Laozi’s Dao Di Jing translated by Ken Liu

TL;DR: A very friendly exploration of a philosophy I’ve heard of but didn’t know many details.
Source: Netgalley! Thank you so much! I also purchased my own copy after completion.

Structure: This includes essays from Ken Liu about the translation and his thoughts on several of the chapters which really helped add to the overall message and understanding.
Readability: This is very newbie friendly (as that’s what I am).

Thoughts:

I’ve heard in passing of Laozi’s Dao Di Jing, and definitely heard passing jokes about ‘Daoism’ but I’ve never actually had any details or information on it. This new translation by Ken Liu was a very beginner friendly place to start. He translates what seems to be the core lessons from Laozi with essays exploring and explaining these lessons. These also include stories from a contemporary/teacher of Daoism that help to explain.

I was honestly a bit nervous going into this, I’m not going to lie. I love Ken Liu, which was the entire reason I tried this. I’m very happy I did, as I stated he did a fantastic job with the translation here. He also talked about what translating this was like, some of the struggles he faced and how he came to understand the text as he did so. I appreciated all of that as it added more structure to my own understanding.

Overall I definitely recommend this if you’re perhaps interested in a very beginner friendly place with Daoism. I knew nothing going in, and by the end felt much more comfortable with the idea and philosophy. I will be rereading and expanding my reading before saying I’m at all knowledgeable about it but this was a great starting spot.

5 out of 5 stars