitchell's more sympathetic version made. Though he doesn't speak any Chinese and calls his book a version of the Tao, as opposed to a translation, Mitchell, as a long time Zen practitioner, is able to make the spiritual advice of the epigrams shine through much more clearly. Naturally, this approach risks projecting developments in 7th century CE China back into 5th BCD China. But if this is what it takes to make the text speak to us, then I am all for it. This perspective was cemented for me by some of Mitchell's comments in the brief interview printed at the back of this edition.
One other example: All these translations described the Master as a proto-fascist leader. Chapter 3 reads: "The Master rules by emptying people's minds and filling their bellies, weakening their will and strengthening their bones. He sees to it that they lack knowledge and desire and makes sure that those with knowledge don't dare to act." I knew that couldn't be correct. Lao-Tzu had to be talking about showing people what my old Zen master called "don't-know mind" -- the empty, luminous, infinitely open mind of realization. Anyone who has had even a glimpse of that would understand what this "not-knowing" refers to. So in my version that passage reads:
The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.
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