This English translation presents the 71
Lao Zi bamboo slips, dating back to about 300 BCE, texts that are the oldest parts of what later became known as the oTao Te Kingo or oTao Te Ching.o It presents the Tao Bamboo Slips in modern simplified Chinese characters, with commentaries and a comparison of the modern Chinese version to the old characters, as well as including the text oThe Great One gave Birth to Water,o which was found with the other Bamboo Slips of
Lao Zi in the Guodian tomb in 1993.
(i) The English title of the Chinese ancient classic
Lao Zi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (
Lao Zi: The Book of Tao and Teh) (also called
Lao Zi (Lao Tzu), The Book of Tao Teh Chin or The Book of
Lao Zi) is borrowed from Professor Gu Zhengkun (see Gu Zhengkun,
Lao Zi: The Book of Tao and Teh (2nd edition).
(243) Esslin thinks that Brecht simply seeks a reconciliation between his demand for radical social change and "a yearning for the quiet, passive acceptance of the world" (243), a sentiment shared by Brecht and Lao Zi. By setting Marxism and Daoism in opposition, Esslin argues for the complexity of Brecht's works in the sense that Daoism offsets Brecht's radical demand for violent change.
As early as 1920 Brecht had began to read Lao Zi's Tao Te Ching and recognized an analogy between his ideas and those of Lao Zi, as he writes in his diaries: "But he [Frank Warschauer] introduced me to Lao Tzu, who agrees with me about so many things that he keeps on being astonished ...
Xun Zi's idea is both a re-emphasis of the shenxiu found in the The Great Learning--which promised that "when the self is cultivated, the whole family and country will be regulated"--and also an extension of the Taoist body-discourse of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.
Lao Zi's original reads: "yi qi [shengren] bu zheng, gu tianxia mo neng ncng yu zhi zheng." Dao De Jing, Chapter 66.
The idea of Yin and Yang come from
Lao Zi, the founder of Taoism, and a classic Confucian text, the I Ching.
Kong Zi, after having formulated his thought, went eagerly to consult
Lao Zi on his idea of Li, [rites or ceremonies]
Lao Zi answered, 'All those man of whom you speak have long since smoldered away with their bones.