Why Did Lao-Tze Say That…
It has been one of the most beautiful winters I have had. Boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower; endless snowfalls roll its waves hour after hour. Matsuo Bashō would be happy to say
“now then, let’s go out
to enjoy the snow… until
I slip and fall!”
いざさらば
雪見に転ぶ
所まで
Still lingering in Bohumil Hrabal’s Too Loud A Solitude, no wonder Confucius after a concert for three months did not know the taste of meat, “I never knew music could reach this level of excellence!”. Almost envy Haňt’a, the compacter of wastepaper and books who lived at the lowest at the low, and who knew Talmud, Hegel, Kant and Schopenhauer by heart, not to mention the appearance of Jesus and Lao-tze standing side by side in his dimly and musty cellar…
Hrabal started to read Lao-tze and his Tao Te Ching before his years in the law school, and legend goes that he read the Classic of the Path and the Virtue once a year till the end of his life. As to the end of Haňt’a’s life after thirty five years with his dear wastepaper, he eventually firsthandly experimented the togetherness of spiral and circle with his own body and flesh, progressus ad futurum meets regressus ad originem. At the last moment of his life, he elucidated his understanding of the tao as
“Why does Lao-tze say that to be born is to exit and to die is to enter? Two things fill my mind with ever new and increasing wonder…”
Hrabal must be quoting 出生入死 at Tao Te Ching, Chapter 50. Though his translation is so different from the understanding from a Chinese point of view, I love this new angle to ponder over life-death relationships.
Lao-tze’s original lines are rather simple,
出生入死。
生之徒，十有三。
死之徒，十有三。
人之生，
動之於死地，
亦十有三。
Here’s some versions of translations. Since the classic has been translated into other languages for more than 250 times and a majority are in English, I wonder whether each of them would have a different maybe even dramatic angulation between life and death, and all spent quite some time weighing the words before any degree of satisfactory?
Men, in being born, emerge; in dying, they enter.
* Commentator:—”The birth of man resembles the emergence of an insect from its grub stage, or larva; when he comes to die, his ### returns to Heaven and his ### to Earth, while his corpse enters the soil.”
There are thirteen organs of life—[the four limbs and nine openings].
There are thirteen causes of death—[the departure of the three souls, the seven spirits, the vital force, the Yin and the Yang].
There are thirteen seats of death in the active life of men—[the eight extremities of the compass and the five elements].
Frederic Henry Balfour, 1884
Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die. Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three are ministers of death.
There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason? Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.
James Legge, 1891
Men go forth from Life and enter into Death.
The Gates of Life are thirteen in number; and the same are the Gates of Death.
By as many ways does life pass quickly into Death. And wherefore?
Because men strive only after the Sensuous Life.
Walter Gorn-Old, 1904
Abroad in life, home in death.
There are thirteen avenues of life; there are thirteen avenues of death; on thirteen avenues men that live pass unto the realm of death.
Now, what is the reason? It is because they live life’s intensity.
D.T. Suzuki & Paul Carus, 1913
Man cometh into life, and returneth again into death.
Three men in ten conserve life; three men in ten pursue death.
Three men also in ten desire to live, but their acts hasten their journey
to the house of death. Why is this? Because of their efforts to
preserve life.
Aleister Crowley, 1923
He who aims at life achieves death.
If the “companions of life” are thirteen,
So likewise are the “companions of death” thirteen.
How is it that the “death-stops” in man’s life
And activity are also thirteen?
It is because men feed life too grossly.
Arthur Waley, 1934
To go out from life is to enter death.
The Knights of Life are thirteen;
The Knights of Death are thirteen.
And most men in living create thirteen vulnerable spots within themselves.
How is that?
Because they are so avid of life.
Herman Ould, 1946
Out of life, death enters.
The companions (organs) of life are thirteen;
The companions (organs) of death are (also) thirteen.
What send man to death in this life are also (these) thirteen.
How is it so?
Because of the intense activity of multiplying life.
Lin Yutang, 1955
Man comes in to life and goes out to death.
Three out of ten are companions of life. Three out of ten are companions of death. And three out of ten in their lives lead from activity to death. And for what reason? Because of man’s intensive striving after life.
Wing-Tsit Chan, 1963
Between birth and death,
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death,
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.
Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English, 1972
The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and her has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
Stephen Mitchell, 1988
Appearing means life disappearing means death
thirteen are the followers of life thirteen are the followers of death but people living to live join the land of death’s thirteen and why because they live to live
Red Pine (Bill Porter), 1996
People born into life enter death.
Constant companion in life
and in death,
this body is the kill-site animating their lives.
And isn’t that because
they think life is the fullness of life?
David Hinton, 2002
A quick search on Amazon shows that new translations emerge like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, from Stephen Mitchell to Worldpeace, and they all have their own voices, maybe that’s why it’s too loud!
And was it Three out of Ten, or Thirteen? Was Lao-tse so much into metaphysics that mathematics was way from being his strong suit? Or he was just testing each of us?
Probably the only exception is http://translate.google.com, who gave me a hard time to figure out the real meaning of life-and-death…
Risk one’s life.
Health of the believers, there are three 10.
Death of the believers, 10 there are three.
People’s health,
Move them to death,
There are also 10 3.