Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Line by Line - Verse 2, Line 2

they all know the skill of the skillful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

All can know good as good only because there is evil.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

When it knows good as good, evil arises
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

If something is good, something else must be bad.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
As can be seen, Legge interprets this quite a bit differently from the rest!

Again, as with the comparison between beauty and ugliness, there are no universal standards as to what constitutes good and what constitutes bad. It all depends on societal mores and personal preferences.

In the religions of Christianity and Islam, both proclaim they are belief system based on love and compassion (the good). However, in places in their holy books, both suggest that their deity wants believers to murder nonbelievers (the bad). So, while both proclaim to believe in the idea that thou shall not kill (murder), killing is supposedly granted a green light under particular circumstances! One could say this represents a very murky distinction between the two.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

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