Vol 10, Issue 4/2002

Laozi and the wild 13

On the difficulties of reading the Daodejing. By Yürgen Oster

Many types of Qigong and Taijiquan have their roots in Daoism and these philosophical connections are stressed particularly in the west. But most people face the problem of having to decipher this teaching from written translations, and translations from the
Chinese are known for the limitations of content and interpretation. Classical texts such as the Daodejing, which is difficult to understand in the original, proove to be particularly difficult. Yürgen Oster who has been looking at these classical writings for many years, uses some examples from the text to show how different translations of Laozis verses can be. Depending on the intention of the translator they can become
advice for political leaders, instructions for meditation or for maintaining well-being or general wisdoms of life.


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