tepi 2001-05-10
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
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.
