Caston Draper

IB English 12

Period 3

Doherty

Comparison of Translations of The Tao Te Ching

The Barnes and Noble edition of the Tao Te Ching and the version translated by Ralph Alan

Dale are extremely different in the way that they attempt to rationalize the idea of the Tao, and

well as what they believe the translation of the original chinese text means. Both state near the

beginning of their introduction that “The Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese book composed of

only five thousand characters” (Dale 1). This sentence is most likely incorporated to explain the

vast differences in translations between the editions. The Ralph Alan Dale edition describes the

Tao quite simply “ Tao is to be in harmony with all others...The word integrity implies the

inexhaustible greatness… I therefore translate Tao as the Theory of the Great Integrity.” Dale

uses this idea of the Great Integrity because it is somewhat more easily grasped by western

audiences, we understand the idea of integrity and we know now what to associate the idea of

the Tao with. Dale also is quite simple in the way that he explains the paradoxical nature of the

Tao; he offers the explanation that the ultimate goal of the Tao is to Transcend the “world of

words without using words” (Dale 4). The goal of this translation is to be poetic as well as

transcendent, Dale even chooses to call the sections “Verses” because that associates them

more with the idea of poetry. It is extremely clear in the verses of this translation that the author

chose to take a few artistic liberties in the translation of the original chinese text, we can see

common poetic devices like parallel structure which aren’t as apparent in the Barnes and Noble

Edition of the book. By the nature of this translation, it was created more in the image of the Tao

and what it means, rather than an attempt to understand and explain it like the Barnes and

Noble edition.
 The Barnes and Noble Edition was translated by Charles Muller and the Introduction

was written by Yi Ping-Ong. The introduction is much longer than the Watkins version and is

much more in depth in the explanation of the Tao, it goes into detail about the history of Taoism,

and even compares it to Confucianism. This version does not define the Tao as a singular

concept in the way the Watkins version defines it as “The Great Integrity” which makes it more

mysterious which is odd because of the depth of the analysis in the introduction. The

translations in this version are also extremely different from the Watkins version, they are less

straightforward and less poetic, an example of this is in the Watkins version it states “The

Highest good is like water, nourishing life effortlessly, flowing without prejudice to the lowliest of

places” (Tzu 24). In this version you have contrast between high and low which makes a point

about the dichotomy of the Tao, and nature. The Barnes and Noble edition states “The highest

goodness is like water. Water benefits all things without struggle, yet it abides in places that

men hate” (Tzu 21). This does not establish the same paradoxical idea of the tao and as such

the point it makes is not as strong.

The two have many similarities however, there were both translated from the same

material so they must share similar ideas. Both introductions describe Tao as a path, one that is

indescribable and nameless, and is the mother to all existence. They also both stress the exact

idea of Taoism that it is “Action through Inaction’’ (Ping-Ong 7). It is also worth mentioning that

the idea of the Tao does not mean not doing anything, it means “The dogmatic insistence that

one way is better than another way is rejected” (Ping-Ong 9). Most importantly both translations

speak to the paradoxical nature of the Tao, and the relatedness of it, that there is not good

without bad, and that there is no beauty without ugliness. They both stress this because this is

one of the central ideas that Lao Tzu stressed, that we cannot separate “beauty from life as art,

nor good separated from life as spiritual expression” (Dale 13). To achieve transcendence or

The Great Integrity, good and evil will not exist because they will simply align with the character

of life.
 Works Cited

Dale, Ralph Alan. Introduction. Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, Watkins, 2017, pp. 1-6.

Ping-Ong, Yi. Introduction. Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, Barnes and Noble Books, 2005, pp.

xiii-xxxi.

Tzu, Lao. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Charles Muller, Barnes and Noble Books, 2005.

Tzu, Lao. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Ralph Alan Dale, Watkins, 2017.