A classic of philosophy and a pleasure to revisit. I picked this up because I enjoy Ken Liu, and I really appreciated his notes throughout the text grappling with the translation and meaning of the Dao De Jing. It made the translator feel like a knowledgeable friend reading alongside you.

I included my thoughts about this book in my review here: what if we're wrong? | september reading and channel update
https://youtu.be/U6H4vOwD0lg

In short, I thought that Ken Liu’s translation was a breath of fresh air for a text that can be kind of impenetrable to some. His insights into to historical context of when the text was released, along with stories from the same time period that illuminated who Lao Zi was, made it extra special. Ken is a master storyteller in his own right, and for him to present this as a piece of translation to the world is a gift. Whether in translation or his own fiction, I am happy to read anything that Ken shares with his readers.

What does a fan writer do, after winning a Hugo award?

They challenge themselves. Because, why not? I conquered a mountain, been recognized by my peers. Why not go for a book that people might not expect to read, especially a book that the author himself never expected to ever writer.

Or maybe they go for something out of their comfort zone. Find new vistas.

Fortunately, for me, I found a book that does all of that.

And so we come to Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time by Ken Liu

Ken Liu calls this "A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time", but I would argue that the subtitle of the original Cosmos series by Carl Sagan "A personal voyage" fits even better. This is an extremely personal work by Liu. He started it in the middle of the pandemic, in a bout of being unable to write fiction. He decided on reading, and then engaging with Laozi's text, and then deciding on a translation of the same.

So what we have here is a very personal work, we get chapters of Laozi's words, we get parables, stories that look at his philosophy (particularly from the works of Zhuangzi ), and we get Liu engaging with the text and thinking about it. It's a condensed volume, and if you decide to try and bull through it, it will go by quickly in a whirlwind. But I think that this is a book to keep on your shelf, to dip into and to think about the ideas that Liu is bringing to you from someone who lived c. 2400 years ago, and in his words as translated by Liu.(1)

Thus, the other book that this book makes me think of is Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise Of The Music Of Language by Douglas Hofstadter (whom, if you have ever heard of him, is probably because of Godel Escher Bach). That book is in praise and deep thought about the art and the act of translation, and what translation means, for a 28 line poem, running it through a number of translators and different translations. The point of the book is that translation is a very personal act, and there is no one "true" or "right" translation. There are no correct translations, there are only plausible translations. Liu time and again in the work (particularly in the beginning but throughout the text) talks about word choice, and idea choice and how he presents an idea, especially ones unfamiliar to western readers.

What this all comes down to, in a slim volume (176 HC pages), is that this is a refined but intensely thought about translation of a Chinese Classic in the process of translating it.

I do hope that working through this, and through his own experience with the Dao has helped Liu with his work. And I think there is something to that, because this is a very chatty text. Liu talks about his translation as he gives it to you, and he notes, later in the book, that he found himself getting out of the way of the text and letting Laozi's words speak for themselves.

But one must be reminded that Laozi's own words are relatively spare, spartan. They aren't just a series of pithy worthless aphorisms, and they are not a series of nuggets of wisdom, either. It's a text with a lot of contradictions, a lot of ambiguity, a lot of thought. It's a series of sharp knives, made out of water. Water is the theme of a lot of Daozi's words and thought. I think of the words of Laozi as translated here by Ken Liu like mountain tarns--well polished, done, but there is a mystery to many of them. One can't embody or even take in all of what is here, and Liu makes the point again and again that you can't.

I feel that this book has given me an insight to a philosophy that, really, I've only encountered in diluted aphorisms and quotations in movies, particularly, but also the occasional book. The Water Margin (and the Water Outlaws by S L Huang) in particular) had plenty of references to the work of Laozi in just the word choice and language. It's impossible for it not to, just as anyone raised Christian or in a Christian society is going to use concepts, ideas and phrases from the Bible, even without knowing that is what they are doing.

Is this a book worth buying and reading? I think yes. It gives insight into the author's engagement with Dao. It will likely give you your first real engagement with the Dao, in a way divorced from self-help books and other schemes that have tried to use Laozi's words in the past. And again, it is telling that as the book goes through, Liu got "out of the way" of the words of the sage (as much as one can...after all, this is a translation). But I would advise you take this book slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully.

The Dao is like the ocean, or like water. You read this, and the stories and commentary, and let it pass through you, and let what will change you, change you. But you may not see or know that change, until you dip into it again, and again, and take away what you will of it.

Liu does go into the biography of Laozi, as much as we know it. He also spends a lot of time talking about two relatively recent (in the last 3 decades) discovery of versions of the work that throw the original text into a new light. Liu explains at length his engagement with the "standard" text, versus these new texts that have been found. The contemporary Christian example this reminds me of is the Dead Sea Scrolls and what they tell us about Jewish thought in that era versus the texts we've had in the past.

This book could not have been read at a better time as I’ve been experiencing a challenging season of change and found comfort in reading this book. I really appreciate the approach Ken Liu took in translating and exploring Laozi’s Dao De Jing. I personally always appreciate learning the historical backgrounds and contexts where theologies and philosophies originate. This book doesn’t read like a textbook and invokes a spirit of learning and exploring with gentle guidelines and boundaries for Dao making it both welcoming and comforting.

I probably would never have picked up this book if it weren't for the fact that Ken Liu is the translator. I have so many books and so little time, and reading about religion in my free time is not high on my list of priorities. However, I really enjoyed what he did with Liu Cixin's <a href="https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/07/31/the-three-body-problem-by-liu-cixin/">The Three Body Problem</a>, and while I haven't had time to read his original speculative fiction yet, I very much want to. When I heard that he was tackling a classic of Chinese literature and philosophy, I absolutely had to take a look at the result.

I freely admit that I did not know much about the original Dao De Jing before starting this, so my reading of this book comes entirely from the perspective of a novice who is only mostly familiar with East Asian culture, having grown up in Southeast Asia myself (yes, there is a difference. Yes, I am better positioned to discuss the subject than the average Westerner. Yes, there is still so much I have to learn.) I also realized as I was reading this that I have no interest in critiquing the content of what's basically a foundational text for a major world religion. While such commentary may occasionally creep into this review, I really only want to talk about the experience of reading Mr Liu's interpretation, as well as the insight he gives to his own process of translation, in addition to the choices he makes to interject other anecdotes of Daoism into the text. For adequate compensation, I'd definitely take the considerable time I'd need to think out the parallels between my work as a reviewer navigating that challenge with the translator's as a conduit for messages left by the great. Alas that this website is primarily a labor of love of the written word, and not something that (yet, I hope) pays a living wage.

But love, ah love is one of the foundations of Daoism, at least as expressed in this text. Love and humility and a surrender to the order of the cosmos: those are the cornerstones laid out here for an existence of harmony and contentment. But, as Mr Liu himself points out near the beginning of the book, what is love? How do you explain the many ways in which a concept as large and varied as love can be expressed and aimed and felt, without the benefit of context and culture? How do you take a book written in ideograms and effectively translate its poetry and intimations to a people entirely removed in time and influence and language from the circumstances that originally birthed it?

Mr Liu tackles that challenge first by treating his work here less as a magisterial effort and more as a conversation with the original text. This approach makes the entire thing feel a lot more relatable and understandable for newbies like myself, while also adhering to Daoism's emphasis on humility and, to a certain extent, unknowability. The Dao is meant, if I'm reading this correctly, to be felt more than explained. But since language is the way human beings best convey emotions and thoughts, Mr Liu takes on the unenviable task of putting the nameless into words, acknowledging as he does so the fallibility of communication and the necessarily active role of both transmitter and receiver:

<blockquote>Moreover, the text, as a string of symbols, is not the locus of meaning--understanding comes at the moment when a reader's mind fills the text with their own language of experience and expectation and transforms the dead text into a living story, one unique to them and them alone.</blockquote>

In addition to grappling with words and form, Mr Liu takes time to illuminate both the historical and political context in which the originals were written and, later, popularized. I had never even realized that there was a significant difference between Daoism and Confucianism till this book, peppered as it is with Zhuangzi's acerbic putdowns of both Confucius and Legalism as a whole.

The only parts where I felt Mr Liu misstepped were when he became more advocate/apologist than conversationalist. The De Of Babies is one of the least convincing chapters of the Dao De Jing because it is clearly written in a way that either willfully misunderstands babies or is weirdly naive about their care. Mr Liu argues that Laozi is just trolling in an effort to get people to think, which I think is quite a stretch for a passage that claims that babies are unharmed by nature because they're "at the peak of harmony". I get what the text is driving at -- the ones least concerned with thoughts and most in touch with feelings are the ones most attuned to the cosmos -- but it's an unsuccessful metaphor that does not, in my opinion, enhance the message of the rest of the chapter. And that's fine. Frankly I wish that people were okay with religious texts sometimes just being weird and not great. The reverence, as Laozi strives again and again to tell us, should be for our great connection to the tapestry of being. So what if there are a few dropped stitches in one small part conveying the key to understanding it? The imperfect doesn't need to be justified or, worse, outright glorified so as to seem not to detract from the whole.

That aside, Mr Liu does an astonishingly great job of making the Dao De Jing accessible for people who've never really encountered it before and, I imagine, for those who already have but want to revisit its ideas. This is a wonderful book for any modern student of religion or philosophy, and certainly taught me a lot more than I imagined it would when I opened its pages. Recommended.

Laozi's Dao De Jing translated by Ken Liu was published August 20 2024 by the Scribner Book Company and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9781668019368">Bookshop!</a>

In 2020, modern science fiction writer of hopeful futures, Ken Liu has a problem. It was the COVID pandemic lock down and he was not able to write. While he struggled for some time, he eventually found solace in reading Laozi's Dao De Jing, a work integral to Chinese cultures and languages and central to religious and philosophical Taoism (or Daoism). And despite its culturally import, Liu had never read it fully, and found it defied expectations. It also encouraged Liu to argue, imagine or in some way engage directly with the content, spurring creativity, and while Liu did not feel ready to write a new story, he was moved to translate the Dao De Jing.

That translation is what this work presents, but it is more than a traditional translation. Instead the chapters of the Dao De Jing are sometimes alternated with Liu's explanation of the choices and wording chosen for the translation, as well as drawing from other stories or sources to enforce a point or provide a related tangent.

It is a work one could read quickly, but to do so misses the point. It a work for contemplation, to consider, the language is at many points purposefully opaque or seeming contradictory. Liu's translation of Laozi's work does what any such translation should, brings the content of a work to a different readership while keeping the feeling and meaning of the original text.

Recommend for readers of philosophy, religion or Chinese religion and culture.

So, why is Simon and Schuster publishing a new version, Laozi’s Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time, by Laozi and Ken Liu, tomorrow (Aug. 20)? Publishers have their reasons; the more pertinent question to me is why anyone should read this in preference over any other versions. Liu himself would probably say that people should also read other versions in addition to his, as he himself is in conversation with interpretations across the centuries. (Although it’s not quite a conversation, because according to Liu’s interpretation of Laozi, the words of long-dead writers are merely the tracks of their thoughts, not the thoughts themselves.)
For me, my primary reason for reading Laozi’s Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time was just that I wanted to see what Ken Liu had to say. I first became aware of Liu via a 2011 Podcastle audio “reprint” version of his deeply moving short story, “The Paper Menagerie,” and read his Paper Menagerie collection of stories later. He also wrote the Dandelion Dynasty silkpunk epic fantasy series. (He’s been a lawyer and a programmer, too.) Perhaps most relevantly here, works that he has translated into English, including “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, which I loved, and The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which I respected, have won major awards. I was fully confident that a Ken Liu translation would be both elegant and accessible, or as accessible as a translated foundational philosophical literary text could hope to be.
Reinterpretations of older works have actually been pretty popular in science fiction circles in recent years; for instance, Zach Weinersmith’s and Boulet’s Bea Wolf was a 2024 Hugo finalist for Best Graphic Novel, just a few years after Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation took the Internet by storm. However, despite being reviewed here at Skiffy and Fanty, mainly for the sake of its translator, Laozi’s Dao De Jing is not a work of speculative fiction. It’s a collection of many short chapters composed of short paragraphs advising how to think about oneself, the world, and how one should *be* in the world and interact with it (including other people) — or NOT interact, interspersed with sections where Liu explains his translation process and the choices he made. These interstitial sections start out quite long, involved, and frequent, and gradually become shorter, sparser, and rarer, as Liu becomes more comfortable with what he’s doing, and trusts that the readers will also acclimate themselves to the work and how he has been approaching it.
In addition to translating individual words, Liu had to decide how the book actually began; and even before that, which version of “the book” to follow: the traditional “received text” or the text from scrolls discovered in the 1970s, which starts in the middle of the traditional text and puts the beginning half at the end, or the fragmentary text from bamboo slips found in a tomb in the 1990s. Liu wrote about applying his own knowledge of the constantly shifting writing/editing/publishing process in deciding how much weight to give each version, especially given Laozi’s own emphasis on true understanding and wisdom over the language that tries to encapsulate them.
Because my review copy forbids quoting until verified with the finished book, I can’t share Liu’s translations or his own words. But I can tell you that it’s pleasantly fascinating to read both the translated text and Liu’s musings on their meanings, to wrestle with the writings and wonder how many of them, or how much of the whole, may be applicable to one’s own life. Many of the chapters contain apparent self-contradictions, or at least concepts that I find myself resisting, such as not valuing the rare and talented, or admonitions against taking actions (and I like the idea of leading by the example of non-conflict, but as a trained wordsmith, I find it hard to eschew arguments); however, I’m aware that this resistance may be because I don’t sufficiently understand these Daoist ideas yet. Liu himself says that when he started actually reading the book himself during the pandemic, instead of relying on quotes and cultural memories, he wanted to argue with it, and only later started to really accept it enough to converse with it.
The book is pretty short if one simply measures by its 176 pages, but I strongly advise against rushing through it. So does Liu, who wrote that the reason he included parables from Zhuangzi, another Daoist master, and similar materials in his interstitial chapters was not so much to explain or illustrate Laozi’s words but to slow readers down and give the ideas time for absorption. I’d suggest reading a chapter a day before bedtime or maybe with one’s morning tea or coffee and then thinking about it, or if you’re too impatient for that, or on a deadline like me, read a few Laozi chapters and then Liu’s musings on them, and then pause to reflect.
I imagine that members of the Chinese diaspora in the West may find Ken Liu’s Laozi’s Dao De Jing interesting, but I don’t have the background to speak to that. What I can say is that one of the great things about reading speculative fiction is that it helps you open your mind to different ways of thinking and living, and reading about real-life different cultures and philophies/religions can serve much the same purpose. For Western SFF fans who don’t know much about China, or translation, or the history of philosophy, or comparative religions — or those who have some familiarity with these but want to know what SFF luminary Ken Liu has to say — I recommend giving this book a try.

Instagram graphic scheduled for August 20th
Blog post goes live August 23rd
Youtube review in edits

TL;DR: A very friendly exploration of a philosophy I’ve heard of but didn’t know many details.
Source: Netgalley! Thank you so much! I also purchased my own copy after completion.

Structure: This includes essays from Ken Liu about the translation and his thoughts on several of the chapters which really helped add to the overall message and understanding.
Readability: This is very newbie friendly (as that’s what I am).

Thoughts:

I’ve heard in passing of Laozi’s Dao Di Jing, and definitely heard passing jokes about ‘Daoism’ but I’ve never actually had any details or information on it. This new translation by Ken Liu was a very beginner friendly place to start. He translates what seems to be the core lessons from Laozi with essays exploring and explaining these lessons. These also include stories from a contemporary/teacher of Daoism that help to explain.

I was honestly a bit nervous going into this, I’m not going to lie. I love Ken Liu, which was the entire reason I tried this. I’m very happy I did, as I stated he did a fantastic job with the translation here. He also talked about what translating this was like, some of the struggles he faced and how he came to understand the text as he did so. I appreciated all of that as it added more structure to my own understanding.

Overall I definitely recommend this if you’re perhaps interested in a very beginner friendly place with Daoism. I knew nothing going in, and by the end felt much more comfortable with the idea and philosophy. I will be rereading and expanding my reading before saying I’m at all knowledgeable about it but this was a great starting spot.

5 out of 5 stars

not new to dao, but new to the written worn on dao. the purposeful organization and flow of the book was refreshing and conversational.

many thanks to scribner and netgalley for the advance reader copy.

My rating is not for the translation and interpretation. The clarity and poesy are 5 stars.
The notes/essays allow the reader to understand the context behind Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Yet, I would have preferred to read the full translated parts and then read the essays and notes.
In other words, if this were presented and structured differently, personally I would have been able to absorb Laozi’s teachings better.

A poetic, accessible, and thoughtful book that makes the Dao De Jing more accessible for all. I found this to be a good and quick read and helpful when thinking about this text. I also really appreciated that Liu made this book his own and told the audience up front, I also actually really liked the structure of this book too. 4.5/5

“The path that can be walked is not the path that lasts;” Laozi
Many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for providing an advanced copy of Ken Liu’s new interpretation of the Dao De Jing, a classic Daoist text from Laozi. As Liu’s subtitle states, this is more than a translation. This is a new interpretation for a transformative time. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the Dao De Jing, and although I’ve encountered separate sections, mostly through the terrific 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Ming-Dao Deng, I’ve found that translations and the focus for the Tao can vary significantly. In order to compare, I also started to read another, older translation that I found in my Kindle Library. There’s no publication information or translator, and the text is much harder to decipher and make meaning than Ken Liu’s reinterpretation. To further help us understand the process of interpreting this work, Liu incorporates some analogous ideas and stories from Laozi’s fellow Daoist Zhuangzi, another philosopher-storyteller explained Daoist concepts with more storytelling and anecdotes than aphorisms and poetry. I think I’ve encountered his work as “Chuang-Tzu” since I recognized many of the stories and examples (The Emperor and the Tortoise Shell” and “The Butcher and The Knife”) recounted in these asides. Liu also includes biographical sketches of both Laozi and Zhuangzi, noting that these individuals’ works may be the result of a collective or passed down work rather than the work of any one person. Nevertheless, Liu’s contextual information helps to further understand some of the ideas and concepts that Laozi was possibly asking his readers/followers to grapple with. It was also interesting to learn how Liu came across the Dao De Jing during the pandemic, and how he explains that Laozi doesn’t really offer solace or lecture, but rather “invites the reader to have a conversation with his text, through which the readers must discover their own way.” I loved this aspect of the writing, recognizing that the ideas and poems (for lack of a better term) are presented as something that everyone will interpret in their own way. Liu also contextualizes Laozi’s world to help readers better understand the socio-political situation of pre-dynastic China, and how the desire for upward mobility and safety in society was somewhat antithetical to Laozi’s ideas about human relations. Liu shared how reading Laozi during the pandemic didn’t offer any kind of solace, but may have helped him question the events and consider other people’s motivations for comfort and security in times of instability. I loved this aspect of the book, and I can see how it would be an ideal text to read when there is uncertainty or instability.
Throughout the book, Liu shares his process of translating or interpreting the Dao De Jing, noting that translations sometimes reflect more about the translator than what the author actually intended. I found it interesting to learn that more written texts of the Dao De Jing were discovered in China in the 1970s, and this provided additional interpretations and ideas about the meaning. Liu also explains how other editions that were found offer different ways of presenting the ideas and poems. He notes that like other philosophers, Laozi was distrustful of written language (and language in general), explaining how it can limit the concepts and feelings that Laozi may have tried to impart to followers of Daoism. Whether it is the ever changing nature of print or the limitations of words, this interpretation and Liu’s brief essays about the different sections give us insight into the possible meanings and word play that Laozi may have used. I also found this fascinating since Chinese uses ideographs and the meaning can vary. Gaining these insights into the translations was helpful as well as fascinating. I loved learning more about the process of writing and considering meaning from a text that is more than 2000 years old.
At the end of the “non-introduction”, Liu reminds us not to read through the book too quickly, since we shouldn’t necessarily approach the book as a quick read or one that will offer main ideas in certain locations. This is where the stories from Zhuangzi help to supplement our understanding, but it also serves as a reminder that this is a book that we should continue to revisit at various times and points in our lives since we may interpret the ideas and poems in different ways and gain a different understanding and meaning of these verses.
I’m incredibly grateful that Scribner shared this text with me, and I’m also excited that I have this wonderful new “interpretation” of this important text that I can revisit.

Laozi’s Dao De Jing
A new interpretation for a transformative time by Ken Liu

I've tried to read the Dao De Jing several times but never was engaged enough to stick with it. Ken Liu’s new interpretative is finally drawing me in. Liu places the introduction after the first chapter. He explains but does not clarify. Other stories, biographical bits, definitions, timelines, etc., Liu has scattered throughout the text. I believe I will finish this time as there are many things to lure me through.

A brief biography of Laozi comes immediately after chapter three. It is and it isn't a biography, however, as nothing definitive is known of Laozi. Again, Ken Liu explains but does not clarify. After reading it, my reaction is that every politician, indeed every person in a position of power, should read this new interpretation of this ancient text. Many, if not most, would not understand it, but perhaps it would at least cause them to pause their self-serving bickering. I have never known such an age of childish bickering, but Laozi says this time is not unique. The chaos it brings has been brought before.

Liu often uses stories or parable from Zhuangzi to illustrate the Dao as Laozi offers it. I like his explanations. They don't necessarily make anything clearer, but they make it more accessible

Ken Liu’s translation of Laozi's Dao De Jing is a poetic and accessible rendition of this ancient classic. Liu captures the profound simplicity and wisdom of Laozi’s teachings, making them resonate with modern readers. The Dao De Jing offers timeless reflections on balance, harmony, and the nature of existence, wrapped in brief, thought-provoking passages. While some may find the text cryptic, Liu's thoughtful notes help demystify the more obscure parts. A must-read for anyone seeking philosophical insights and a deeper understanding of the Daoist perspective.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for an advance copy of this new translation of a work that has given meaning to many people who have looked at the world and wondered, there has to be some sort of meaning to this, a meaning that many are still looking for today.

My father was a psychology major with minors in theology, philosophy and at the time what was called eastern religions and thought. So winning arguments was not easy in my household, especially during my teen years. My father never did anything with his degrees or interests, a combination of being draftable, a war, a wife and much uncertainty made sure of that. When offered a job with the city, with good pay, benefits, and a pension my father leapt at it, and never looked back. My father was always reading though, getting books from the library, finding them on the street or on subways, maybe paying money in tag sales. And he loved to quote, in his own Bronx way, with a lot of his own humour from books he read, thoughts of ancients scholars he admired. As I read this new translation of the Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time translated by the writer Ken Liu, all I could think of was my Dad. I know he would have loved this, and I know I would have heard different sections over and over. Since this is beautifully written and arranged, this in no way would have been a chore, but a real gift.

Ken Liu like all of us had a strange time during the quarantine for COVID. So much so that for the first time since childhood Liu had a problem writing. Also COVID pointed out those things that we always suspected, but didn't want to think about. Stupid seems to have won. And, so did racism and hate. Liu was drawn to the idea of the Dao, and began slowly to translate, as he discusses in the book, which is told in a way that brings the messages, and the ideas of the Dao to life. The book starts with a chapter than an introduction. Liu does this throughout the book, discussing the difficulty of translating words that aren't lofty or high, but just common for the time. In fact many of these essays are just as informative as the teaching of Laozi, and I recommend the book just for these works. Slowly the idea of the Dao comes to life. One that in this time of judging our our way from those on social media, and leaders who think that being loud and dumb, makes them rulers, offers quite a different look at things.

I came to this book while my life was going through some interesting times, as one would say. My concentration was nonexistent, and things seemed to be going wrong at every turn. I could read a chapter of two, and lose my way, reading again and again what was there. I don't recommend this way of living or reading, but I think this brought the book home to me more, than reading this like a novel, or a self-help book. There is no promise of happiness, of not giving a darn at the end. Who could promise that? However there are stories, and ideas, and ways of thinking that put things in perspective. And the writing is so good, that one couldn't help but think better thoughts than I had before reading. I'll say again Ken Liu is a great writer and a translator. Known for his fantasy series, Liu also has not lost that human factor, that makes his writing so memorable. And useful. And enriching. And peaceful. Al least it was for me.

I have read a few translations, but this one even now stays within my thoughts, and even in some of the conversations I have had over the last few days. A really wonderful translation, and a book that offers thoughts about the world, how the book can help, and some interesting ideas on language, and our modern world. Plus I could see my Dad showing me different things, or explaining passages in his inexplicable way.

Going into this, I knew absolutely nothing about the Dao De Jing so I can't comment on the quality of Ken Liu's translation. However, I felt that the text was beautifully written and ... how do I say this?... mind-blowing. I read and re-read it, trying to wrap my head around the different ideas presented in this ancient philosophy.

This is a book to be slowly savored. You cannot be in a hurry when you read it, even though it is short.

I appreciated how Liu presented this in its historical and cultural context. He also included personal notes and parables that exemplify the philosophy. It really felt like a labor of love and his enthusiasm was palpable.

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Chinese culture and/or philosophy in general. Fascinating!

Liu's translation of the Dao De Jing, with his accompanying prose, is a delight to read. While reviewing this ARC from Simon and Schuster, for comparison, I re-read the translation by Addiss and Lombardo( ('93), that I read in college for Taoism class. Liu's translation shines alone, as well as in comparison to the other translation, and reading both interpretations at the same time made for a broader understanding of the spirit of the original. Interspersed between chapters, Liu ties in the second foundational work of Taoism, The Way of Chuang Tzu, to expand on Liu's interpretations and the broader meaning of the Dao De Jing. This is a great addition, pulling in some of the best pieces of The Way, which to me, is the more relatable of the two works. I greatly appreciate Liu's voice, and I hope he'll consider translating The Way also.

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this new translation of Laozoi's Dao De Jing, translated by Ken Liu, but to be honest it blew me away. While the original text is ancient and has been translated many times, Liu's translation is simple yet lyrical. He is able to convey so much in his translations.

I loved that he included personal anecdotes, historical context around the text, and meditations on translation as a whole. I loved every minute of this, and I will definitely be picking up this text over and over as this is definitely a text that needs to be taken slowly.

Ken Liu's translation of the Dao De Jing offers a profound and insightful interpretation of this timeless classic. Throughout the entirety of the book, Liu skillfully captures the essence of Daoist philosophy, presenting it in a manner that is both accessible and thought-provoking.

One of the key strengths of Liu's translation lies in his ability to convey the depth and complexity of the text while maintaining clarity and coherence. Through his careful selection of language and imagery, Liu brings to life the rich tapestry of ideas contained within the Dao De Jing, inviting readers to contemplate the fundamental principles of Daoism and their relevance to everyday life.

Liu's translation is characterized by its poetic beauty and lyrical prose, which enhances the reader's engagement with the text and encourages reflection on its deeper meanings. His attention to detail and sensitivity to nuance ensure that each verse resonates with profound wisdom and insight, making the Dao De Jing a captivating and enriching read for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners of Daoism alike.

In addition to its literary merits, Liu's translation also serves as a valuable resource for those seeking to deepen their understanding of Daoist philosophy. Through his insightful commentary and annotations, Liu provides valuable context and interpretation, shedding light on the historical and cultural background of the text and elucidating its relevance to contemporary issues and concerns.

Overall, Ken Liu's translation of the Dao De Jing is a masterful work that offers a compelling interpretation of this ancient Chinese classic. Through his careful craftsmanship and deep appreciation for the wisdom of the text, Liu invites readers on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment, illuminating the path to a life of harmony, balance, and inner peace.

I’m a big fan of Ken Liu’s previous work—both his original writings and his translations—so I figured I’d take a look at this one too.

I think I’ve read another translation of this at some point in my life, but I gleaned more from it this time around. Some of that is from being older, some of it is from slowing down as I read, and some of it is Liu’s insights and perspective scattered throughout.

I found this style of interweaving the translation with Liu’s thoughts and other storytelling made it more accessible and ultimately increased my engagement with the text, so I recommend it from that perspective. I can’t really vouch for the quality of the translation, of course.