PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

Since my translation of the Taoteching was first published in 1996, I have looked at it from time to time, and not only to track down a reference. Sometimes I have wondered why I translated something a certain way and if another rendering would not have been better. I am glad for any opportunity to revisit an earlier effort. In this case, the opportunity was provided by the discovery of another set of early copies of the text.

In 1993, three bundles of thin bamboo slats containing selections of Taoteching verses were unearthed in a tomb near the village of Kuotien/Guodian in Hupei province. The tomb belonged to the tutor of the crown prince of the ancient state of Ch’u, and the bundles were probably used for different levels of instruction. Since these newly discovered copies have been dated to 300 B.C., give or take a decade or two, they constitute by far our earliest version of the Taoteching, a hundred years earlier than those found at Mawangtui. However, unlike the Mawangtui copies, the Kuotien copies only include selections. They don’t include the entire eighty-one-verse text, and they rarely include the entire text of the verses they quote. Sometimes, they quote no more than a line or two. Of course, it remains a point of contention, which I prefer not to address, whether they were part of a proto-Taoteching or whether they were merely selections from an already complete text. Still, their discovery has given us a whole new set of variants to consider. And they have given me the excuse to review what I liked about my previous translation and what I didn’t like. No doubt, I will be just as ready to revisit this work again the next time another early copy is unearthed.

Red Pine

Autumn at the Gate, Year of the Ox

Port Townsend, Washington