TAOISM

Henri Borel, Wu Wei: fantaisie inspirée par la philosophie de Lao Tse, translated from the Dutch by Félicia Barbier, (Paris: Aux Éditions du Monde Nouveau, 1931). [4] The first translation of this slender volume fell out of print long ago, and so we are happy to note the publication of a new translation, for under its simple appearance, and without 'erudite' pretensions, it is certainly one of the best pieces yet written on Taoism in the West. The subtitle perhaps risks doing it some harm, however. The author explains this choice on the basis of various observations which have been addressed to him, but which in our opinion he was not obliged to take into account, especially given the indifferent esteem in which for good reason he holds the more or less 'official' opinions of the sinologists. 'My only concern,' he says 'has been to keep pure the essence of the wisdom of Lao Tzu. . . . The work of Lao Tzu is not a treatise on philosophy. . . . What Lao Tzu offers us are neither forms nor materializations, but essences. My study is saturated with them; it is not the translation of them!' The work is divided into three chapters, in which, first, the very idea of the 'Tao' itself, and then its particular applications to 'Art' and 'Love' are expounded in the form of meetings with a wise old man. Lao Tzu himself never spoke of the latter two, but this adaptation, although perhaps a bit peculiar, is nonetheless legitimate since all things essentially flow from the universal Principle. In the first chapter, some discussions are inspired by or even partially translated from Chuang Tzu, whose commentary best illuminates the extremely concise and synthetic expressions of Lao Tzu. The author rightly thinks it impossible to translate the term 'Tao' exactly; but perhaps there are not as many objections as he believes in rendering it as 'Way', which is the literal meaning, it being understood that this is a wholly symbolic designation, and could not be otherwise no matter what word was chosen, since in reality it is something that cannot be named. But we are entirely in agreement with Borel when he protests against the interpretation that the sinologists give to the term wu wei which they regard as equivalent to 'inaction' or 'inertia', whereas one must see in it precisely the opposite; readers can refer to what we have said elsewhere on this subject. [5] We will only cite the following passage, which seems to us to characterize the spirit of the book quite well: 'When thou wilt come to be wu wei, non-acting, in the ordinary and human sense of the term, thou wilt truly be, and thou wilt accomplish thy vital cycle with the same absence of effort as the moving wave at our feet. Nothing will trouble thy quietude evermore. Thy sleep will be without dreams, and what will enter the field of thy consciousness will cause thee no anxiety. Thou wilt see all in the Tao, thou wilt be one with all that exists, and all of nature will be close to you like a friend, like thine own self. Accepting without being moved the passage from night to day, from life to death, borne along by the eternal rhythm, thou wilt enter into the Tao where nothing ever changes, whither thou shalt return as pure as thou didst leave it.' Having given this excerpt, we add that we highly recommend this book in its entirety; it makes for very enjoyable reading without in any way sacrificing its thought-provoking content. Le Voile d'Isis, 1932, pp604-605. Henri Borel. Lao Tzu's Tao and Wu Wei, a new translation by Bhikshu Wai-Tao and Dwight Goddard (Santa Barbara: D. Goddard, 1935). This volume contains a translation of the Tao Te Ching, of which the principal shortcoming, in our opinion, is a pervasive sentimental tinge far removed from the spirit of Taoism; perhaps this is due in part to the 'Buddhist' leanings of its authors, at least judging from their introduction. There follows a translation of the Wu-Wei of Henri Borel, which we have already reviewed here [see above], by M.E. Reynolds. Finally, the book ends with an historical outline of Taoism by Dr Kiang Kang-Hu, unfortunately written from a rather external point of view: to speak of 'philosophy' and 'religion' is to misunderstand completely the initiatic essence of Taoism, whether as a purely metaphysical doctrine, or even in the diverse applications which are derived from it in the order of the traditional sciences. Le Voile d'Isis, 1936, p156. Under the title 'Révélations sur le Boudhisme japonais', Le Lotus bleu (August-September issue) has published a lecture by SteinilberOberlin on the methods of spiritual development in use in the Zen sect (the name deriving from the Sanskrit dhyāna, 'contemplation', and not dziena, which we trust represents no more than a printing error). Moreover, these methods do not seem 'extraordinary' to anyone familiar with those of Taoism, the influence of which the methods of Zen in large measure quite visibly reflect. Whatever is the case, it is certainly interesting; but why the grand word 'revelations', which too easily leads to the idea of a betrayal of some secret? Le Voile d'Isis, 1932. Le Larousse mensuel (March issue) contains an article on 'La Religion et la Pensée chinoise', the very title of which is characteristic of typical Western confusions. This article appears to have been inspired in great part by the works of Granet, though not by what is best in them, for in any 'abridgement' the documentation is necessarily much reduced, leaving room for interpretations that are questionable at best. It is rather amusing to see traditional knowledge of the most scientific precision treated as 'beliefs', or again to read that 'Chinese wisdom remains foreign to metaphysical preoccupations' because it does not envisage the Cartesian dualism of matter and spirit and does not claim to oppose man to nature! After this, there is scarcely need to say that Taoism is particularly ill-understood in this article, and one can imagine finding all sorts of things here, except the purely metaphysical doctrine which in reality Taoism essentially is... Études Traditionnelles, 1936, p199. .