Page 351 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

3 12 TH E E NCYC LOP E DIA O F TAOISM A- L

Editions and manuscripts. The Daode jing is a short work, sometimes called
the "Text in Five Thousand Words" (Wuqian zi wen 11. f*)C). Most printed
editions derive from one of four main versions: the *Yan Zun version, the
Heshang gong 1fiJ ...t 0 version (see *Laozi Heshang gong zhangju), the *Wang
Bi version, and the so-called " ancient version" (guben ~;<$:) recovered from
a tomb dated to 202 BCE. The latter exists in turn in two distinct but closely
related redactions: one edited by *Fu Yi (554-639) and another edited by Fan
Yingyuan m:ff~:lC in the Song period. Two *Dunhuang manuscripts are also
worthy of note: the Suo Dan *tt manuscript, dated 270 CE, which seems to
belong to Heshang gong's tradition (Boltz W G. 1996), and the *Xiang'er com-
mentary. which lacks the second half and is not divided into sections. None of
these versions yield notable differences from the point of view of meaning.
The text is usually divided into two main parts, called Daojing ill ~~ (Scrip-
ture of the Dao) and Dejing 1~~ (Scripture of Virtue), and into eighty-one
sections or chapters (zhang ~). The two *Mawangdui manuscripts, dated to
the second century BCE, reverse the sequence of the two parts, placing the
Dejing first. The division of the text into eighty-one sections first appears in
Heshang gong's version but was not universally accepted until perhaps the
Tang period. While some versions are divided into sixty-four, sixty-six, or
seventy-two sections, others do not have sections at all. The Guodian slips,
in particular, have no division into sections, and while the wording is close to
that of the received version, the sequence of the individual passages is often
different.
Description. The Daode jing combines sentences, often rhymed, expressing
general laws dogmatically asserted with aphorisms that may contain traces
of oral sayings, and with instructions on self-cultivation and practical or so-
ciopoliticallife. The text is often paradoxical, lyrical, and poetical, containing
plays on words, contradictions, ambiguous statements, and enigmatic images.
Whether the text proposes an art of ruling or ways of self-cultivation or both,
imbued or not with mystical and gnostic views, is an open question that schol-
ars often debate on hypothetical grounds. The following description outlines
some of the main features on which scholars generally agree, and that were
retained in later Taoism.

The Dao. The main contribution of the Daode jing to Taoism and Chinese
thought lies in the new meaning given to the word dao ill. Usually and broadly
understood as "way." "method," or "rule of life," dao takes on for the first time
in the Daode jing the meaning of Ultimate Truth, one and transcendent, invis-
ible (yi ~), inaudible (xi :ffi"), and imperceptible (wei W; sec. 14), not usable and
not namable (sec. I). Since the Dao is beyond all relationship of differentiation
and judgement, it cannot be "daoed," or "said" (dao), or practiced as a way. One
cannot make use of it, as it is "neither this nor that." However, in spite of this