Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source (Classics of Ancient China)
Is it a backhanded compliment to recommend a book more for its introduction than for the main text itself? Not if the introduction turns out to be twice the length of the text, as it is in Lau and Ames's collaborationYuan Dao. The first chapter of the early Chinese Taoist textHuainanzi,Yuan Daois similar to theTao Te Chingin its elaboration of the natural Tao and the actions (orinaction) of the sage. It is worth reading for its limpid lyricism alone. With Ames's prefatory remarks, not only the text, but the whole of early Chinese thought comes more into focus. The reason we see ancient Chinese works as wisdom literature is that the Chinese were more interested in the how of the world than the what of it, and so Ames takesYuan Daoas a jumping-off point for examining a world-view that contrasts sharply with ours but is still surprisingly modern. The original author (or sponsor) ofYuan Daolost his life partly because it is a work that proposed pluralism and noncoercion in a time of forced consolidation. In our time, this message rings still rings true.--Brian Bruya