Tao Te Ching recommended translation
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I was browsing Amazon and was a little overwhelmed by the number of translations of this text. My initial thought is just to buy the cheapest one and that will probably do fine. Is there any consensus on THE best, from a Thelemic point of view, version to read?
Thanks,
Jim C.
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Crowley's is excellent in its own way - possibly the most technically correct expression of the original ideas.
But this isn't always the most important thing for the TTK. For conveying the underlying feel of what is being set in the most deeply penetrating way, I don't think you can do better than Jane English's translation paired with Gia-Fu Feng's photographic illustrations.
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Thanks for the quick response. Ordered!
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I love the two Jim mentioned. My personal favorite is Red Pine's translation www.amazon.com/Lao-tzus-Taoteching-Lao-Tzu/dp/1556592906.
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Well, I prefer poking my nose in an already existing thread instead of creating a new one : I studied taoism for about two years. I began to read liber CLVII, and it's difficult to define if this translation is a good one or not. A common objection to liber CLVII is To Mega Therion read an ancient chinese text with his own philosophy ; this does not seem relevant to me, but since I do not speak chinese (like, I suppose, a lot of persons there), I am wondering how to consider this book. As it was said above, there are many versions of the Tao Te King ; finding a good one using the same philosophy as Lao Tze (if this wise man existed) is for me an hard task.
I know that the particularity of Crowley's version is it has been written with qabbalistic systems... But with a spiritual and textual point of view, is this the best way to understand this great classic with its true meanings ?