The problem is that our ancestors did not have a good back-up system, so there are three ‘principle’ ancient Chinese versions plus ever older versions dated back to 2nd century BCE coming out from new excavations… I had difficulty to reach an agreement with my father on interpretation in modern Chinese on almost every other chapter.

Then there are the limitations of cross culture translation itself. Is the philosophy to be as faithful as possible when rendering the original meaning? Or should an individual interpretation although less scholarly as better way to convey the perspective? Stephen Mitchell’s, for instance, was criticized for deviating from the text and incompatible with the history of Chinese thought. Are lucidity and humor disrespectful, or even as some argue, based on Western Orientalist fantasies? Or for sacred texts at the Tao Te Ching, it is good enough if meets the need of spiritually of the targeted audience?

The book has been translated more than 250 times into other languages, at least 120 in English and almost every year there are new interpretations, our Red Pine version was published just several months ago. As a young student with little talent and less learning, I am in awe of all their words…

Many studies have been conducted on comparison of different translations, no conclusion yet, and maybe will never be.

The following capture the essence for me:

Crowley
Blackney
Lau
Feng
Pine

This really illustrates a few things:
– the subtle nature of the dao
– the difficulty of translation
– the activeness of la flaneurse’s mind

Bravo !!!!