Dao De Jing, chapter 2
Monday, 22 July 2024 13:22![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer[I know, I know … again. This iteration was inspired by listening to an audiobook of A Wizard of Earthsea.]
All under heaven know the beautiful by their beauty, and thereby the ugly as well.
All know the virtuous by their virtue, and thereby the unvirtuous as well.
Hence what exists and what doesn’t exist give rise to each other:
The difficult and easy complete each other,
The long and short compare with[2-1] each other,
The high and low incline towards[2-2] each other,
Sounds[2-3] and music harmonize each other,
Before and after follow[2-4] each other.
Because of this, the sage[2-5] manages affairs without doing,
And instructs without speaking;
The ten-thousand things create this yet do not explain,
Are born yet don’t exist,
Do yet don’t will,
Achieve completion yet don’t rest.
Mankind only doesn’t[2-6] rest,
And because of this [can]not depart.
[2-1] Other texts have “imitate”
[2-2] Other texts have “fill”
[2-3] Other texts have “thoughts,” which suggests understanding “sounds” as “words”
[2-4] Other texts have “are constantly with”
[2-5] Other texts have “musician”
[2-6] Other texts omit “doesn’t”
天下皆知美之为美，斯恶已。
皆知善之为善，斯不善已。
故有无相生，
难易相成，
长短相较，
高下相倾，
音声相和，
前后相随。
是以圣人处无为之事，
行不言之教；
万物作焉而不辞，
生而不有。
为而不恃，
功成而弗居。
夫唯弗居，
是以不去。
FWIW, the base text is the standard recension from the 3rd century CE, the “other texts” are the Mawangdui texts from the 2nd century BCE. I’ve noted only significant differences—of which the last is the most important. Words I have especially tentative understandings of are “incline towards,” “fill,” and “musician” (which might be a fancy synonym for sage???).
ETA: Okay, yeah, one of the two Mawangdui texts consistently uses 声人 (which I read as musician) as a synonym for 圣人, sage, while the other uses the standard 圣人.
---L.
All under heaven know the beautiful by their beauty, and thereby the ugly as well.
All know the virtuous by their virtue, and thereby the unvirtuous as well.
Hence what exists and what doesn’t exist give rise to each other:
The difficult and easy complete each other,
The long and short compare with[2-1] each other,
The high and low incline towards[2-2] each other,
Sounds[2-3] and music harmonize each other,
Before and after follow[2-4] each other.
Because of this, the sage
And instructs without speaking;
The ten-thousand things create this yet do not explain,
Are born yet don’t exist,
Do yet don’t will,
Achieve completion yet don’t rest.
Mankind only doesn’t[2-6] rest,
And because of this [can]not depart.
[2-1] Other texts have “imitate”
[2-2] Other texts have “fill”
[2-3] Other texts have “thoughts,” which suggests understanding “sounds” as “words”
[2-4] Other texts have “are constantly with”
[2-6] Other texts omit “doesn’t”
天下皆知美之为美，斯恶已。
皆知善之为善，斯不善已。
故有无相生，
难易相成，
长短相较，
高下相倾，
音声相和，
前后相随。
是以圣人处无为之事，
行不言之教；
万物作焉而不辞，
生而不有。
为而不恃，
功成而弗居。
夫唯弗居，
是以不去。
FWIW, the base text is the standard recension from the 3rd century CE, the “other texts” are the Mawangdui texts from the 2nd century BCE. I’ve noted only significant differences—of which the last is the most important. Words I have especially tentative understandings of are “incline towards,” “fill,” and “musician” (which might be a fancy synonym for sage???).
ETA: Okay, yeah, one of the two Mawangdui texts consistently uses 声人 (which I read as musician) as a synonym for 圣人, sage, while the other uses the standard 圣人.
---L.
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Date: 23 July 2024 16:16 (UTC)no subject
Date: 23 July 2024 16:30 (UTC)