乃 楷書

著作 - Poonkwokkin

Tao Te Ching (《道德經》, or Dao De Jing), presumably written by Laozi (老子) of the 6th century BC, is one of the most famous and influential philosophical works in Chinese history. Written in fewer than 6000 Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching outlines the characteristics and roles of the fundamental Tao (道) and its Te (德, Manifestation of Tao) in the formation and maintenance of all in the Universe. Remarkably, it also depicts the underlying nature of governance and some natural laws, which, surprisingly, include modern scientific concepts such as atomic theory, chemical equilibrium, polarities, and the quantum uncertainty principle.

Unfortunately, Tao Te Ching is often misinterpreted by many for more than two thousand years. Their failures are mainly attributed to applying Taoist Religion (道教), Huang-Lao (黄老), and Confucian concepts in interpreting characters such as '鬼', '神', '仁', '慈', '善', and '德'. Further, '若', '似', and '或' are also frequently misinterpreted, giving rise to the incorrect impression that Laozi was a scheming and calculating philosopher. Prominent interpreters of the past and present, including Heshang Gong (河上公), Wang Bi (王弼), Gao Heng (高亨), and James Legge, have all committed these types of errors in varying degrees.

This book provides readers with an annotated, line-by-line, concise, consistent, and correct English translation and interpretation of Tao Te Ching. Accompanied 674 footnotes include references and brief discussions on general misunderstandings. Further, to facilitate easy reading, the bare translated text is supplemented in a separate section, while the correct interpretation of difficult and complex sentences in vernacular Chinese (《道德經》艱深句子正解並白話對譯) in another. Accordingly, this book is perfect for anyone interested in Chinese philosophy.