Philippine E-Journals

The Work of Lao Zi as Found in the Ma-Wang-Tui Archaeological Excavations

Alfredo P. Co

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

My first encounter with the Chinese text of the De Dao Jing (Te Tao Ching) of Lao Zi came in 1977 while I was doing research work in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The English translation by Robert G. Henricks appeared only in 1989. I have always wanted to write on the findings, but I only managed to mention it in passing in an article published in Karunungan in 1985. It is only now that I have decided to devote a whole article to it. But what is this De Dao Jing of Lao Zi? Did not Lao Zi write Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)? What is the significance of ths text? Is it different from the text we have always been familiar with?