In line 3, the standard text has “Have the people regard death gravely and not migrate far.” The absence of the negative pu in the Ma-wang-tui texts might be copy error; but the line makes good sense as it stands, since “putting migrating far from their minds” (yüan-hsi) nicely parallels “regarding death gravely” (chung-ssu).
The “Although”s (sui) at the heads of lines 4 and 5 are explicit in the standard text and simply implied in the Ma-wang-tui text, and in the standard text lines 9 and 10 are reversed.
Angus Graham points out that the second half of this chapter (lines 7-13) are cited by Ssu-ma Ch’ien in relation to the times of Shen-nung and might ultimately stem from a “Tiller” source.
[CHAPTER 81]
1 Sincere words are not showy;
2 Showy words are not sincere.
3 Those who know are not “widely learned”;
4 Those “widely learned” do not know.
5 The good do not have a lot;
6 Those with a lot are not good.
7 The Sage accumulates nothing.
8 Having used what he had for others,
9 He has even more.
10 Having given what he had to others,
11 What he has is even greater”.
12 Therefore, the Way of Heaven is to benefit and not cause any harm;
13 The Way of Man is to act on behalf of others and not to compete with them.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Little remains of Text A: portions of lines 3-8. But the “period” at the start of line 7 is clear.
In the standard text, lines 5 and 6 precede lines 3 and 4, and lines 5 and 6 say something else: “A good man does not argue; He who argues is not a good man”; i.e., pu-pien replaces pu-to.
Lines 5 and 6 in the Ma-wang-tui texts literally say, “The good are not many; The many are not good.” But the connection between lines 1-6 and then 7-13—assuming there is supposed to be one—seems better if we read pu-to (“not much,” “not many”) as though it were wu-to (“not have much”). D. C. Lau translates the same way: “He who is good does not have much; he who has much is not good.”
The “Therefore” at the head of line 12 is omitted in the standard text.
In line 13, the standard text begins “The Way of the Sage” and ends “and [he] does not compete” (pu-cheng) rather than the Ma-wang-tui “and does not compete with them” (fu-cheng).
[CHAPTER 67]
Chapters 67, 68, and 69 should be read together as a unit.
1 The whole world says, I’m Great;
2 Great, yet unlike [everyone else].
3 But it’s precisely because I’m unlike [everyone else], that I’m therefore able to be Great.
4 Were I like [everyone else], for a long time now I’d have seemed insignificant and small.
5 I constantly have three treasures;
6 Hold on to them and treasure them.
7 The first is compassion;
8 The second is frugality;
9 And the third is not presuming to be at the forefront in the world.
10 Now, it’s because I’m compassionate that I therefore can be courageous;
11 And it’s because I’m frugal that I therefore can be magnanimous;
12 And it’s because I don’t presume to be at the forefront in the world that I therefore can be the head of those with complete talent.
13 Now, if you abandon this compassion and yet try to be courageous,
14 And if you abandon this frugality and yet try to be magnanimous,
15 And if you abandon this staying behind and yet go to the fore,
16 Then you will die.
17 If with compassion you attack, then you’ll win;
18 If you defend, then you’ll stand firm.
19 When Heaven’s about to establish him,
20 It’s as though he surrounds him with the protective wall of compassion.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
In lines 1-4 the author plays on the double meaning of hsiao: it means “to be like” (or resemble), but it also means “small.” Therefore these lines could also read, “The whole world says that I’m great (= large, ta); Great, yet unlike everyone else (= yet not small). But it’s precisely because I’m unlike everyone else (= that I’m not small), that I am therefore able to be Great (= large). Were I like everyone else (= were I small), for a long time now I’d have seemed insignificant.”
The Text A and Text B versions of this chapter are quite different. Though the characters are now missing for lines 1 and 2 in Text A, one might hazard a guess that they said, “The world says I am Great, as though unlike [everyone else]” (t’ien-hsia wei wo ta ssu pu-hsiao). Then lines 3 and 4 seem to say, “Now, it’s because I am Great, that I’m unlike [everyone else]. Were I like [everyone else], then I’d have seemed insignificant and small for a long time now.”
Line 6 is omitted from Text A, except for the final character “them” (chih), in what appears to be copyist error. And copyist error would also seem to account for the complete omission of line 14. Finally, line 16 in Text A reads, “Then you will certainly die,” and in line 12 Text A has “… that I therefore can be the head of those who complete all affairs” (i.e., ch’eng-shih chang versus ch’eng-ch’i chang).
In the standard text, line 1 reads, “The whole world says that my Way is Great” (versus “that I am great”): the omission of the word tao (“Way”) in the Ma-wang-tui texts is unusual but attested in a small number of other editions. Also, in lines 1-2 the standard text does not repeat the word “great” that stands at the head of line 2 and thus lines 1 and 2 here read more like one line; that is, “The whole world says that my Way is great and seems unlike [anything else].” Line 3 is then most like Text A of the Ma-wang-tui texts—“Now, it’s because it is Great, that it therefore seems unlike [anything else].” While line 4 is exactly the same as line 4 in Text B—“Were it like [everything else], for a long time now it would have seemed insignificant and small.”
Lines 5-18 in the standard text are exactly the same as we find in Text B of the Ma-wang-tui texts except that the “constantly” is omitted from line 5, the word “this” is omitted from lines 13-15, and the “Then” is omitted at the start of line 16.
Finally, in lines 19 and 20 the standard text says, “When Heaven is about to save him” (chiu instead of chien [“establish”]), “with compassion it protects him” (wei instead of huan [“surround with a wall”]).
[CHAPTER 68]
Chapters 67, 68, and 69 should he read together as a unit.
1 Therefore, one who is good at being a warrior doesn’t make a show of his might;
2 One who is good in battle doesn’t get angry;
3 One who is good at defeating the enemy doesn’t engage him.
4 And one who is good at using men places himself below them.
5 This is called the virtue of not competing;
6 This is called [correctly] using men;
7 This is called matching Heaven.
8 It’s the high point of the past.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
The “Therefore” at the head of line 1 is omitted in Text A as it is in the standard text, and in line 7 the word “matching” is omitted.
In line 3 the use of the negative fu (“not——–it/him”) in place of pu (“not——”) once again adds clarity to the text. The standard text with pu-yü instead of fu-yü should simply read “doesn’t engage” where we have “doesn’t engage him.”
In line 6 the standard text has “This is called the strength of using men” (i.e., chih-li is added on at the end).
There has been considerable disagreement among scholars on the punctuation of the last two lines. Many feel that the two lines actually form one: for example, D. C. Lau, using the reading in Text A, which omits the word “matching,” translates the end of the chapter: “This is known as the limit that is as old as heaven.”
I am persuaded that “using men” (yung-jen) and “matching Heaven” (p’ei-t’
ien) are parallel phrases (they rhyme). The final line stands very well on its own.
[CHAPTER 69, TEXT A]
Chapters 67, 68, and 69 should he read together as a unit.
1 Those who use weapons have a saying which goes:
2 “I don’t presume to act like the host, and instead play the part of the guest;
3 I don’t advance an inch, but rather retreat a foot.”
4 This is called moving forward without moving forward—
5 Rolling up one’s sleeves without baring one’s arms—
6 Grasping firmly without holding a weapon—
7 And enticing to fight when there’s no opponent.
8 Of disasters, none is greater than [thinking] you have no rival.
9 To think you have no rival is to come close to losing my treasures.
10 Therefore, when weapons are raised and [the opponents] are fairly well matched,
11 Then it’s the one who feels grief that will win.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
There is a “period” at the start of line 1 in Text A. Text B, like the standard text, omits the “I” at the head of line 3 and parallels line 2 by adding “presume” (Don’t presume to advance an inch …”). There are two mistakes in Text A that do not occur in Text B: in line 8 the copyist mistakenly wrote down two “thans” (yü yü) instead of “greater than” (ta-yü), and then in line 9 he mistakenly repeated the “my” (wu-wu) of “my treasures.” In line 10, Text B accords with later texts in having “when swords (or weapons) are crossed” (k’ang-ping) instead of “when weapons are raised” (ch’eng-ping).
I read the hsing wu-hsing (“going forward without going forward”) of line 4 as parallel to wei wu-wei (“act without acting”) and shih wu-shih (“serve without concern for affairs”) since the point is that in this way you progress towards victory even though you do not physically advance. If the line is strictly parallel with the lines that follow, then the second hsing should be a noun to match with “arms” and “weapons” and “opponent,” which would give us something like D. C. Lau’s “Marching forward when there is no road,” or Wing-tsit Chan’s “To march without formation.”
The “those who use weapons” (yung-ping) in line 1 refers to the “Strategists” or “Militarists” (ping-chid) in early China.
The “which goes” (yüeh) of line 1 is not found in the standard text, and in the standard text, lines 6 and 7 are reversed.
In lines 8 and 9 the standard text has “regarding your rival too lightly” (ch’ing-ti) instead of “[thinking] you have no rival” (wu-ti), and in line 10 for “fairly well matched” (hsiang-jo) the standard text has “meet one another” (hsiang-chia).
[CHAPTER 70]
1 My words are easy to understand,
2 And easy to put into practice.
3 Yet no one in the world can understand them,
4 And no one can put them into practice.
5 Now my words have an ancestor, and my deeds have a lord,
6 And it’s simply because [people] have no understanding [of them], that they therefore don’t understand me.
7 But when those who understand me are few, then I’m of great value.
8 Therefore the Sage wears coarse woolen cloth, but inside it he holds on to jade.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Text A is like the standard text in having “very easy to understand” and “very easy to put into practice” in lines 1 and 2. In line 3, Text A has “people” (jen) instead of “the world” (t’ien-hsia), that is, “And yet of people, no one …” In line 5, Text A accords with the standard text in reversing the words “ancestor” and “lord”; it has “My words have a lord, and my deeds have an ancestor.”
The Ma-wang-tui version of this chapter, with all of the proper grammatical particles added, is much clearer and more precise than the version found in later texts.
[CHAPTER 71]
1 To know you don’t know is best.
2 Not to know you [don’t] know is a flaw.
3 Therefore, the Sage’s not being flawed
4 Stems from his recognizing a flaw as a flaw.
5 Therefore, he is flawless.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
The “don’t” in line 2 occurs in Text A (by virtue of ditto marks) but has been omitted—mistakenly I think—in Text B and all subsequent editions of the Lao-tzu. Without it, one is forced to translate the line in the fashion of Wing-tsit Chan: “To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.” D. C. Lau assumes that the Text B reading is still right and translates, “Not to know yet to think that one knows will put one in difficulty.” I agree with Wu Fuhsiang in feeling that the Text A reading—pu-chih pu-chih (literally “not know not know”)—represents the original text (versus the standard reading of pu-chih chih—literally “not know know”).
Although ping in lines 2-5 does mean “disease” (Chan and Waley; Lau has “difficulty”), here it is best translated, I feel, as “flaw” (or “fault” or “defect”).
The standard text adds a line between lines 2 and 3: Chan’s translation of that line reads, “Only when one recognizes this disease as a disease can one be free from the disease.”
The standard text then omits the “Therefore” at the head of line 3 and omits the possessive particle following “the Sage,” destroying the dependent relationship of lines 3 and 4. Chan’s translation of lines 3-5 in the standard text reads, “The sage is free from the disease. Because he recognizes this disease to be disease, he is free from it.”
[CHAPTER 72]
1 When the people don’t respect those in power, then what they greatly fear is about to arrive.
2 Don’t narrow the size of the places in which they live;
3 Don’t oppress them in their means of livelihood.
4 It’s simply because you do not oppress them, that they therefore will not be fed up.
5 Therefore the Sage knows himself but doesn’t show himself;
6 He cherishes himself but doesn’t value himself.
7 For this reason, he rejects that and takes this.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Most of lines 1, 5, and 6 are now missing in Text A. Line 2 in Text A is set off from line 1 with a “period.”
The differences between the Ma-wang-tui version of this chapter and that of the standard text are largely grammatical. In line 1 the word “about to” (chiang) does not occur in the standard text. In lines 2 and 3, the Ma-wang-tui texts use the imperative negative (wu) instead of the regular wu in the standard text. In line 4, “do not oppress them” is formed with the negative fu (not——them) instead of pu (not——-).
In two places in the chapter the author plays on multiple meanings of words. In line 1 the word wei (to “fear,” “stand in awe of,” “respect,” “dread,” but also the “awesome,” “powerful,” “authority”) is used three different times: the line literally says, “When the people do not wei wei, then the great wei is about to arrive.” Then in line 4, the text literally says, “It’s simply because you do not yen (oppress) them, that they therefore will not be yen (here meaning ‘fed up’).”
[CHAPTER 73]
1 If you’re brave in being daring, you’ll be killed;
2 If you’re brave in not being daring, you’ll live.
3 With these two things, in one case there’s profit, in the other there’s harm.
4 The things Heaven hates—who knows why?
5 The Way of Heaven is not to fight yet to be good at winning—
6 Not to speak yet skillfully respond—
7 No one summons it, yet it comes on its own—
8 To be at ease yet carefully plan.
9 Heaven’s net is large and vast;
10 Its mesh may be coarse yet nothing slips through.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
There is a “period” at the start of line 1 in Text A.
With the addition of the nominalizing particle che, lines 1 and 2 in Text A read, “The one who is brave in being daring will
be killed. The one who is brave in not being daring will live.” Line 7 in Text A is like line 7 in the standard text: it reads, “Not to be summoned yet come on its own” (that is, it has the negative pu instead of fu). This is better than the reading in B in that it involves no change in subject from lines 5-8. All that remains of this chapter in Text A are lines 6-8, part of line 1, and most of line 2.
A line is added between lines 4 and 5 in the standard text: “Therefore even the Sage finds it difficult.” And in line 5, the standard text has “compete” instead of “fight” in the phrase “not to fight yet be good at winning.”
[CHAPTER 74]
1 If the people were constant [in their behavior] and yet did not fear death,
2 How could you use execution to intimidate them?
3 If you brought it about that the people were constant [in their behavior] and moreover feared death, and [we] took those who behaved in abnormal ways and killed them—who would dare act in this way?!
4 If the people are constant and moreover necessarily fear death, then we constantly have the one in charge of executions.
5 Now killing people in place of the one in charge of executions, this [is like] cutting wood in place of the head carpenter.
6 And of those who cut wood in place of the head carpenter, very few do not hurt their hands!
COMMENTS AND NOTES
In line 1 in Text B the copyist mistakenly added a “fear” (wei) before the “did not fear” (pu-wei): I leave this out in the translation. The first part of line 3 is different in Text A from what we find in Text B, but it makes no sense and the copyist’s mistakes can be reconstructed. Text A is like the standard text in line 3 in saying, “and we took those who behaved in abnormal ways.” This “we” (wu) seems not to occur in Text B (if we are right in assuming that the missing character at this point is chiang [“would”]).
Lao-Tzu- Te-Tao Ching Page 11
