The Tao Te Ching: A New Translation With Commentary

Rating:
Summary: Arriving as Guests to a Banquet.
Review: Although I must have collected upwards of twenty different editions of the Tao Te Ching over the years, Ellen M. Chen's has always stood at the top of my list,... it's a shame this truly wonderful edition isn't better known.

Chen, who is a Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University in Jamaica, New York, is not your usual sort of scholar, the type who views ancient wisdom texts as a mere quarry for materials. In contrast to the sterile type of academic who pride themselves on a purely illusory 'scientific objectivity,' Chen is a dynamic and concerned personality who seems utterly committed to trying to get the world to see the fantastic importance and value of the Tao Te Ching.

For her, in fact, the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching is a wisdom that could save us from the utter ruin the human race is heading for, if only we would start to take that wisdom seriously. Hers is a wise, well-written, thoroughly researched work which rises way above the usual run of scholarship, and it is far too rich for me to be able to do justice to it here.

Briefly the work falls into three parts. First we are given a full and quite unique 48-page Introduction in three chapters: 1. Date and Authorship of the Tao Te Ching; 2. The Tao Te Ching as a Religious Treatise; and 3. Use and Translation of the Text. Chapter 2, which is divided into six sections, is a minor masterpiece, and even if you don't intend to acquire the book, you should certainly read her 'Humans Become Gods on Earth,' 'Two Pseudo-Religions of the Twentieth Century,' and 'Religion For or Against Life' (pages 31-39). Here in a nutshell you will find her striking analysis of the essence of the modern problem, and its solution. I often return to her words, and I wish there were some way of getting everyone in the world to both read them and take them to heart.

The second and main part of the work is made up of her New Translation and Commentary. For each Chapter of the Tao Te Ching we are given: 1. A translation with interspersed key terms given in Chinese; 2. A brief General Comment on the import of the chapter; and 3. Very full and valuable detailed comments. Chen is a well-qualified scholar and highly competent translator, and her work reads very well indeed. Here is a brief example from Chapter 32, slightly modified since it should be set out as verse:

"Tao everlasting (ch'ang) / is the nameless uncarved wood (p'u) / Though small / Nothing under heaven can subjugate it (mo neng ch'en). / If kings and barons can abide by (shou) it, / All creatures will arrive as guests (pin) to a banquet" (page 133).

Her interspersing of the Chinese is a marvelous device, and provides a painless way of aquiring a vocabulary of key Chinese terms. The third part of the book, besides containing a full and scholarly 13-page Bibliography of both Western and Chinese sources along with an index, also contains a detailed 12-page Chinese glossary which gives the romanization and Chinese graphs (characters, ideograms) for all Chinese names and terms used in the book.

The Tao of Ellen Chen is evident everywhere throughout this book, and she has placed a splendid banquet before us. It's a banquet to which we have all been invited. I'm certainly glad it's one I didn't miss.

Rating:
Summary: A Chinese Cat, a Ball of String
Review: Here is the best commentary on the Tao Te Ching, along with an excellent translation. Of all the translators, Ellen M. Chen is the finest Tao Te Ching teacher! Why? Because she has the most complete understanding of those deep, deep Chinese sensibilities that are alive and at work in the ancient Chinese characters. As an experienced teacher, a master teacher, she also knows how to lead the student into the heart of the meaning of the Tao Te Ching, carefully linking each chapter to the next, and often jumping forward or back to connect expressions that repeat in different contexts. However, there is nothing overly academic or dry here. Chen's delight in the text, and her joy in unravelling it, are so evident that we are encouraged to join in, becoming mystery-seekers ourselves, like a Chinese cat with a ball of string...

Rating:
Summary: The finest translation of the Tao I've found
Review: I've read ~30 translations of the Tao Te Ching, and Ellen Chen's is easily the finest. It is not just that the Tao is itself a book of deep insight and wisdom. Ms. Chen's translation is simply enormously more insightful and, well, right on, than anyone else's. Each chapter is a little masterpiece; the wisdom cointained in the Tao simply shines much more brightly through Ms. Chen's translation than through anyone else's that I've read (I've read all of the readily-available translations). Each chapter comes with extensive commentary, where the author respectfully discusses alternate readings for the chapter, including her rationale for her particular choice. These discussions themselves are enormously helpful in bringing out both the subtleties of the text and that ineffable quality of which the text itself speaks. Translations of the Tao vary greatly in quality. Do yourself a favor. Whether you're buying your first copy of the Tao or your 10th, don't just buy any translation, buy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Best of The Best
Review: In our humble opinion, this work should be seen as superior to all other translations and interpretations of the Tao Te Ching; and I have read and studied over 20 of these while developing a synthesis for a multimedia CD. This text contains a very broad and deep foreword. The verse translations and commentaries are both very authentic and yet poetically spiritual. It further contains a bibliography, a glossary of Chinese terms and an index.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Commentary
Review: Like Dave in the other commentary I have read all available versions of the Tao te Ching with an eye at writing an artist version of it to explore a way for artists to give a spiritual context to their artisticactivity. I also run A Cherag's Library and have a wide ranging familiarity with sacred texts in general. I found Ellen Chen's work so extraordinary in terms of quality and sensitivity and depth and clarity that, for my personal study of The Tao te Ching, it is the ONLY version that I keep close to me for study and inspiration. When you read a lot of translations of this book it becomes clear that each translator has their own agenda, their own weaknesses and strengths and they can lead a text in many different directions. I came to have a great respect in this regard for this work by Ms Chen. It is the best.