Stephen Mitchell: The Second Book of the Tao

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Stephen Mitchell: The Tao of Translation

03 min 49 sec

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iab5

Posts: 1

Posted: 09.02.10, 03:36 PM

Oh my god, there are 64 things in sets A, B, and C! This must MEEEAN something. This guys is a freak, and... as much as I hate to say it, an idiot. Leeching on the confused and "mystical minded" hippie generation.

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fran101

Posts: 1

Posted: 01.08.10, 02:57 AM

This is simple, powerful, and very useful book I read. I feel I found real gems in Stephen Mitchell's book.

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mfg

Posts: 4

Posted: 10.29.09, 05:49 AM

I think my opinion was formed from the initial impression of looking at his version of the book. It was required reading for one of my Religious Studies Courses and instead of being called the Tao Te Ching (or any other spelling), it was insanely titled "The Meaning of Life." As it says in the foreward, it is a paraphrase, and a poor one at that.

Having only read a translation from Penguin and owned the beautiful Jane English translation, I don't consider myself authoritative. However, his work on the Tao strips it of its fundamental simpleness in an effort to make it a pedestrian work and fails in providing a satisfyingly pedestrian text or retaining any flavor of the original.

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Peter Park

Posts: 2

Posted: 08.27.09, 10:40 AM

I cannot believe he "translated" Zhuangzi.

A few facts about Stephen Mitchell.

He did not translate the Dao De Jing as he himself admits. He doesn't know Chinese. Instead, he read other translations and then wrote what he "feels" the chapter means to say. In one interview he says he "channeled" Laozi in writing the text. It's a disgrace that his work would be called a translation when he removes entire passages, adds his own made up passages, and doesn't even consult the original Chinese.

I haven't read his "Second Book of Tao" but it's a misnomer to call it that in my opinion. Scholarly consensus is that Zhuangzi wasn't a direct disciple of Laozi and there's no fact that a single man named Laozi who wrote the Dao De Jing existed.

It's a disgrace to Daoism and scholarly translations that his "translation" is the most wide read. It should rather be in the New Age or Self-Help section of the bookstore.

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