Editing Tao Te Ching (section)

== Translation ==
The ''Tao Te Ching'' has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and French.{{sfnp|LaFargue & al.|1998|p=277}} According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved."<ref>{{Citation |last=Welch |first=Holmes |title=Taoism: The Parting of the Way |pages=7 |year=1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fe7XAAAAMAAJ |publisher=[[Beacon Press]] |language=en |isbn=978-0-8070-5973-9}}</ref> The first English translation of the ''Tao Te Ching'' was produced in 1868 by the Scottish Protestant missionary [[John Chalmers (missionary)|John Chalmers]], entitled ''The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze''.{{sfnp|Chalmers|1868}} It was heavily indebted{{sfnp|Chalmers|1868|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yxFBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR19 xix]}} to [[Stanislas Julien|Julien]]'s French translation{{sfnp|Julien|1842}} and dedicated to [[James Legge]],<ref name="chalv" /> who later produced his own translation for Oxford's ''[[Sacred Books of the East]]''.<ref name="legge" />

Other notable English translations of the ''Tao Te Ching'' are those produced by Chinese scholars and teachers: a 1948 translation by linguist [[Lin Yutang]], a 1961 translation by author [[John Ching Hsiung Wu]], a 1963 translation by sinologist [[D. C. Lau|Din Cheuk Lau]], another 1963 translation by professor [[Wing-tsit Chan]], and a 1972 translation by [[Taoism|Taoist]] teacher [[Gia-Fu Feng]] together with his wife [[Jane English]].

Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese language and philosophy who are trying to render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more popular translations are written from a less scholarly perspective, giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these versions claim that their translators deviate from the text and are incompatible with the history of Chinese thought.<ref>{{Citation |last=Eoyang |first=Eugene |title=Review: ''Tao Te Ching: A New English Translation'' by Stephen Mitchell |work=The Journal of Religion |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=492–493 |year=1990 |type=book review |publisher=University of Chicago Press |doi=10.1086/488454 |jstor=1205252}}</ref> Russell Kirkland goes further to argue that these versions are based on Western [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] fantasies and represent the colonial appropriation of Chinese culture.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kirkland |first=Russell |title=The Taoism of the Western Imagination and the Taoism of China: De-Colonizing the Exotic Teachings of the East |work=University of Tennessee |year=1997 |url=https://religion.uga.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/TENN97.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102000401/http://kirkland.myweb.uga.edu/rk/pdf/pubs/pres/TENN97.pdf |archive-date=2 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=Russell |last=Kirkland |title=Taoism: The Enduring Tradition |page=1 |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg0XCJcGDhYC&pg=PP1 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-64671-7}}</ref> Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue<ref>{{cite book | last=LaFargue | first= Michael | title= Tao and Method: A reasoned approach to the Tao Te Ching | date= 1994 | publisher= State University of New York Press |isbn= 9781438409863}}</ref> and Jonathan Herman,<ref>{{Citation |last=Herman |first=Jonathan R. |title=Reviewed work: Tao te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way, Ursula K. Le Guin |work=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=686–689 |year=1998 |doi=10.1093/jaarel/66.3.686 |jstor=1466152}}</ref> argue that while they do not pretend to scholarship, they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized versions aim to make the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more familiar cultural and temporal references.

=== Challenges in translation ===
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}

The ''Tao Te Ching'' is written in [[Classical Chinese]], which generally poses a number of challenges for interpreters and translators. As Holmes Welch notes, the written language "has no active or passive, no singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood."<ref>{{harvp|Welch|1965| p=9}}</ref> Moreover, the received text lacks many [[grammatical particle]]s which are preserved in the older [[Mawangdui]] and Beida texts, which permit the text to be more precise.<ref>{{harvp|Henricks|1989|p=xvi}}</ref> Lastly, many passages of the ''Tao Te Ching'' are deliberately ambiguous.<ref name="Record_2022">{{cite journal |last1=Record |first1=Kirby |date=March 2022 |title=On Translating the Dark Enigma: The Tao Te Ching |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/tal.2022.0494?role=tab |journal=Translation and Literature |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=52–65 |doi=10.3366/tal.2022.0494 |quote=The problem of intentional ambiguities in the original work lies at the heart of all poetry translations but is particularly challenging in the case of ideographic texts of antiquity... |access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="Chan_1993">{{cite journal |last=Chan |first=Alan K. L. |date=October 1993 |title=Review: On Reading the Tao Te Ching: Mair, Lafargue, Chan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1399212 |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=745–750 |doi=10.2307/1399212 |jstor=1399212 |access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref>

Since there is very little [[punctuation]] in Classical Chinese, determining the precise boundaries between words and sentences is not always trivial. Deciding where these phrasal boundaries are must be done by the interpreter.<ref name="Record_2022" /> Some translators have argued that the received text is so corrupted due to{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} its original medium being [[bamboo strips]]<ref name="Harvard Gazette 2001 v799">{{cite web |last=Shen |first=Andrea |title=Ancient script rewrites history |website=Harvard Gazette |date=22 February 2001 |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/02/harvard-gazette-ancient-script-rewrites-history/ | access-date=9 April 2024}}</ref> linked with silk threads—that it is impossible to understand some passages without some transposition of characters.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== Notable translations ===<!-- In chronological order -->
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu |year=1842 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ll5TAAAAcAAJ |place=Paris |publisher=Imprimerie Royale |language=fr |ref={{harvid|Julien|1842}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Julien |translator-first=Stanislas |translator-link=Stanislas Julien}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze |year=1868 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxFBAAAAYAAJ |place=London |publisher=Trübner |isbn=978-0-524-07788-7 |ref={{harvid|Chalmers|1868}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Chalmers |translator-first=John |translator-link=John Chalmers (missionary)}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Tao Teh King |volume=XXXIX:V |year=1891 |editor-last=Müller |editor-first=Max |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23974 |series=Sacred Books of the East – Sacred Books of China |publisher=Oxford University Press |ref={{harvid|Legge & al.|1891}} |display-authors=0 |editor-link=Max Müller |translator-last=Legge |translator-first=James |translator-link=James Legge |via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}.
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Sayings of Lao Tzu |year=1905 |editor-last=Giles |editor-first=Lionel |display-editors=1 |series=The Wisdom of the East |place=New York |publisher=E. P. Dutton |ref={{harvid|Giles & al.|1905}} |display-authors=0 |editor2-last=Cranmer-Byng |editor2-first=S. A. |editor3-last=Kapadia |editor-link=Lionel Giles}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Lao-tze's Tao Teh King |year=1913 |editor-last=Suzuki |editor-first=Daisetsu Teitaro |display-editors=1 |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/crv/ |place=La Salle |publisher=Open Court |ref={{harvid|Suzuki & al.|1913}} |display-authors=0 |editor2-last=Carus |editor2-first=Paul |editor1-link=D. T. Suzuki}}.
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=[[:s:fr:Les pères du système taoiste|Les Pères du Système Taoiste]] |year=1913 |series=Taoïsme, Vol. II |publisher=Hien Hien |language=fr |ref={{harvid|Wieger|1913}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Wieger |translator-first=Léon |translator-link=Léon Wieger}}
* {{Citation |last=Wilhelm |first=Richard |title=Tao Te King: das Buch vom Sinn und Leben |year=1923 |place=Jena |publisher=Diederichs |language=de |author-link=Richard Wilhelm (sinologist)}}
* {{Citation |last=Duyvendak |first=J.J.L. |title=Tao Te Ching: The Book of the Way and Its Virtue |year=1954 |publisher=John Murray |author-link=J.J.L. Duyvendak}}
* {{Citation |last=Waley |first=Arthur |title=The Way and Its Power |year=1958 |orig-date=1934 |place=New York |publisher=Grove Press |author-link=Arthur Waley}}
* {{Citation |last=Chan |first=Wing-tsit |title=The Way of Lao Tzu: Tao-te ching |year=1963 |place=Indianapolis |publisher=Bobbs-Merrill |author-link=Wing-tsit Chan}}
* Houang, François and [[Pierre Leyris|Leyris, Pierre]] (1979), ''La Voie et sa vertu: Tao-tê-king'' (in French), Paris: Éditions du Seuil
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching: A New English Version |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esUrAbMWAa4C |place=New York |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-180739-8 |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Mitchell |translator-first=Stephen |translator-link=Stephen Mitchell (translator)}}.
* {{Citation |last=Henricks |first=Robert G. |title=Lao-tzu: Te-tao ching. A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts |year=1989 |place=New York |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-34790-0}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching |year=1989 |place=Hong Kong |publisher=Chinese University Press |isbn=9789622014671 |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Lau |translator-first=D. C. |translator-link=D. C. Lau |ref={{harvid|Lau|1989}}}}
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uE7thB_vwQQC |place=New York |publisher=Bantam |isbn=978-0-307-43463-0 |ref={{harvid|Mair|1990}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Mair |translator-first=Victor H. |translator-link=Victor H. Mair}}.
* {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao-Te-Ching |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMLE056g6MsC |place=York Beach |publisher=Samuel Weiser |isbn=978-1-60925-441-4 |ref={{harvid|Bryce & al.|1991}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Bryce |translator-first=Derek |translator-last2=Wieger |translator-first2=Léon |display-translators=1}}
* Addiss, Stephen and Lombardo, Stanley (1991) ''Tao Te Ching,'' Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
* [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of Way |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hzw6kER9etoC |publisher=Shambhala Press |isbn=978-1611807240 |display-authors=0 |translator-link=Ursula K. Le Guin}}.
* [[David Hinton]], {{Citation |title= Tao Te Ching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pd8REAAAQBAJ |publisher=Counterpoint Press |year=2001 |ISBN=978-1582431826}}.
* Chad Hansen, ''Laozi: Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony,'' Duncan Baird Publications, 2009
* [[Red Pine (author)|Red Pine]], {{Citation |title=Lao-tzu's Taoteching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GM-wv1S2D6cC |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2009 |ISBN=978-1556592904}}
* Sinedino, Giorgio (2015), ''Dao De Jing'' (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Unesp

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