Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Part IV

“People through finding something beautiful
Think something else unbeautiful,
Through finding one man fit
Judge another unfit.
Life and death, though stemming from each other, seem to conflict as stages of change,
Difficult and easy as phases of achievement,
Long and short as measures of contrast,
High and low as degrees of relation;
But, since the varying of tones gives music to a voice
And what is the was of what shall be,
The sanest man
Sets up no deed,
Lays down no law,
Takes everything that happens as it comes,
As something to animate, not to appropriate,
To earn, not to own,
To accept naturally without self-importance:
If you never assume importanceYou never lose it.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Bynner Translation)


“The sanest man sets up no deed, lays down no law, and takes everything that happens as it comes.”
I’d intended to wrap this up in the first fifteen days of the month, but I didn’t. Now I’m out of time. Too bad. I really do believe that eventually I’ll fall into a rhythm, eventually these posts won’t be ill-prepared, poorly written bits of nonsense. For now, that’s the best I can do. Luckily the ideas that I’d intended to address this month are recurring themes in the Tao, so there’ll be other chances. Since I seem to lack the ability to adequately comment on verse 2, I’ll leave you with the commentary of Siji Tzu:

"Walk through a garden. Do you see beautiful flowers? If they are beautiful to the eye and nose, then you must also label what is ugly. Describe a neighbor as a good person and another person becomes bad. Loud and quiet. Soft and hard. Before and after. The existence of each creates the other. Teach without word. Study and then forget. Let the tide ebb and flow."

Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Part III

“Beauty doesn’t exist; Ugliness doesn’t exist: except through the other. Good doesn’t exist; bad does’t exist: except through the other. Long doesn’t exist; short doesn’t exist: except through the other. High doesn’t exist; low doesn’t exist: except through the other. Before doesn’t exist; after doesn’t exist: except through the other. Inside doesn’t exist; outside doesn’t exist: except through the other. Profit doesn’t exist; loss doesn’t exist: except through the other. Therefore the master acts without setting a goal, and teaches that there is no teaching. Freedom from duality resides with him. Everything is his, but he has nothing. Every act is his, but he expects nothing. This is his accomplishment, which can never be destroyed.” (Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Bullen Translation)

Verse 2 deals with continuums. I believe that much of what we try to box up into categories (good and bad, left and right, faith and reason) are actually continuums. The first two stanzas of verse two are about continuums and I suspect that we’d all pretty much agree with them. There are people who think of good and evil as absolutes w/o nuance, but I doubt any of them are reading this. The interesting part for me is the third stanza. It begins with the word “therefore,” in other words: since everything is a continuum, the Master does these things in the third stanza. What does the Master do, since everything is a continuum?
ITEM I: The Master acts without doing anything
ITEM II: The Master teaches without saying anything.
ITEM III: Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go.
ITEM IV: She has but doesn't possess, acts but doesn't expect.
ITEM V: When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.
I’m out of time – I’ll have to deal with the items tomorrow

Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Part II

“Since the world points up beauty as such,
There is ugliness too.
If goodness is taken as goodness,
Wickedness enters as well.

For is and is-not come together;
Hard and easy are complementary;
Long and short are relative;
High and low are comparative;
Pitch and sound make harmony;
Before and after are a sequence.

Indeed the Wise Man's office
Is to work by being still;
He teaches not by speech
But by accomplishment;
He does for everything,
Neglecting none;
Their life he gives to all,
Possessing none;
And what he brings to pass
Depends on no one else.
As he succeeds,
He takes no credit
And just because he does not take it,
Credit never leaves him.” (Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Blakney Translation)

The reason why I brought up the issue of translation is because there is a great deal of variance among the translations. One of the reasons why I begin each new entry with a different translation is to illustrate and celebrate that fact. It gives us a wider picture of the dimensions of the Tao. There have been occasions when I find that I must disagree with some of the choices made by the translators. I’ve already mentioned my affinity for Stephen Mitchell’s translation, but I disagree with his version of the first stanza of this verse:

“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”

Now maybe Mitchell does not mean to imply that identifying something as beautiful or good causes other things to be identified as ugly or bad; and thereby imply that there’s really no such thing as good, bad, beauty, or ugliness there’s only the labeling and false perception of these things. Maybe he doesn’t mean to imply this, but that’s what I infer from my reading of his translation and if I’m right then in this instance the translation is flawed because the Tao as a whole does acknowledge good (things in synch with the Tao) and bad (things out of synch with the Tao). So in this instance I prefer Beck’s translation:

“When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,there arises the recognition of ugliness.When they all know the good as good,there arises the recognition of bad.”

And I much prefer my own version:

“When one begins to recognize beauty as beauty,There arises the recognition of ugliness.When one begins to recognize the good as good,There arises the recognition of evil.”

I’m out of time. More tomorrow.

Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Part I

“When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,
there arises the recognition of ugliness.
When they all know the good as good,
there arises the recognition of bad.

Therefore being and non-being produce each other;
difficult and easy complete each other;l
ong and short contrast each other;
high and low distinguish each other;
sound and voice harmonize with each other;
beginning and end follow each other.

Therefore the wise manage affairs without interfering
and teach beyond the words.

All things rise, and they do not turn away from them.
They give them life, but do not take possession of them.
They act, but do not rely on their own ability.
They accomplish, but claim no credit.
Because they claim no credit,their accomplishment remains with them.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 2, Beck Translation)

Now seems a good time to bring up the issue of translation. According to Russian translator, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, “Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.” Translation is always difficult, but the difficulties become nearly exponential when it comes to classical Chinese.

According to Wikipedia:

“The Tao Te Ching is written in classical Chinese, which can be difficult to understand completely, even for well-educated native speakers of modern Chinese. In fact, in learning classical Chinese, native speakers can be at a disadvantage relative to non-native speakers, as native speakers often have difficulty with Chinese characters whose older meaning differs from the modern language. Classical Chinese relies heavily on allusion to a corpus of standard literary works to convey semantic meaning, nuance, and subtext. This corpus was memorized by highly-educated people in Laozi's time, and the allusions were reinforced through common use in writing, but few people today have this type of deep acquaintance with ancient Chinese literature. Thus, many levels of subtext are potentially lost on modern translators. Furthermore, many of the words that the Tao Te Ching uses are deliberately vague and ambiguous.”

Classical Chinese, in other words is full of nuance and layers of allusion and meaning and thus very difficult to translate into English. A friend of mine once told me that he’d come across a classical Chinese scholar who'd said that if you read every single English translation of the Tao, you will have only the beginning of an inkling of the true meaning of the text. There are well over one hundred English translations of the Tao. In fact there are 112 English translations of the Tao on a website devoted to collecting translations of the Tao.



I’m out of time for now – more tomorrow.