Works on the Way is a new project and blog that will see me produce creative responses to individual verses of the ancient book of Chinese mysticism and one of the primary texts on Daoist thought, the Dao De Jing.
What is the Dao De Jing?
One of the most profound works that has issued from the mind of man.
Paul K. T. Sih.
The Dao De Jing is an ancient Chinese text commonly split into 81 short verses (also referred to as chapters or poems), in which wisdom on the nature of our world is presented. Themes explored throughout the text include virtue; non-action (wu wei); moderation; leadership and self-awareness.
The work is usually attributed to the Daoist thinker Laozi, who was probably a contemporary of Confucius; however, evidence as to Laozi’s existence is scarce, and the Dao De Jing may have in fact been authored by numerous hermits, mystics and dissidents in ancient China. Being written in classical Chinese, the original text is void of punctuation, it includes archaic characters, and was written in a time when other philosophical texts were widely read, and so may contain references to ancient cultural memes that are lost on the modern reader.
These elements, added to the fact that the authors employed a number of poetic devices, such as double meanings and puns; seem to encourage contradictory interpretations. Indeed, the Dao De Jing has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, each time differently and each translation falling short of the original. (You can read 76 versions of the first verse here.)
In spite, or perhaps because, of these characteristics, the Dao De Jing has been enjoyed by readers for thousands of years and has been called “ancient China’s great contribution to the literature of philosophy, religion, and mysticism”.
Why are you making this blog?
I have wanted to make work inspired by the Dao De Jing since I discovered the book whilst living in Chengdu, Sichuan, China in 2013 and found its content fascinating. It’s only now, having the time to devote to my personal art practice, that I’m able to approach the project with the time and resources it requires.
In presenting the project through the format of the blog, I hope to achieve a number of things. First and foremost, I hope that taking the time to research the Dao De Jing verse-by-verse will help me gain a deeper understanding of it and its ideas. Furthermore, I want to use the structure and rhythm of this project to test ideas as they come and develop my creative process, as well as my skills in different media. Additionally, in writing the blog in both English and Chinese I’ll be able to develop my Chinese vocabulary and writing style. And finally I hope that by making my work public through this blog, as well as presenting work in physical locations where possible, I’ll be able to share my creative practice with a wider audience in China and internationally.
My starting point for each work is going to be the original verse in Chinese. As these are written in classical Chinese, I’ll also be relying on modern Chinese interpretations to understand the text and gain insight. Once I feel I have a good grasp of the ideas in the verse, I’ll be creating an artistic response or ‘work’. I’ll then look to find an English translation that I feel does the original best justice, or one which best translates the ideas that I have taken as my inspiration for the work. Throughout the blog, translations from the text will be followed by the translator’s name in brackets.
Each post will include my response in the form of a work; a simplified Chinese version of the verse; an English translation; and a written explanation of the work and my thinking in English and Chinese.
Notes on the Title
As a Mandarin speaker, I’ve decided to use the pinyin version of the Chinese title of the book throughout this blog - Dao De Jing. The book’s title is also commonly translated as Tao Teh Ching/Tao Te Ching in the Wade-Giles Romanization of the language, and the title in simplified Chinese Characters is 道德经, which translate individually as:
道 Dao*/Tao**, path, road; method, way
德 ethics, morality, virtue
经 classic works
*The authors of the Dao De Jing believed that they had found that that had existed before heaven and earth, an eternal force that governs all in nature and beyond. In in order to write about this thing they had to choose a character to represent it. They decided on the character 道, which at the time was also used by Confucius and other thinkers to mean ‘the way [to do something]’. But Daoism’s Dao is more like ‘the eternal way’.
**The terms Dao and Tao seem to be used interchangeably and point to the same thing. I will be using Dao throughout this blog, however I will retain uses of Tao when presenting quotes or translations that have used it.
It’s from the translation of 道 as ‘the way’ that the title for this blog is derived.
I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the blog. Feel free to leave comments and please share the blog with your friends if you think they’ll find it of interest.
欢迎参观《道的经》（Works on the Way）
Works on the Way是一个新的艺术项目。在此博客上，我会对《道德经》的篇章分别做出艺术感应。
《道德经》是什么？
“人类致辞过最深刻的著作之一。”
Paul K. T. Sih.
《道德经》是古代中国的哲学经典之作，即道教思想的主要道藏之一。在现代，它被后人分成八十一篇章。《道德经》的主题包括‘道’、美德、无为、修身、领导、节制等。虽然短，作者Brian Browne Walker认为《道德经》具有“对每个生活问题的答案、每个困境的解决办法、每种伤口的药膏。”
虽然人们普遍认为《道德经》的作者是老子，但能够证明老子真实存在的证据却非常少。很大一种可能是《道德经》由当时居住在山里的圣人或隐士参悟并编写的道理。当时，为了改善社会的问题孔子思想派提倡过多严格的社会法规。但《道德经》则试着从一个个人角度来创造人们对世界的联系和尊重。
《道德经》涵义深奥、理念难以掌握，原文是完全不使用标点符号进行句意区分与停顿的古文。我们今天读的每篇章的标点符号都是由近现代的历史学家们通过客观理解与分析后加进去的。并且，《道德经》与产生它的社会和文化关系密切；因此，部分现代人比较难完全理解《道德经》的层层含义。
此外，《道德经》还利用具有矛盾性的写作手段，似乎以便读者有不同的诠释。这些特征给国外的读者和翻译者带来一定的困难。《道德经》被翻译成西方语言两百五十来次，可是每个译文都得不到原文的精粹。（Taoistic.com有收集了第一章的七十六个英文翻译。）尽管，或许因为这些特征，上千年以来《道德经》收到大数量读者的欣赏，也被认可为“古代中国给哲学、宗教和神秘主义文学的伟大贡献。”
你为什么要做这个项目？
自从2013年住在四川成都的我发现《道德经》时，我一直很想做一个灵感来自于其书的项目。我一接触这本书我就感觉特别神奇。但我现在才有比较多的时间和资源能够致力于这个计划。
我希望我可以通过发布博客的形式来得到几个目标。首先，我相信我一章一章地研究《道德经》，我能够从它的理念和道理获取较深层的理解。其次，我想随着项目的节奏和结构试行新的想法和作品，同时提高我不同媒体和艺术过程的技能。另外，使用英中两门语言写博客，会有助于我中文词汇和写作能力。最后，我希望通过发布博客、和在实体位置展示作品，能够跟越来越多国内外的观众分享我的个人艺术生涯。
每个作品的启发点为《道德经》的原文，但因为原文使用着古文，我还需要依靠现代汉语的解释来取得理解。掌握了篇章的主意并完成了感应作品后，我会寻找最合适的英文翻译来给英文读者参考。在博客中，翻译者的名字会备注在英文翻译后的括号里。
每发布的博客会包括我的感应作品、《道德经》原文（简体）以及我对其作品的思路和解释。
题目的备注
作为一个汉语学习者，我决定在此博客中，使用《道德经》的汉语拼音写法Dao De Jing。该书的名称用威妥玛式拼音法为Tao Teh Ching或Tao Te Ching。本项目的名称是Works on the Way，是可以翻译成“关于道的作品”。
我非常希望你会欣赏接下来的博客内容。欢迎在博客上留言以及分享给朋友！