In this Book
- A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing: Wang Bi's Commentary on the Laozi with Critical Text and Translation
- Book
- 2003
- Published by: State University of New York Press
summary
Many of the brightest Chinese minds have used the form of the commentary to open the terse and poetic chapters of the Laozi to their readers and also to develop a philosophy of their own. None has been more sophisticated, philosophically probing, and influential in the endeavor than a young genius of the third century C.E., Wang Bi (226–249). In this book, Rudolf G. Wagner provides a full translation of the Laozi that extracts from Wang Bi’s Commentary the manner in which he read the text, as well as a full translation of Wang Bi’s Commentary and his essay on the “subtle pointers” of the Laozi. The result is a Chinese reading of the Laozi that will surprise and delight Western readers familiar with some of the many translations of the work.
A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing is part of Rudolf Wagner’s trilogy on Wang Bi’s philosophy and classical studies, which also includes The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi and Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China: Wang Bi’s Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue), both published by SUNY Press.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. iii-iv
- Introduction
- pp. 1-2
- 1. The Wang Bi Recension of the Laozi
- INTRODUCTION
- pp. 3-4
- THE PROBLEM
- pp. 5-6
- SUPERIMPOSITION
- pp. 17-25
- THE DIVISION INTO ZHANG AND PIAN
- pp. 25-27
- CONCLUSION
- pp. 27-28
- APPENDIX A
- pp. 28-30
- APPENDIX B
- pp. 30-32
- 2. Patronage and the Transmission of the Wang Bi Commentary: Foundations for a Critical Edition
- THE PROBLEM
- pp. 33-35
- CONCLUSIONS
- pp. 65-67
- 3. Wang Bi: "The Structure of the Laozi's Subtle Pointers," Laozi weizhi lueli, a Philological Study and Translation Together with the Text
- INTRODUCTION
- p. 69
- The Genre of the LZWZLL
- pp. 75-78
- 4. A Reconstruction and Critical Edition of the Laozi Text Used by Wang Bi; a Reconstruction and Critical Edition of Wang Bi's Commentary on the Laozi; an Extrapolative Translation of the Laozi through Wang Bi's Commentary; and a Translation of Wang Bi's
- A NOTE ON THE EDITION
- pp. 107-112
- A NOTE ON EXTRAPOLATIVE TRANSLATION
- pp. 112-116
- A NOTE ON PREVIOUS TRANSLATIONS
- pp. 116-127
- WANG BI, COMMENTARY ON THE LAOZI
- pp. 119-387
- Notes
- Notes - CHAPTER 1
- pp. 389-394
- Notes - CHAPTER 2
- pp. 394-401
- Notes - CHAPTER 3
- pp. 401-423
- Notes - CHAPTER 4
- pp. 423-498
- Bibliography
- pp. 499-512
Additional Information
ISBN
9780791489581
DOI
MARC Record
OCLC
56408507
Pages
540
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No