Відео

For me, the Dao is ...

japanese is closer to turkish than it is to Chinese

Dao4 de3 jing1 that is popularized I heard does not jive with older versions that had been unearthed recently. They are suspecting that the current popularized version of Dao De Jing was edited by Confucian scholars to suit to their taste. Laozi and Confucius do not share philosophy at all. Confucius just wanted to be a bureaucrat but Laozi wanted to flow with nature. Confucius is proactive and Laozi is not. He recommended non-interference or no unnecessary interference. Laozi is a minimalist. The current popular printed version of Dao De Jing should not be trusted.

Very good video. I heard about a so called "School of Yin Yang" born also in that Warring States period. ¿Have you heard of it? I wonder if you can make a video about it.

Great job

My favorite translations, from someone who doesn't read Chinese but can appreciate those who engage with the text in a respectful manner: Jonathan Star, Ames and Hall, Ellen Chen, and Derek Lin.

I cringe every time I see someone quoting Mitchell's TTC. More than once I've seen someone quoting Laozi and thinking it was one of the frequent misquotes floating around online, until I double-checked and realized it came from Mitchell. In Christian circles, there's a very loose paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, which most commentators advise people to stay far away from, because the text is so far removed from the original that it confuses the message at best and misrepresents it at worst. Mitchell's book is sort of like a Taoist version of The Message.

Ziporyn, Lynn, and Moeller (who I have read excerpts of) are great. I will be reading Yang Peng’s and Paul Fischer’s translations, both of which I expect to be very good because they are actually scholars. As far as the duds, Jonathan Star’s translation is quite bad, but doesn’t seem as bad as Mitchell’s. John Heider’s version is even worse than Mitchell’s (truly terrible to behold). I find it very helpful to be able to read Classical Chinese and thus see for myself how close a translation is to the original. My knowledge of the language isn’t perfect, but I’m a lot more confident and at ease reading it than I was in the beginning (when reading was frustrating and even anxiety inducing). I enjoy puzzling over issues of how passages should be best translated, given the ambiguity of the Daodejing and the challenging aspects of Classical Chinese grammar. Chapter 60, which seems to contradict itself, is a good example of how translation can be a puzzle in its own right.

This is why Heidegger matters. Thank you.

So good

Is it me or is his voice magical?

As a former Greek Orthodox priest and a student of apophasis in that tradition, this was a wonderful superb video. One cannot read the Tao Te Ching and not wonder if these words did not touch that other master in the Levant.

As a Christian and maybe a naturally overoptimistic person, I see evidence that 'God works all things for the good of those who love him,' as a promise. With every potentially devastating blow, I see an opportunity for God to wow me once more with how he makes beauty from ashes.

So meta! Just knowing that a bunch of us humans invest in exploring philosophical thoughts backed by our own life experiences is so heart warming and exciting.

The mountain in your logo all a sudden popped out among the water after this episode! : ) Thank you for creating these timeless content.

be here now do no harm help others be still close eyes listen to your breathing.

I can't believe he got away with "Live Laugh Loving" the literal dao de jing...

The correct stroke order for 回 ends with the bottom line; outside to inside is a good rule, but a huge exception is that you have to fill the box before you close it (closing on the bottom of course). That said, great video. I’d love to take a look at the ancients and the resources mentioned here sound pretty tempting. 謝謝你

Youre more in love with pedantic details than the truth of the dao de jing itself

Daoism and Libertarianism does share a lot of parallels e.g. with its critique on authority, and focus on the individual. You are spot on in pointing out certain pitfalls that can arise from these similarities. Excellent video. It was commented elsewhere that Liberalism could be compatable with Daoism. I think a main difference between the two is that Liberalism is not shy about politics and governance in the way Daoism is. I personally think there is merit to associating the two, but I respect the perspective that calling Daoism as "laissez-faire" is a bit of a stretch due to its apolitical tradition.

Thank you

Wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful.

Rare and precious!

By perpetuating incorrect chronologies you sow confusion instead of enlightenment. Classical Chinese did NOT extend from the Warring states period to 1919. Whatever dates you wish to use, Classical Chinese gradually changed into Literary Chinese which by the Qing era was fully established as a written language even though the ancient classics were still studied and revered. There are, in my opinion, three different languages we are talking about. Classical Chinese, Literary Chinese (more modern) and Spoken Chinese with, of course, elements of colloquialisms. Scholars can argue about the time periods. The point I want to make is that even though all three use the same characters, the syntax and use of the 3 languages has differences and must, again in my opinion, be studied as three different things despite obvious overlaps.

Cool video, but you actually wrote 回 wrong. You should do the vertical, then the upside down-mirrored L shaped stroke (I don't know how to call this particular stroke in English, sorry), then fully write the inner 口, and only at the end complete the hole character closing the outer 口 with the horizontal stroke.

Man in demand

Thankfully, the most important Chinese philosopher didn't write in classical Chinese. 毛主席万岁，中国共产党万岁

It’s just a traditional and cultural practice/event to me. In comparison to other religions, Chinese religion is more of a service provider for supernatural/spiritual related issues. Feeling lost? Need advice? Go get a divination. Feeling unlucky? Go get a blessing. Feel haunted? Go get a exorcism rituals done. Feeling thankful? Go make a prayer. It’s irrelevant if it works, it’s just for a peace of mind. Most Chinese are pragmatic but there are times when things get tough and are beyond individual efforts, we turn to faith.

you might be mixing things up with classical chinese and japanese - for quite some time after the introduction of writing in japan, japanese were using actual classical chinese for writing, first using pronunciations derived from chinese, then mixing in more and more native pronunciations, then manyogana and hiragana/katakana, which then paved way for the bulk of kanbun corpus - wenyan with furigana and/or okurigana and other gloss. But in the beginning of japanese writing, the language they used was actually classical chinese. Another note is that written language was already quite different from spoken vulgar chinese at the time of contact, so having one language for speaking and another for writing was nothing new and it could be that chinese monks sold the idea bundled with writing, especially considering it was more or less the same in other countries china came in contact with

明 is actually a pictogram - moon shining through the window 囧, the sun radical in modern kaishu from is from caoshu via xingshu. stroke order is messed up, and i would argue that the stroke order in chinese characters makes a lot of sense. oh, and classical chinese most likely wasn't a tone-prominent language

Just found this from a 3 year old Reddit post.

Death also isn't the end. A continuation through one's offspring is essentially immortality. It is an eternal life, even if you don't personally witness all of it. Not much different than not witnessing the night while you sleep.

Well done! Having practiced Buddhism and now studying western philosophy, I’m finding their understanding of Buddhism to be very surface level, academic, and non-experiential. Sure Schopenhauer was a nihilist, perhaps the first doomer, and yes from many of my reading of Nietzsche I’ve seen some Buddhist ideas. But, frankly his understanding of Buddhism seems juvenile, but I’ll admit that I find his writing painful to read. Interesting to think about. Thanks!

Thanks!! This was exactly what I was looking for. I did Jesus first. Seems his Myth was created like Lao Tzu's....for political reasons....2000 years and corrupt politicians(which is ALL of them) are still doing it. crazy world

It’s sad because it’s a beautifully written work and I find some of his verses great, but I wish he was more respectful of the original intentions and didn’t misrepresent it. Millions of people think they know Lao Tzu but it’s actually just Mitchell.

Very nice work! We also believe that both presocratic philosophers complement each other in terms of being as a whole!!

Eleatic philosophy is just the result of a limited archaic language wherein uttering "yes" and "no" involves a determination regarding the reality or unreality of the objects mentioned in the statements.

I'll disagree. Even worse - way worse - than translating a Daoist text without understanding Chinese, is to try it without following the Way. For example in those first two lines you've criticized. They are saying the same thing. Transcendental reality is nameless and from linguistic dualism rises ten thousand things. If both sentences mean the same thing and point at the same thing, and if his version became more popular, it is hard to understand how using a noun instead of a verb has any significance in "better" communicating the book. Scholars are usually silly - often mocked by Daoists - and this is a good example. I can see by your video how his version is sloppy, but whatever flaws he had (I myself had never heard of him before and naturally have also never read his version), sounds to me like he was a man of the Way, while you're not. Simply replacing Chinese characters by English words is "the better better way of communicating the book" about the nameless Dao? If you think about it for a while, your belly will hurt from laughing. What's the problem with changing war horses for warheads? No wonder his version is more popular and you are salty! My friend, you should try to comment on Confucianism or something like that... Sounds to me like you're the bad commentator on Daoism here :( Having a rigorous translation is for academics, but how could academics understand the Way? Better a version that normal people can understand and actually practice.

What is bad human nature oppreasion,deceit,racism,colonialism ?????

Buddha may be Nietzhe's Übermensch then

Thnxs brodhisattva!

The ideas of dostoyewski and nietsche are similir but while dostoyewaki advocated caution nietache wanted it right away Well it went exactly as predicted Bloodbath and destruction of europe. He infamosly stated we should all become roscolnikoffs

You ever coming back bro?

Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust , hitler read ye well. ?

Damn. This was awesome!!! Gonna go die now and watch more of your videos!

amazing video thank you🫶🏻🫶🏻

I am watching this video after buying James legge's translation

Amazing, ty

Okay but wasn’t Buddha still escaping suffering through negating-the-will and asceticism (non-action)? Just because Buddhists describe this process with a positive connotation leading to tranquility, which he doesn’t deny, doesn’t mean in Nietzsche’s view this isn’t pessimistic. Maybe I’m still misunderstanding but wouldn’t Nietzsche say yes to life whereas Buddha would recluse away from it, with the ultimate goal to the destruction of the self?

Hey what pen are you using in the video to write the characters ?