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14
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
CH. III.
vocare, non peccabis :-hic est ex quo nata sunt omnia, cujus spiritu vivimus 1.'
In his translation of the Works of Kwang-zze in 1881, Mr. Balfour adopted Nature as the ordinary rendering of the Chinese Tâo. He says, 'When the word is translated Way, it means the Way of Nature,- her processes, her methods, and her laws; when translated Reason, it is the same as lî,—the power that works in all created things, producing, preserving, and life-giving,- the intelligent principle of the world ; when translated Doctrine, it refers to the True doctrine respecting the laws and mysteries of Nature.' He calls attention also to the point that he uses NATURE in the sense of Natura naturans, while the Chinese expression wan wû(= all things) denotes Natura naturata.' But this really comes to the metaphorical use of nature which has been touched upon above. It can claim as its patrons great names like those of Aquinas, Giordano Bruno, and Spinoza, but I have never been able to see that its barbarous phraseology makes it more than a figure of speech?.
The term Nature, however, is so handy, and often fits so appropriately into a version, that if Tâo had ever such a signification I should not hesitate to employ it as freely as Mr. Balfour has done; but as it has not that signification, to try to put a non-natural meaning into it, only perplexes the mind, and obscures the idea of Lâo-zze.
Mr. Balfour himself says (p. xviii), "The primary signification of Tâo is simply "road."! Beyond question this meaning underlies the use of it by the great master of Taoism and by Kwang-zze 3. Let the reader refer to the version of the twenty-fifth chapter of Lâo's treatise, and to
1 Natur. Quaest. lib. II, cap. xlv.
? Martineau's "Types of Ethical Theory,'I, p. 286, and his whole 'Conjectural History of Spinoza's Thought.'
s equivalent to the Greek ħ 68ós, the way. Where this name for the Christian system occurs in our Revised Version of the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, the literal rendering is adhered to, Way being printed with a capital W. See Acts ix. 2; xix. 9, 23; xxii. 4; xxiv. 14, 22.
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2240 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 38 MB |