with Introduction, "Transliteration, and Laotze's Tao-Té-Ching. Chinese-English,
Notes, by'Dr. Paul Carus. C! o: The Open Court Publishing Company. London: Kegan Paul, Tronch, fribyner & Ca. 83.00.
This is a rather attractive-looking volume of 345 pages, the object of which is the Iaudable one of bringing the Tao-te-ching within reach of everybody, and secondly to offer to the student of Comparati Religions a version which shall be a fai ful reproduction not only' of the' sense, but of all the' characteristic qualities, especially'the térsenéss'and the ruggedness of the style. The: Introduction covers 47 pages, and considers The Old Philosopher Fundaniental Principles of Laotze's Philosophy The Ideal' of Laotze's Edicts; Tuoism before and after Laotze: with an examination' of the quotations in the
explanation of the present edition, in Tao-te-ching, A pose is then given to an which it appears that it is based' upon a comparison of five separate versions, four of which are published in Tokio, and and in France. Then comes the text, arranged as in Chinese in perpendicular columns, but reading from left to right, as if in English. The text is prefaced by the extract from the historian, Sze: Ma Chien, containing. the report of an interview between Confucius and: Laotée, which is considered to be'the most authentic account of that interesting event, for the reason that Chuangtze, who gives th other one, "writes as a litterateur, whil Sze Ma Chien is conscious of the historian's duties." translation of the Tao-te-ching te chap-Following this we have 63 pages of
ters, but disregarding the subdivisions. After this follows the principal portion of the work, namely the transliteration of the text, character by character, not merely transliterated but translated, so that it is possible to see exactly what the translator considered the force of any particular word to be. Notes and. Comments are appended to the -extanb of, 47" more: pages, ands Chinese-Baglish Index of 18 pages The student of Chinese will occasionally come'upon a sentence in the Tao-te-ching brings up the fear, which he recognises as a current proverb, The author of this translation is known but it must be confessed that they are few. as a contributor to the Parliament of- Re: One of them is the last clause of chapter Tigions, of a Paper on Science:.a Religious EXXDI: Heaven's net is vast, so vast, Revdlation. He is also the author.of at wide-meshed, but-it-loses: nothing," which least _a, dozen volumes, on such topics. the translator compares with Logan's lines, as Fundamental. Problems,, Homilies. of familiar in the rendering of. Longfellow; Science, The Soul of Man, Truth in "Though the mills of God grind slowly, Fiction; and three on various aspects of Yet they grind exceeding small. Buddhism.
Though with patience he stands. waiting.
'There area good many' of us who have With exactness grinds he all."" worried along in China for a term of years It_ goes without saying that the'task of: and:-yet have not come to any realising: obtaining sufficient acquaintance with the sense of the wisdom contained in' the Tao-Chinese language to translate, under. the teching. It is relatively a rare book among conditions named, a book like that of Lao-the Chinese themselves, and probably. tze; is a gigantic one. Dr. Carus's success nowhere more so- than~ among: the is little short of marvellous. He frequently. Taoist Priests. The. text of the Classic cites the versions of others, nonic of which contains only 5,320 characters but' its terseness is so extreme, that: it "is in i in the extracts given, it seems clear that hiippen to be at hand for comparison, but many places susceptible of widely different Dr. Carus"has succeeded better than Dr. interpretations. Unlike some'other trans-Legge or Dr. Chalinersin the passages wher laters Dr. Carus has endeavoured to pre" we are able to compare them—a, very serve in his English rendering some! markable fact indeed. Among diction: like the rhythm and rhyme of the o1 he seems to have been most indebted to Di Here is " citation from Chapter XXI, which Williams whom ho styles Prof. Williams, will exhibit the task which lies before one. and does not appear to have heard of Giles, who wishes to combine the conttadicto: whose extreme paucity in definitions would, predicates about the Tao, or Reason, whicl however, have been most trying to a ig the theme of the Book translator of the Tao-te-ching. Ae'a result "Vast Virtue's form of a mixture of authorities, Dr. Carus's Follows Reason's norm. spelling of Chinese is a compound of And Reason's nature a singular consistency or inconsistency. The "man" character (jen) for example, ho Is vague and eluding.
'How eluding and how vague, sometimes gives as jhren," and somo-All types including. times as "jan." He applied' to Mr. Candlin of Tientsin for advice, who, only How vogue and eluding took. advantage of the opportunity to All beings including.
How deep, and how obscure. furnish the author with the eccentric Tt harbours the spirit pure, produnciations of that metropolis—such as Whose truth is ever sure, teu for chih, ts'a for ch'a, ote., and all these are faithfully inserted in brackets, Whose faith abides for aye as variant readings! Dr. Clu Bose is From of yore until to-day Its name is without cessation. quoted on the present style of living of It watches the world's formation." the Taoist Pope, and' is referred to (page 40) merely as Bose! The Chinese char-"Whereby'do I know that it watches the acters are remarkably clear and well print-world's formation? By this same Reason."
In Chapter IV we are told that Reason is ed, though on page"184 a Chow (Jif) is empty, but its use is inexhaustible, The not quite complete. Wo have noted a fow Old Philosopher, dropping, like the late Mr. Wogg, into poetry, adds Pang, for Li Pang, p. S04 ant for chi misprints in Chinese: words, page 39, Lin
(or-chih). So also on page 184 the word "It will blunt its own sharpness, "'containing" is short one letter, and Will its tangles adjust, 289 evel" represents level, and on page It will dim its own radiance 307°" Fowett"" stands for Jowett.
And be one with its dust.'
The character ch'a (ZB), to examine, la 'The reader, it is to be presumed, is a translated, page 176, by the colloquialism, little confused. with this ied metaphor, "smart," and on page 297 there is the but Dr. Carus, while admitting that it is strange' word ''maharism," apparently 10 difficult to give an exact translation, ex-coined out of Sanscrit materials. plains it with admirable lucidity thus: Wo repeat that Dr. Carus' book is a "Tt means that the Tao's sameness, its own truly remarkable achievement, but as to its identity, is preserved even in the smallest value in extending the sum of human know-and' most contemptible of things, viz., in ledge, we do not even venture an opinion. the motes'of the dust. The purely formal Wo are, however, reminded of an anecdote laws of logic, mathematics," and pare of Douglas Jerrold at a time when he bad mechanics are the same for stars and for been weakened by a long illness, and barely convalescent. His tired wife was allowed One more example of the toils of him to leave him when he attained the point of who essays to interpret Laotze, must ting up in bed, and he took a book to suffice. The title of chapter LXXT is " Chih' ing," (chih, to know, and ping, sickness) Browning's Sordello. Jerrold read a few amuse himself withal. It hagpsosd to be The eight characters next following are enterices, re-read them, and then a horrible these: Chih pu chih shang, pu chih chih idea flashed upon him. The perspiration ving, SUARSE streamed down his face, as ho struv with the sentences, for it had occurred to After mature reflection it would appear him that perhaps he was losing his intellect that these words ought to mean: (You may) a result of his fever. Holding his finger Know (but you do) not know (the) to) in the to keep the place, he waited (although you do) not know (you) know sic! most impatiently until his wife reappeared, ness; But see how clear it becomes when when he' burst out with: Read that! translated by Dr. Carus. "To know the read that! Tell me what it means." Mrs. unknowable that is elevating; not to know Jerrold glanced two or three. times' over the knowable that is sickness." This la the page, and' remarked with feminine further elucidated by the two following decisiveness: Bother the stuff, who knows sentences; Only by becoming sick of aickwhat it means?". Jerrold' clasped: his ness we can be without sick: hands to his head- and cried. wi man is not sick. Because hi light: "Thank God, I am not an idiot ness, therefore, he is not In spite of all the explanations about the that the uninitiated reader will involuntarily unreasoned reason, we are by. no means exclaim: "How vague and eluding, sure that we have a clear idea what it is.
How eluding and vague!"
We trust others may be more fortunate.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.