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Explaining and Illustrating the Laozi: The Earliest Commentaries on the Daodejing
Paperback
Series: Oxford Chinese Thought
PhilosophyGeneral Eastern ReligionsTaoism
PREORDER - Expected ship date September 21, 2026
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ISBN10: 019751491X
ISBN13: 9780197514917
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Sep 21 2026
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.67
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.58 Depth: 8.19
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780197514917
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Sep 21 2026
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.67
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.58 Depth: 8.19
Language: English
Although the ancient Chinese text Laozi--also known as the Daodejing--is highly popular worldwide, few Anglophone readers are familiar with the history of how the Chinese themselves have interpreted it. This volume aims to introduce students and general readers to the two earliest surviving commentaries on the Laozi, through translations that are approachable for non-specialists and can be read on their own. These two commentaries, the Jie Lao (Explaining the Laozi) and Yu Lao (Illustrating the Laozi), appear as two chapters in the book Han Feizi, traditionally dated to the 3rd century BCE. They are interesting not only for showing how at least one very early reader understood the Laozi, but also for what they may reveal about the state of the Laozi itself at that time, before it achieved the form of the text that is so famous nowadays. The book also includes original essays that explore the commentaries' relation to the rest of the Han Feizi, compare and contrast them with other Laozi commentaries, and analyze their place in the larger history of Chinese commentarial writing.
1 different editions
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