Product Description

Having masterfully translated a wide range of ancient Chinese poets and philosophers, David Hinton is uniquely qualified to offer the definitive contemporary English version of the Tao Te Ching, rendering it with both philosophical rigor and poetic elegance.

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is not only the single most important text in Chinese spirituality, it is probably the most influential spiritual text in human history. Like all of his translations, Hinton's translation of the Tao Te Ching is mind-opening. It adds startling new dimensions to this text, revealing it as the originary text of deep environmental and feminist thought.

In the past, virtually all translations of this text have been produced either by sinologists having little poetic facility in English, or writers having no ability to read the original Chinese. Hinton's fluency in ancient Chinese and his acclaimed poetic ability combine both of these essential qualifications. Together, they allow a breathtaking new translation that reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #500323 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01
• Released on: 2002-01-02
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
David Hinton's many translations of ancient Chinese poetry have earned wide acclaim for creating compelling English poetry that conveys the actual texture and density of the originals. He has held numerous fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and The National Endowment for the Humanities. And in 1997, his work was awarded the Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. He lives in East Calais, Vermont.

Customer Reviews

Accurate and Elegant
David Hinton is one of the very few translators who understands the subtlety of ancient Chinese and translates it well. The first sentence of the first paragraph of Tao Te Ching is usually translated as something like "[t]he Way that can be told is not the permanant Way". Such popular translation is often controversial because the Chinese word "way" was not used to mean "be told" until about 1000 years after Tao Te Ching was written. Hinton translated the same sentence as "[a] Way become Way isn't the perennial Way". How elegant! And what an accurate articulation of its philosophical meaning.

A couple sentences down in the same paragraph, Hinton wrote, "... in perennial being you see appearance". Again, the word that he translated as "apperance" is very tricky in Chinese. It originally means "covering by coiling" (or "winding around to block a view") and has mutated throughout history to refer to fences, alleys, and many other things that would totally obscure the meaning of the text. Most popular translations use the word "manifestation" in this context. This is not necessarily a bad choice because religion is, after all, subject to interpretations. But personally I think the emphasis here should not be on the indication of an existence, but should rather be on the ideal of seeing through the appearance of phenomena in order to attain an understanding that transcends experiences. I think Hinton chose a more appropriate word here.

Yet a few more sentences down, he coined a new word for one of the most fundamental concepts in Taoism `yuan'. Yuan originally means black color with an yellowish undertone. Its also means "dark" and "mysterious" as in the sensation one gets while staring at an abyss. To describe such religious experience in Taoism, any translation of yuan needs to convey both meanings. Hinton calls it "dark-enigma" and not just "mystery" as in most popular translations. And I think he is both etymologically and philosophically right on the mark.

There are many other things that he did right. I have never read a translation that is so faithful to the original yet so wonderfully articulated. Highly recommended to casual readers as well as serious scholars.

Simplicity in translation
David Hinton does a nice job of not jumbling up this translation. I can think of a few translations of the TTC that use very technical and archaic words to create a sense of majesty about the TTC. But to me this book has always been about simplicity and wordless teaching.

As someone that has pursued mystical states before I find this translation is easy to remember and conducive to a quick recall when observing the natural world or doing some form of physical exercise.

I've read that the TTC in Chinese reads like a telegram with multiple meanings available from the same words. Hinton's translation is like that and he makes a good attempt of rendering the spirit of the text, even if, he's not always literally correct (I'm thinking of the mysterious chapter 50).

Good translation with a few drawbacks but if your looking for a good introductory text read this

Many translations - this one is the best
The Tao Te Ching is, quite obviously, a work that poses great challenges to translators. Apparently it takes much more than just a through knowledge of the language, but also many years of involvement with spiritual practices that are organized around the principles of the tao. I have read all of the "important" translations of this work and know something of the philosophy of the tao, and say, without reservation that Hinton's translation is the most sublime, the most poetic, and the most profound. Compare them yourself. See what you think and feel.Liberation from the Lie: Cutting the Roots of Fear Once and for All