In line 7 Text A has “the mutual harmony of idea and voice” (i instead of yin)—an intriguing variation. Nonetheless, it is not certain that the copyist did not mean “tone” here even though he wrote “idea,” that is, the character meaning “idea” might be an abbreviation of or a loan for the character that means “tone.”
In contrast to the standard Lao-tzu text, the Ma-wang-tui texts in line 2 simply say, “When everyone knows the good,” not “When everyone knows the good as good.” More important is the change to lines 3-9. In the standard text this is a series of statements: “Being and nonbeing produce one another; difficult and easy complete one another,” and so on. Here these lines seem to form a series of nominal phrases that are only defined in line 9 (“These are all constants.”). Line 9 does not occur in any other text of the Lao-tzu. Equally valid grammatically would be the reading “Being is the thing mutually produced by nonbeing, Difficult is the thing mutually produced by easy … These are all constants.”
Note that in the Ma-wang-tui texts, in line 5, long and short mutually “form” (hsing) one another—they do not “compare” or “contrast” (chiao) one another (hsing is a known variant here). And in line 6, high and low mutually “fill” (ying) one another, they do not “overturn” (ch’ing) one another. Note, too, that the Ma-wang-tui texts omit the line found in some texts of Lao-tzu between lines 11 and 12—“He produces them, but he doesn’t own them” (or “They are produced, but he doesn’t own them”—sheng erh pu-yu).
In lines 12 and 13 I think the subject shifts from the “ten thousand things” of line 11 back to “the Sage” of line 10, and thus what is said here of the Sage parallels what is said of the Tao in lines 7-9 of chapter 51. Strictly speaking, the subject should remain the “ten thousand things.” If that is the author’s intent, then we should best translate lines 12 and 13, “They act, but he doesn’t make them dependent; They accomplish their tasks but he doesn’t dwell on them.”
[CHAPTER 3]
1 By not elevating the worthy, you bring it about that people will not compete.
2 By not valuing goods that are hard to obtain, you bring it about that people will not act like thieves.
3 By not displaying the desirable you bring it about that people will not be confused.
4 Therefore, in the government of the Sage:
5 He empties their minds,
6 And fills their bellies.
7 Weakens their ambition,
8 And strengthens their bones.
9 He constantly causes the people to be without knowledge and without desires.
10 If he can bring it about that those with knowledge simply do not dare to act,
11 Then there is nothing that will not be in order.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
What survives of Text A (the first part of line 1, the second part of line 2, parts of lines 3 and 4, lines 8 and 9) is word-for-word the same as Text B.
The only appreciable differences between the Ma-wang-tui texts and other editions of the Lao-tzu occur in lines 3 and 10. Most texts of Lao-tzu have “bring it about that people’s minds will not be confused” in line 3, and in line 10 the standard Lao-tzu text has “He causes the knowledgeable to not dare to act. If he acts without action (wei wu-wei), then there is nothing that will not be in order.”
[CHAPTER 4]
1 The Way is empty;
2 Yet when you use it, you never need fill it again.
3 Like an abyss! It seems to be the ancestor of the ten thousand things.
4 It files down sharp edges;
5 Unties the tangles;
6 Softens the glare;
7 And settles the dust.
8 Submerged! It seems perhaps to exist.
9 We don’t know whose child it is;
10 It seems to have [even] preceded the Lord.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Parts of lines 1, 2, and 7 are missing from Text A. Text A has the synonym hsiao (“deep and still”) for yüan (“abyss”) in line 3, and the jui (“sharp edges”) is omitted in line 4 through—one assumes—copy error.
This chapter varies very little from the standard Lao-tzu form. The yu (“again”) for huo (“perhaps”) in line 2 is a known variant, and the ts’o (“file down”) for ts’o (“press down”) would appear to be the right word. The Ma-wang-tui texts have ying (“fill”) instead of man (“fill”) at the end of line 2. The change to man in later editions was one of a number of substitutions made to avoid the personal name of an emperor, in this case the name of Emperor Hui of the Han (r. 194-187 B.c.), Liu Ying.
“Lord” (Ti) was the name of the supreme deity of the Shang people (traditional dates 1766-1122 B.C.); Ti was also used as a name for the supreme god of the Chou (1122-221 B.C.), though they more commonly used the name “Heaven” (T’ien).
[CHAPTER 5]
1 Heaven and Earth are not humane;
2 They regard the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
3 The Sage is not humane;
4 He regards the common people as straw dogs.
5 The space between Heaven and Earth—is it not like a bellows?
6 It is empty and yet not depleted;
7 Move it and more [always] comes out.
8 Much learning means frequent exhaustion.
9 That’s not so good as holding on to the mean.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Text A has a number of variant characters from B, but they seem to be homophones and/or different ways of writing the same word. Otherwise, Texts A and B are the same.
The Ma-wang-tui texts for line 8 have “Much learning (to-wen) means …” where the standard text has “Much talk” (to-yen). The contrast is being made, I think, between the mind full of facts and the “empty” space between Heaven and Earth, which is somehow “full” and inexhaustible.
The problem of how to read the first four lines is not solved in the Ma-wang-tui texts. One must still choose between a “tough” interpretation, in which Heaven and Earth and the Sage are ruthless in regarding people and things as pawns in a game, versus the “soft” line, where the point is that Heaven and Earth and the Sage see each person and thing as playing a necessary role in the grand cosmic scheme.
Note how the theme of the “seemingly empty continually producing” is continued in chapter 6 (and resumes the opening theme of chapter 4 for that matter).
[CHAPTER 6]
1 The valley spirit never dies;
2 We call it the mysterious female.
3 The gates of the mysterious female—
4 These we call the roots of Heaven and Earth.
5 Subtle yet everlasting! It seems to exist.
6 In being used, it is not exhausted.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
There are no significant differences between Texts A and B, and no significant differences between the Ma-wang-tui version of the chapter and that of the standard text.
[CHAPTER 7]
1 Heaven endures; Earth lasts a long time.
2 The reason why Heaven and Earth can endure and last a long time—
3 Is that they do not live for themselves.
4 Therefore they can long endure.
5 Therefore the Sage:
6 Puts himself in the background yet finds himself in the foreground;
7 Puts self-concern out of [his mind], yet finds self-concern in the fore;
8 Puts self-concern out of [his mind], yet finds that his self-concern is preserved.
9 Is it not because he has no self-interest,
10 That he is therefore able to realize his self-interest?
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Line 7 is not found in Text A and is also not found in any other known edition of the text. It would appear to be copy error.
The opening lines might make more sense if the reader knows that an early Chinese saying about Heaven and Earth was that “Heaven covers and Earth supports,” they cover and support the ten thousand things. So they “live” for the sake of other things.
&n
bsp; [CHAPTER 8]
1 The highest good is like water;
2 Water is good at benefiting the ten thousand things and yet it [does not] compete [with them].
3 It dwells in places the masses of people detest,
4 Therefore it is close to the Way.
5 In dwelling, the good thing is the land;
6 In the mind, the good thing is depth;
7 In giving, the good thing is [being like] Heaven;
8 In speaking, the good thing is sincerity;
9 In governing, the good thing is order;
10 In affairs, the good thing is ability;
11 In activity, the good thing is timeliness.
12 It is only because it does not compete, that therefore it is without fault.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Both texts omit the negative (pu) at the end of line 2: Text A literally has “and yet it has tranquility” (which makes good sense); Text B literally has “and yet it has competition.” A number of scholars have argued that the yu ching in Text A (“has tranquility”) is the intended phrase, and that the yu (“has”) was changed to pu (“does not”) only after the cheng (“competition”) in Text B was understood to be the correct graph. I disagree. For one thing, line 12 assumes that “it does not compete” is a point that was already made, and for another, Text B maintains a clear distinction throughout between ching and cheng—in all cases where the later, standard text has ching (chapters 15, 16, 26, 37, 45, 57, and 61) Text B has ching, and in all cases where the later text has cheng (chapters 3, 8, 22, 66, 68, 73, and 81) Text B has cheng.
In line 3, Text A has simply “masses” instead of “masses of people.” Text A contracts lines 7 and 8, giving “In giving the good thing is sincerity.” In all other respects, Texts A and B are the same.
The standard text of Lao-tzu has jen (benevolence, humanity) for fien (Heaven) at the end of line 7; that is, “In giving the good thing is being humane.”
[CHAPTER 9]
1 To hold it upright and fill it,
2 Is not so good as stopping [in time].
3 When you pound it out and give it a point,
4 It won’t be preserved very long.
5 When gold and jade fill your rooms,
6 You’ll never be able to protect them.
7 Arrogance and pride with wealth and rank,
8 On their own bring on disaster.
9 When the deed is accomplished you retire;
10 Such is Heaven’s Way!
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Most of lines 2, 3, and 10 are now missing from Text A. Text A omits the “be able” (neng) from line 6, giving “You’ll never protect them.”
There are a number of characters in the Ma-wang-tui versions of this chapter that need to be deciphered (e.g., the first characters in lines 1 and 3—which I translate as “to hold upright” and “pound it out”—and my “point” at the end of line 3). In the present state of research, there seems to be no reason not to see these as meaning roughly the same as their equivalents in later texts.
[CHAPTER 10]
1 In nourishing the soul and embracing the One—can you do it without letting them leave?
2 In concentrating your breath and making it soft—can you [make it like that of] a child?
3 In cultivating and cleaning your profound mirror—can you do it so that it has no blemish?
4 In loving the people and giving life to the state—can you do it without using knowledge?
5 In opening and closing the gates of Heaven—can you play the part of the female?
6 In understanding all within the four reaches—can you do it without using knowledge?
7 Give birth to them and nourish them.
8 Give birth to them but don’t try to own them;
9 Help them to grow but don’t rule them.
10 This is called Profound Virtue.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Very little remains of Text A; all is lost with the exception of the second half of line 2, all of lines 3 and 7, and most of line 8. What remains is exactly the same as what we have in B with the exception of one variant character.
Since there is no break, no punctuation, between the end of chapter 9 and the start of chapter 10 in the Ma-wang-tui texts, the evidence is even clearer, I think, that the tsai (or tai) at the start of 10 is in fact the last character of 9, and I have put it there as exclamation (what it normally means at the end of a line). Thus I think chapter 10 opens with ying-p’o pao-i (“nourishing soul, embracing the One”); lines 1-6 all have the same form, a four-character phrase followed by “can you” (neng). The p’o, at least in modern belief, is the “physical soul” (versus the hun or spiritual soul), the soul that stays with or near the body for a while in the grave while the hun goes on through the cycle of rebirth.
In line 3 the Ma-wang-tui texts seem to solve the problem of whether lan means “mirror” or “vision”; the character used in the Ma-wang-tui texts is understood to mean a bowl of water in which one can see one’s image.
The phrase “without using knowledge” at the end of line 6 where a number of other Lao-tzu texts have “without taking action” (wu-wei) is a known, in fact common, variant.
The standard Lao-tzu text adds a line between lines 8 and 9—“Cause them to act but not be dependent.”
[CHAPTER 11]
1 Thirty spokes unite in one hub;
2 It is precisely where there is nothing, that we find the usefulness of the wheel.
3 We fire clay and make vessels;
4 It is precisely where there’s no substance, that we find the usefulness of clay pots.
5 We chisel out doors and windows;
6 It is precisely in these empty spaces, that we find the usefulness of the room.
7 Therefore, we regard having something as beneficial;
8 But having nothing as useful.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Most of lines 1 and 2 are missing in Text A along with all of line 5.
It has long been thought that the variant single character “thirty” in line 1 (sa) in place of the normal two-character phrase san-shih (“three tens”) resulted from later attempts to pare down the number of characters in the text as a whole. But sa is what we find in the Ma-wang-tui texts.
In line 3 where the standard text has “to mix clay” (yen) the Ma-wang-tui texts have a character that seems to mean “bake” or “fire” (jan).
Line 5 in the standard text of Lao-tzu reads, “We bore out doors and windows to make a room.” The parallelism with the other lines seems to demand these words, but they are not found in the Ma-wang-tui texts.
[CHAPTER 12]
1 The five colors cause one’s eyes to go blind.
2 Racing horses and hunting cause one’s mind to go mad.
3 Goods that are hard to obtain pose an obstacle to one’s travels.
4 The five flavors confuse one’s palate.
5 The five tones cause one’s ears to go deaf.
6 Therefore, in the government of the Sage:
7 He’s for the belly and not for the eyes.
8 Thus he rejects that and takes this.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Text A has “see clearly” (ming) for “blind” (mang) in line 1 in what must be copyist error.
The order of lines 1-5 differs in the Ma-wang-tui texts from what we normally find. In the standard Lao-tzu the sequence is 1, 5, 4, 2, 3. One might surmise that a later editor went to that sequence to put the three “five” lines together. The five colors are green, red, yellow, white, and black: the five flavors are sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and pungent: the five tones are the tones of the Chinese musical scale, C, D, E, G, and A.
Line 6 in the standard Lao-tzu simply says, “Therefore the Sage,” not “Therefore in the government of the Sage.” This is one of several places in the Ma-wang-tui texts where they seem more directly concerned with governing than do later editions of the Lao-tzu.
[CHAPTER 13]
1 “Regard favo
r and disgrace with alarm.”
2 “Respect great distress as you do your own person.”
3 What do I mean when I say “Regard favor and disgrace with alarm”?
4 Favor is inferior.
5 If you get it—be alarmed!
6 If you lose it—be alarmed!
7 This is what I mean when I say “Regard favor and disgrace with alarm.”
8 What do I mean when I say “Respect great distress as you do your own person”?
9 The reason why I have great distress
10 Is that I have a body.
11 If I had no body, what distress would I have?
12 Therefore, to one who values acting for himself over acting on behalf of the world,
13 You can entrust the world.
14 And to one who in being parsimonious regards his person as equal to the world,
15 You can turn over the world.
COMMENTS AND NOTES
Text A has a number of different graphs in various places, but the intended word and meaning would seem to be the same in each case.
In a few editions of the Lao-tzu line 4 reads, “Favor is superior; disgrace is inferior.” That reading is not confirmed by these texts. Line 4, nonetheless, feels out of place—like an editorial aside.
Lao-Tzu- Te-Tao Ching Page 13