The Relationship of Language and the Tao: the Objective of Tao Te Ching - Essay Example

Thesis: Though there are apparently contradictory es of ments in Tao Te Ching, these ments can still be viewed to be consistent with each other. Context: Since the appearance of the sacred Chinese text over 2000 years ago, there are numerous interpretations and conclusions in the origins of the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching contains 81 poetic chapters and approximately 5000 in characters. This book has been attributed mostly to be the work of Lao Tzu, a Confucian contemporary (Bebell and Fera, 2000). According to Bebell and Fera (2000), this book has been greatly incorporated into religious foundations of Buddhism, Taoism and Neo-Confucianism. It was in 1868 when the text was first translated by John Chalmers, an Englishman, which eventually influenced Western culture. This short text is said to have two parts: The Tao Ching and the Te Ching (Lees, 2011). Because of the style of writing which is poetic in nature, there is a variety of interpretations which are even contradictory. According to Lees (2011), the sacred book is written in classical Chinese which is said to be difficult to understand thus making contradictory interpretations and translations. In Bebell and Fera’s research (2000), they cited that there are over 100 interpretations and adaptations of Lao Tzu’s text today. In the holistic analysis of the research conducted by Bebell and Fera in 2000, it revealed an overall similarity among different translation’s use of central concepts of Tao Te Ching though there are variance both minor and notable among them. The title can be translated literally to mean: Tao can be translated as “way”, or to mean “the Way”. This term, is regarded as to have a special meaning in the context of Taoism, where it entails the vital, unnameable process of nature and the Universe; Te means “virtue” or “inner strength”, “personal character”, or “integrity” and in the modern meaning “goodness” or “moral excellence”; Ching is used to mean “great book”, “canon”, or “classic” (Lees, 2011). According to Allinson (1994), there are statements in Tao Te Ching that apparently imply that nothing can be said about the Tao, statements that imply all value judgment are relative, statements that appear to attribute amoral or immoral behaviour to Taoist sage and statements that show moral behaviour to Taoist sage. Thus, it is very important to examine the topic extensively as it is very tricky and invites a lot of criticism. Support or Evidence: If the statements are contradictory, we have to re-evaluate and make sense of everything. To do this, we have to interpret the statements in a Taoist standpoint. There are statements implies that nothing at all can be said about the Tao. A Taoist will definitely declare that Taoist sage will only possess a limited and qualified truth value. Textual evidence that reveals hierarchy of values can be found in Chapter 38 which states that kindness is considered higher value to follow (Allinson, 1994). Allinson’s study (1994) stated that if statements appear to attribute amoral or immoral behaviour to Taoist sage, then the statements must be made from outside the Taoist standpoint. If there is an existence of hierarchy of value, the statements which appear to attribute farther from the Tao must be carefully examined to determine existence of other interpretation. However, it can be said that there are only few statements that attribute to amoral or immoral behaviour. In short, interpretations must be found to be coherent to the greatest number of statements in the text. Examples of the contradictory statements are the first two in the Tao Te Ching. The first statement states that “The Tao that can be spoken about is not the constant Tao.” According to Allinson (1994), this statement appears to suggest that the Tao cannot be described. It should be noted that the Tao one is referring and its description are different such that the described Tao is really not the real Tao. The second statement in the Tao Te Ching is “The name that can be named is not the constant name” (Allinson, 1994). It can be seen that the problem is not the Tao but the relationship of language and the Tao. It should be noted that any description given cannot be strictly true. With all the examples given above, it can be claimed that there is an existence of contradictory statements in the Tao Te Ching, but we must note that these statements are still consistent with each other. Counter-Arguments: How can a person get rid of contradictory statements? In the first statement given that “The Tao that can be spoken about is not the constant Tao”, does this mean that the Tao is not capable of being described linguistically? In this case, one can say that all descriptions made are pointless. The second statement that “The name that can be named is not the constant name” suggests that whatever description given to the Tao misses the true Tao. Thus all description is of no use. Refutations: In the first statement, the described Tao is not the real Tao. Though some may say that any description is pointless in this case, one must remember that in Taoist standpoint, those statements that may be farther from the context must be seen and examined to see and make it more relevant and coherent to the context. Thus it is still important to attempt to describe Tao and have some value rather than to have no value at all. Thus it is more useful to render partial and limited understanding than to have no understanding at all. Thus in the case of first the statement, it can be considered that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching with descriptions that has some merit rather than have it having no meaning at all. The second statement does not pose that all description has no use rather it considers the relationship of language and the Tao and the nature of this problem. According to Allinson (1994), though describing the Tao always misses its target, it does not follow that any linguistic description has no use. What it follows is that each person must put to mind that each description does not always speak of truth. Further, Allinson (1994) stated that each description must be misdescription and it is always open whether one description is more truth or less false than others. Thus to be able to get rid of the contradictory statements, one must have a consistent interpretation of the statements. This can be done by taking note that Tao is not capable of description to the point that nothing can be said as absolutely true about the Tao. Thus in the given illustrations above, even if these statements are contradictory, we can still make it consistent and coherent with the objective of Tao Te Ching. References: Allinson, Robert (1994). Moral values and the Taoist Sage in the Tao de Ching. Asian Philosophy, 09552367, Oct94, Vol. 4, Issue 2. Ebscohost. 18 September 2011. Bebell, Damian and Fera, Shannon, (2000). Comparison and Analysis of Selected English Interpretations of the Tao Te Ching. Asian Philosophy, Vol. 10, No.2. Ebscohost, 18 September 2011. Lees, David James, (2011). The Tao Te Ching: an Overview. Web. 18 September 2011. Read More