Tao Te Ching is a classic Chinese text, probably from around the 6th century BC. While the authorship is still debated, most of the text is attributed to Lao-Tzu ("Old Master"), who was a court record keeper during the Zhou Dynasty. The text is considered an essential element of Taoist philosophy as well as having significant influences on Chinese religions, including Buddhism. This is a classic translation of the book by James Legge. Visit www.ArcManor.com for other, similar books.
"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."--Publisher's website.
From the founder of the Wu-Tang Clan—celebrating their 25th anniversary this year—an inspirational book for the hip hop fan. The RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, imparts the lessons he's learned on his journey from the Staten Island projects to international superstardom. A devout student of knowledge in every form in which he's found it, he distills here the wisdom he's acquired into seven "pillars," each based on a formative event in his life-from the moment he first heard the call of hip-hop to the death of his cousin and Clan- mate, Russell Jones, aka ODB. Delivered in RZA's unmistakable style, at once surprising, profound, and provocative, The Tao of Wu is a spiritual memoir the world has never seen before, and will never see again. A nonfiction Siddhartha for the hip-hop generation from the author of The Wu-Tang Manual, it will enlighten, entertain, and inspire.
This text offers an opportunity to internalize and directly experience the great wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, a collection of verses authored by the Chinese prophet Lao-tzu. Although just 81 short verses, the Tao encourages readers to change their lives by literally changing the way they think.
Following the phenomenal success of his own version of the Tao Te Ching, a renowned scholar and translator delivers a 21st-century form of ancient wisdom into the modern world.
The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu is one of the most widely read and deeply cherished books in the world, a work many consider the wisest book ever written. In his introduction, translator Brian Browne Walker says, "It is less a book than a living, breathing angel." In his new translation, Walker stays close to the direct literal accuracy of the Chinese characters while producing a modern, exceptionally clear version that has the ring and voice of Lao Tzu, a man who may or may not have been a single individual. "I have come to think of Lao Tzu less as a man who once lived," Walker writes, "and more as a song that plays, eternal and abiding."
The Tao of Emerson strikingly brings together two of the most influential voices in the history of letters: Lao Tse, the sixth-century B.C. Chinese mystic, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American transcendentalist known to many as “the sage of Concord.” By adroitly juxtaposing on facing pages the texts of Lao Tse’s masterpiece, the Tao Te Ching, with Emerson’s writings, Richard Grossman illuminates how these two remarkable men, from opposite sides of the world and separated by 2,500 years, are united in an inspired wisdom and common spirit: to live simply and tranquilly; trust one’s own intuition; seek out and appreciate the spiritual grace in the natural world; act without self-assertion; abjure violence; harmonize with the ebb and flow of nature and circumstances; and, above all, assure that there is a place in the world for humility, yielding, gentleness, and serenity. There is no direct path linking Lao Tse to Emerson, since the Tao Te Ching was not translated into English until 1891, nine years after Emerson’s death. But America’s Founding Thinker was nonetheless in many ways the heir to the great Chinese mystic’s insight and philosophy. As Grossman observes, “Emerson’s brand of fresh home-grown English adds a radiant color to the ancient thoughts of the Chinese Master.” Although Lao Tse was a citizen of the world’s oldest empire and Emerson of its youngest republic, The Tao of Emerson makes the brilliantly presented case that a common literary thread binds these two men. Grossman’s Introduction, in which he compares the men’s lives, and the passages he has selected from their work give both writers a special resonance for today’s reader and help to reveal Emerson in a while new light. This volume includes original brush calligraphy by the celebrated Taoist master Chungliang Al Huang. Praise for The Tao of Emerson “This inspired book from one of Emerson’s strongest readers is a great gift. Through the reflected light of the Tao Te Ching, Richard Grossman has made the core of Emerson’s wisdom transparent, allowing us to see into the heart of what makes the sage of Concord our very own Lao Tse.” —Richard G. Geldard, editor of The Essential Transcendentalists “One measure of a spiritually serious book is whether it repeatedly stops us dead in our tracks as we read it and allows us to foresee the ultimate triumph of truth and principle in our lives and in the life of the world. This is such a book.” —Jacob Needleman, author of Why Can’t We Be Good? “Deeply immersing himself in both the wisdom of Lao Tse and the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Grossman has produced a remarkable Guide to life, a handbook filled with venerable worlds combined to yield a new poetry of the mind. Reading it, ‘we stand,’ with Emerson, ‘before the secrets of the world.’” —Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism “This marvelous volume will bring joy and light to those who know or even suspect that Emersonianism is not a system, a product, or a position but a way or a path. For those who haven’t yet gotten it but want to try, this book is the perfect place to start.” —Robert D. Richardson, Jr., author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire
