Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way - Hardcover

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590307445 ISBN 13: 9781590307441

Publisher: Shambhala, 2009

Synopsis

Ursula K. Le Guin, a student of the Tao Te Ching for more than fifty years, offers her own thoughtful rendering of the Taoist scripture. She has consulted the literal translations and worked with the scholar J. P. Seaton to develop a version that lets the ancient text speak in a fresh way to modern people, while remaining faithful to the original Chinese. This rendition reveals the Tao Te Ching’s immediate relevance and power, its depth and refreshing humor, illustrating better than ever before why it has been so loved for more than 2,500 years. Included are Le Guin’s own personal commentary and notes along with two audio CDs of the text read by the author, with original music composed and performed by Todd Barton.

About this title

Review:

Like Stephen Mitchell, acclaimed author and poet Ursula K. Le Guin has attempted a nonliteral, poetic rendition of the Tao Te Ching. She brings to it a punctuated grace that can only have been hammered out during long trials of wordsmithing. The wisdom that she finds in the Tao Te Ching is primal, and her spare, undulating phrases speak volumes. By making the text her own, Le Guin avoids such questions as "Is it accurate?" By making it her own, she has made it for us--a new, uncarved block from which we are free to sculpt our own meaning.

About the Author:

Ursula K. Le Guin is the winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Gandalf, Kafka, and National Book Awards. She is the author of many short stories and more than fifteen novels, including The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. She is also an honored author of children's books, poetry, and criticism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1590307445
• ISBN 13: 9781590307441
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192