J. H. Huang
THE DAO DE JING: LAOZI’S BOOK OF LIFE
A NEW TRANSLATION FROM THE ANCIENT CHINESE
BASED ON THE LATEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES
The Dao is eternal,
has no name,
and is the Essential
—THE BOOK OF THE DAO, Chapter 32
From the bestselling translator of
THE ART OF WAR
A groundbreaking and accurate new translation of
Laozi’s DAO DE JING
From Mariner Books Classics, an imprint of HarperCollins
Publication date: November 5, 2024. Hardcover, 416 pages
J.H. Huang’s version pulls no punches [and] offers a unified interpretation of the text.
Mr. Huang’s translation is literal and spare, reflecting the brevity of classical Chinese, but he fills the margins with extensive running commentary to guide the reader through his own understanding of the text’s meaning, [with] detailed classical citations to support his argument for the book’s correct meaning.
—The Wall Street Journal
Bringing English readers closer than ever before to the true wisdom of the ancient DAO DE JING, J. H. Huang’s landmark new translation is the first to be based on a direct study of the earliest known copies of the 2,320-year-old original Chinese text.
Composed during China’s Bronze Age, Laozi’s DAO DE JING has inspired readers around the world for centuries, revealing a path to achieving a more balanced mind and promoting harmony within ourselves and the world around us.
The wisdom of its teachings endures to this day with incredible immediacy and relevancy, offering remarkably lucid answers to the most pressing questions and challenges of our time.
And yet the Dao is equally misunderstood, especially in the West as a result of inferior translations. These errors and omissions have—until now, that is—unavoidably prevented us from correctly comprehending the teachings of Laozi. To make matters worse, many of the most popular English renderings of this book were in fact written by people who did not have the slightest acquaintance with Chinese.
The fruition of over two decades of research and comprehensive study of this ancient Chinese classic, LAOZI’S BOOK OF LIFE by J. H. Huang is drawn from the oldest known versions of the text. It incorporates the four most recent copies of Laozi’s masterpiece discovered in ancient tombs: the Guodian Chu slips, the Mawangdui silk texts, the Fu Yi version, and the Peking University bamboo slips.
The result is the most accurate and faithful translation to date, a groundbreaking dual English-Chinese edition featuring a revelatory explanatory commentary that guides readers through Laozi’s teachings.
Masterfully capturing the beauty and nuance of the original text, J. H. Huang’s translation restores the true import of Laozi’s words to the DAO DE JING.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 2
1 In the world, when all know that the beautiful is beautiful, it is ugly!
2 When all know the good, this is then not good!
3 Being and void surely beget each other,
4 difficulty and ease surely realize each other,
5 length and shortness surely form each other,
6 height and depth surely fully embrace each other,
7 pitches and sounds surely harmonize each other,
8 and first and last surely succeed each other.
9 Thus, sages administer affairs with non-effort
10 and issue teachings with no words.
11 All things rise, but without being manipulated;
12 and exert effort, but without being confined;
13 and become realized, but without being possessed.
14 Oh, only when they are not possessed
15 will they then never leave.
Beauty and ugliness are emotionally polarized assessments, while the good and the not good are analytically polarized appraisals.
The notion of beauty paradoxically requires that there be ugliness in order to ensure its existence, which means that the beautiful is no longer truly beautiful.
By the same measure, the idea that some things are good necessitates others to be not good, thereby making the good no longer truly good.
The world is composed of coexisting polarized counterparts that to our senses separately appear to be autonomous, when in fact they must exist in a mutually dependent equilibrium and thus are indivisible.
Therefore, all of us (especially leaders) who follow the wisdom of neutrality will comprehend how crucial reality is to our lives;
this in turn will cause us to abide by it.
Our behavior and views will thenceforth no longer disrupt the equilibrium of the world.
All things are part of the reality of the world, and we rely on them to live.
However, they must be free of our dominion, for only then can they satisfy themselves and our needs without being ruined in the process.
Otherwise, they will abandon us.