Publisher's Synopsis
Lao Zi's book, Dao De Jing, contains the most fundamental and comprehensive philosophy in traditional Chinese culture, and it represents the highest achievement of Chinese academic study. This book uses the knowledge of science and ancient Chinese language to interpret and verify the value of Dao De Jing, and makes a comparison with Western philosophy. It has transformed the ancient wisdom into a subject that can be easily understood with modern language, and revived the way of academic thinking of the ancient Chinese scholars. The modern value of Dao De Jing lies in its ability to enlighten our wisdom and our mind's potential to understand the nature of everything. Therefore, it is a philosophy from which we could benefit for a lifetime. Dao De Jing has been translated into many other languages; there have been more than ten different versions in English alone. Unfortunately, it varied from version to version, due to the great differences in language and culture between today and 2500 years ago, which made it difficult for modern people to understand. As a result, misunderstandings and distortions of original meanings have been generated. Even in the modern circle of Chinese culture, Dao De Jing is interpreted differently by different people, which resulted in some controversial explanations. Misunderstandings, distortions and metaphysical interpretations are widespread, and have made this philosophy lose its original profile, so that it tends to be ignored. Without a correct interpretation in the first place, it is impossible for it to be translated into other languages correctly and meaningfully. Once we have recognized the real value of Dao De Jing, we would be able to compare it to science, and see how the traditional Chinese culture has lost its way. (The current edition of the book is in Chinese).
