Tao Te Ching · Chapter
The Texts of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang-Tzŭ Shu, as Regards Their Authenticity and Genuineness, and the Arrangement of Them explained
This chapter examines the textual history, authenticity, and arrangement of the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-Tzŭ Shu.
What happens
This chapter examines the textual history, authenticity, and arrangement of the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-Tzŭ Shu. It presents evidence for the Tao Te Ching's genuineness, including early quotations by Ssŭ-ma Chʽien, Han Fei, and Huai-nan Tzŭ, and traces its transmission through imperial library catalogues, commentaries by Ho-shang Kung, Wang Pi, and others, and the division into chapters. It also briefly discusses the Chuang-Tzŭ Shu's textual tradition.
Themes in this chapter
The Tao as the Ultimate Principle
The chapter discusses the Tao Te Ching's focus on the Tao and its characteristics, as reflected in the title and content of the work.
Sage Rulership and Governance
The text's association with Han emperors and its use as a standard authority (ching) for study at court highlights its relevance to governance.
Characters to notice
- Laozi
Attributed author of the Tao Te Ching; his biography and the circumstances of the book's composition are discussed.
- Ssŭ - ma Chʽien
First great Chinese historian; his account of Laozi and quotations from the Tao Te Ching are cited as evidence of authenticity.
- Wang Pi
Early commentator on the Tao Te Ching; his text and commentary are highly prized and used by later scholars.
- Ho - shang Kung
Traditional commentator attributed with the division of the Tao Te Ching into eighty-one chapters.
- Huai - nan Tzŭ
Author of the Huai-nan Tzŭ; his many quotations from the Tao Te Ching are used as evidence of its early circulation.
- Han Fei
Voluminous author who died in 230 BC; his works contain numerous quotations from the Tao Te Ching.
- Herbert A. Giles
Modern scholar who questioned the authenticity of the Tao Te Ching; his views are referenced as a point of controversy.
- Wu Chʽêng
Later commentator who rearranged the Tao Te Ching into sixty-seven chapters without curtailing the text.
Key passages
“Ssŭ-ma Chʽien tells us that, as the treatise came from Laozi, it contained more than 5,000 characters; that is, as one critic says, 'more than 5,000 and fewer than 6,000.'”
According to Ssŭ-ma Chʽien, the original text by Laozi had between 5,000 and 6,000 characters.
This establishes the traditional length of the Tao Te Ching.
“Of the eighty-one chapters, either the whole or portions of seventy-one are found in those two writers.”
Seventy-one out of the eighty-one chapters of the Tao Te Ching are quoted in whole or in part by Han Fei and Huai-nan Tzŭ.
This demonstrates the extensive early attestation of the text.