DDJ evolved in the context of severe wars and much death.

"Chinese Wisdom has no need of the idea of God" - Michael Granet.

The authorship of DDJ has been attributed to Lao Tse,

Dated to about 400 BC.

The issue of orality - the impact of the relationship between the spoken and
written versions of the language, on how the text emerges out of an oral tradition,
and is transmitted to future generations

Spoken Chinese is and was understood aloud.

Classical Chinese is not now and may never have been understood spoken aloud.

Written chinese should not be seen as a transcription of spoken speech. But it has
to be qualified by saying that in a primarily oral tradition, much of what has been
written down has been transmitted from memory, and the written form enriches and
refines spoken speech, much as quotations from Shakespeare and Emerson are part of
intellectual conversation today.

DC Lau's assumptions.
Divides the text into two - the "dao" classic, the "de" classic.
renders the text into 81 chapters, and 196 sections on the basis of internal rhymes
suggests that the rhymed passages that constitute more than half the text were
probably learned by rote with meaning explained in an oral commentary.

Michael Lafarge
- text does not teach philosophical doctrines
- does contain "sayings" the fall into two groups
- "polemic proverbs" which seek to correct some common assumptions
("cheaters never prosper" assumption seems to be "cheaters prosper")
- those that reccomend a regime of self cultivation.
- contrary to common assumption that the text is impenetrable, the words
usually "conveyed a single definite meaning for a group of people with a shared
competence" i.e the saying that constitute the text were largely meaningful to it
*anticipated audience* within the context of their own historical period and life
experience.

Combining all these insights, we conjecture

- we are dealing with a canonical "text" if not a widely popular classic.
- "text" in quotation marks, because the written form of the work seems to be
derivative of an essentially oral tradition.
- in the West we are used to wisdom traditions being passed down as written
text.
- (but, in the ddj) there are clear indications that memorizaton and oral
transmission (probably) played a major role in establishing a common frame of
reference for the academic lineages of early China. (indications that) DDJ was
primarily an oral tradition written down at a particular point in time for specific
purposes - to include in tombs/libraries
- (idea in my own words) A rich and redundant (?) spoken language existed. The
"text" then functions as an *oral* compact set of aphorisms that capture the wisdom
of the time, and would be available in the *oral* language, to begin/pepper
conversations and elaborations in the vernacular *spoken* language.
- agree with Lafargue that much of the rhymed material in the DDJ have
"proverbial" form, that invoke in the listening audience the conditions necessary
to make its point. disagree with LaFargue in that these are not banal cliches like
"nice guys finish last" (but are genuine "wisdom sayings" - analogous to sutras? -
yogah chitta vritti nirodham etc?

detour into songs in philosophy

the basic idea seems to be that

- there are a bunch of 'canonical' songs.
- philosophers break into song at points in the explanation/dispuatation.
- the songs add emotional power to the argument
- the songs tap into specific historical/'story' contexts and tap into specific
events to buttress philosophical argument

across an expanse of time, many hands set down, sorted, edited, collated the
material that makes up ddj

So initially the text gives the appearance of being fragmentary, disconnected,

corrupt, incoherent.
but the architecture emerges when approached from different directions.
1. when we examine how the selected 'wisdom sayings' of the DDJ function we
assume
1. they have an unquestioned veracity that comes from belonging to a people
and their tradition.
2. (KEY) the DDJ contains no historical details or universal laws/doctrines
precepts. This means the *reader* has to "frame" the aphorism and thus create a
relationship between the reader and the text. Instead of the text supplying
historical anchoring or doctrines, the *reader* has to supply concrete (and often
unique and dramatic) scenarios drawn from *their own* experience.
3. Building on (2) multiple readings of the text *and* relating to the
reader's own life experience builds a *constantly evolving* coherence.
2. There is a greater coherence to the text itself than might first appear,
since multiple chapters are built around themes.
a. Chapters 1 and 2 centre on the theme of correlativity (== ?)
b. Chapters 18 and 19 on conventional vs natural morality
c. chapters 57 through 61 on proper governing of the state
d. chapters 74 and 75 deal with political oppression and the common people.

3. Another source of coherence is that the DDJ, like many chinese texts is
appropriated via puns/wordplay. i.e, a close reading of the text reveales repeated
characters and metaphors that awaken in the reader an expanding web of semantic and
phonetic associations.

4. Rhymed sayings in the text are not a grab bag of clever yet sometimes
mutually contradictory insights. On the contrary, specific aphorisms have been
selected and edited to support the broader purpose of the text, which is primarily
didactic.
The aim of the compilers of the DDJ is to prescribe *a regimen of self
cultivation* that will enable one to optimize one's experience in the world.
The wisdom sayings, when authenticated in the conduct and character of the
practitioners result in personal transformation.
The goal of this personal transformation has nothing to do with the death,
judgment after death, afterlife, "salvation of the soul" etc, (the traditional
concerns of Western eschatology). Instead such transformation improves the quality
of character of the practitioner, and thus makes the world a better place.

The authors' commentary is intended only as a spark to the reader's own engagement
with the material. Not to be treated as systematic, authoritative, or exhaustive.