Return Laozi to me

Author: Shen Shanzeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: At the beginning of the new year, Shanghai writer Shen Shanzeng caused a stir in academia with his groundbreaking academic work, Return to Laozi. This book is Shen Shanzeng's second "disruptive" effort to challenge the traditional interpretations of Laozi that have stood for two thousand years, following his Return to Zhuangzi—A New Interpretation of Free and Easy Wandering and On the Equality of Things three years ago. According to Shen Shanzeng's research, the five thousand words of Laozi were not written by Laozi alone. The De Jing consists of forty-four passages ( chapters) on politics extracted by Laozi from the classic texts stored in the Zhou royal archives, while the Dao Jing are annotations by Laozi on thirty-seven of those passages ( chapters). Through this method of exposition without authorship, Laozi constructs a philosophical system about the "Dao" that has profoundly influenced the Chinese nation and even all of humanity to this day. The philosophy of Laozi is a complete and rigorous philosophical system with metaphysics. Shen Shanzeng's textual criticism and interpretation also reveal that the widely accepted traditional annotations of Laozi, from "The Way that can be spoken is not the eternal Way" to "Factual words are not beautiful, beautiful words are not factual," in the eighty-one chapters, suffer from severe misinterpretations in almost every chapter. The common claims that Laozi promotes a (passive retreat from the world) life philosophy, opposes the development of productive forces, seeks to reverse history, advocates ignorant policies, promotes conspiratorial politics, and advocates for a philosophy of self-preservation—all stem from literal interpretations, taking things out of context, or deliberate distortions. According to Shen Shanzeng's textual analysis and reinterpretation of the chapters of Laozi, it is found that Laozi is actually a political philosophy book in Chinese history that stands on the people's standpoint and is specifically aimed at rulers and monarchs. This is also an important aspect of why traditional commentators have misinterpreted and distorted Laozi. Some experts believe that Shen Shanzeng's corrections to the traditional annotations of Laozi are not minor adjustments but a comprehensive subversion of the old authority. Senior editor and Taoism expert Hu Xiaojing remarked: "Based on new archaeological discoveries, Return to Laozi compares various versions of Laozi, patiently and meticulously examining the internal connections of the text, without hastily doubting its errors or being swayed by authoritative conclusions. At the same time, it dares to point out the shortcomings of various commentators on Laozi, with every interpretation backed by evidence and every statement grounded in reason. Not only does it identify the errors of each interpretation, but it also proposes its own views, thoroughly explaining the true context of Laozi and arriving at convincing interpretations." Renowned I Ching expert Zhou Xishan said: "Not only does the newly annotated and translated Laozi by Shen Shanzeng have a coherent meaning, clear and lucid language, and an accessible depth, but the process of proofreading is like watching The Da Vinci Code, full of suspense and aesthetic pleasure." This is the author's second new work challenging the traditional annotations of Laozi after his disruptive reinterpretation of Zhuangzi in Return to Zhuangzi. This book corrects numerous errors in the traditional annotations of Laozi and restores its original form, which has long been obscured. The book also contains many significant discoveries, expanding the research achievements of Laozi. For example, the De Jing part of the widely transmitted Dao De Jing is not the work of Laozi but rather forty-four chapters on politics extracted by him from the selected classics stored in the Zhou royal archives, while the Dao Jing part consists of annotations and elaborations on thirty-seven of those chapters. This clarifies the age-old mystery of the structure of Laozi and resolves many difficult issues in the traditional annotations of Laozi.