The Way and Its Power

A Study of the Tao Tê Ching and Its Place in Chinese Thought

The Arthur Waley Estate, Arthur Waley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136577284
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

First published in 1934.Unlike previous translations, this translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Tê Ching is based not on the medieval commentaries but on a close study of the whole of early Chinese literature.

TAO TÊ CHING

TAO TÊ CHING

CHAPTER I

The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way;

The names that can be named are not unvarying names.

It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang;

The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind.

Truly,²²⁴ ‘Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences’;

He that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes.²²⁴

These two things issued from the same mould, but nevertheless are different in name.

This ‘same mould’ we can but call the Mystery,

Or rather the ‘Darker than any Mystery’,

The Doorway whence issued all Secret Essences.

Paraphrase

The Realists demand a ch‘ang-tao, an ‘unvarying way’ of government, in which every act inimical and every act beneficial to the State is codified and ‘mated’ to its appropriate punishment or reward. The Taoist replies that though there does exist a ch‘ang-tao,²²⁵ ‘an unvarying Way’, it cannot be grasped by the ordinary senses nor described in words. In dispassionate vision the Taoist sees a world consisting of the things for which language has no names. Provisionally we may call them miao, ‘secret essences’. The Realist, his vision distorted by desire, sees only the ‘ultimate results’, the Outcomes of those essences, never the essences themselves. The whole doctrine of Realism was founded on the conviction that just as things which issue from the same mould are mechanically identical, ‘cannot help being as they are’,²²⁶ so by complete codification, a series of moulds (fa), can be constructed, which will mechanically decide what ‘name’ (and consequently what reward or punishment) should be assigned to any given deed. But the two modalities of the Universe, the world as the Taoist sees it in vision and the world of everyday life, contradict the basic assumption of the Realist. For they issue from the same mould (‘proceed from a sameness’), and nevertheless are different as regards name. Strictly speaking, the world as seen in vision has no name. We can call it, as above, the Sameness; or the Mystery. These names are however merely stop-gaps. For what we are trying to express is darker than any mystery.

CHAPTER II

IT IS because every one under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty, that the idea of ugliness exists.

And equally if every one recognized virtue as virtue, this would merely create fresh conceptions of wickedness.

For truly ‘Being and Not-being grow out of one another;

Difficult and easy complete one another.

Long and short test²²⁷ one another;

High and low determine one another.

Pitch and mode give harmony to one another.

Front and back give sequence to one another’.

Therefore²²⁸ the Sage relies on actionless activity,

Carries on wordless teaching,

But the myriad creatures are worked upon by him; he does not disown them.

He rears them, but does not lay claim to them,

Controls them, but does not lean upon them,

Achieves his aim, but does not call attention²²⁹ to what he does;

And for the very reason that he does not call attention to what he does

He is not ejected from fruition of what he has done.

Paraphrase

The Realists say that virtue (i.e. what the State desires) must, by complete codification, be made as easily recognizable as beauty. When people see Hsi Shih (the legendary paragon of beauty) they at once know that she is the most beautiful of women; but when they see good men (i.e. those who are strong-limbed but docile, see Shang Tzŭ) they mistake them for boors. This can only be avoided if the State clearly labels the good as good.

But, says the Taoist, by admitting the conception of ‘goodness’ you are simultaneously creating a conception ‘badness’. Nothing can be good except in relation to something that is bad, just as nothing can be ‘in front’ except in relation to something that is ‘behind’. Therefore the Sage avoids all positive action, working only through the ‘power’ of Tao, which alone ‘cuts without wounding’, transcending all antinomies.

The type of the Sage who in true Taoist manner ‘disappeared’ after his victory is Fan Li²³⁰ (5th century B.C.) who, although offered half the kingdom if he would return in triumph with the victorious armies of Yüeh, ‘stepped into a light boat and was heard of no more’.

CHAPTER III

IF WE stop looking for ‘persons of superior morality’ (hsien) to put in power, there will be no more jealousies among the people. If we cease to set store by products that are hard to get, there will be no more thieves. If the people never see such things as excite desire, their hearts will remain placid and undisturbed. Therefore the Sage rules

By emptying their hearts

And filling their bellies,

Weakening their intelligence²³¹

And...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Appendices: I. Authorship in Early China
• Translation of TAO TÊ CHING
• Additional Notes
• Textual Notes
• Index