Buckley, B. J.

English

University of Montana

CutBank Volume 1 Issue 39 CutBank 39 Article 32 Winter 1993 Hua Hu Ching: The Teachings of Lao Tzu translation by Brian Walker B. J. Buckley Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank  Part of the Creative Writing Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Buckley, B. J. (1993) "Hua Hu Ching: The Teachings of Lao Tzu translation by Brian Walker," CutBank: Vol. 1 : Iss. 39 , Article 32. Available at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank/vol1/iss39/32 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in CutBank by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact scholarworks@mso.umt.edu. Hua Hu Ching: The Teachings of Lao Tzu  Brian WalkerLivingston, Montana: Clark City Press, 1992.$17.00; cloth.Reviewed by B.J. BuckleyMost readers will be familiar at least w ith  Lao T zu ’s Tao Te Chmg, or the Book of the Way/Path, which is a collection of bnef, e loquent and succ inc t lessons in the art of living in h a rm o n y  w ith  the w hole  of creation and the whole of oneself. This small com panion  volume, the Hua Hu Ching , is a further collection of these elegant teachings, p re ­served th ro u g h o u t  the years of repression and  des truc tion  of books  in C hina by the Taoist tradition of passing teachings orally from one gene ra t ion  to an o th e r .  These e igh ty -one  sets of in s t ru c t io n s  were in tended  by Lao Tzu to be a guide tow ard  the a tta inm ent of en l igh t­en m en t  an d  m astery  of the illusory conflicts of this ex istence and  tow ard  u. . .the b eg inn ing  of im m orta l ity”; they serve equally  well as wise gu idance for those of us still m u ch  m ired  in the difficulties of the co m m o n p lace  an d  the struggle to find a good way, a right way, to live and  be in the world.In the thirtieth lesson, Brian W alker’s translation begins, “W ords  can never convey the beauty  of a t r e e . . .Language canno t capture  the m elody  of a so n g .” But W a lk e r  com es  very close to c a p tu r in g  the b righ t n o te s  an d  cad en ces  in these p oem s; he a llow s Lao Tzu to speak to us. As we w ander  from the discussions of the Oneness  of the universe, to lessons on  the joys and  limits of the senses, to in s tru c ­tions on  gaining fame and  worldly adm ira tion  (“.. .amass a great for­tune and  then  give it away. The w orld will respond  with adm ira tion  in p ro p o r tio n  to the size of the treasure. O f  course this is m ean in g ­less”), we find ourse lves  feeling tha t  we are in co n v e rsa t io n  w ith  som eone; that as we form ideas and  argum ents,  these are anticipated an d  c o u n te re d ,  no t  by  ju d g m e n t ,  b u t  w ith  wit an d  co m p ass io n .  There is a great deal of h u m o r,  as w h en  W alke r  places the lesson on93“a person 's approach  to sexuality u n d er nu m b er sixty-nine. There s also a rare sense in the text that all hu m an s are being  addressed—  W alker uses “sh e” as the personal p ro n o u n  in terchangeab ly  w ith , and a little m ore often, than “he ,” and m any exam ples begin, “W hena m an and /o r w o m a n ...”W alker greatly adm ires and  acknow ledges the translation  of the Tao Te Ching by S tephen  M itchell, w ho  has also received m uch  praise for his new translations of the Book of Job  and  the poem s of the G erm an poet Rilke. W alker does his m entor hono r in his render­ings of these “lost” teachings of Lao Tzu. His language possesses a clanty  and a sim plicity w ithou t being  sim plistic, and  his translations of the m ost com plex ideas never slip into the jargon  of the academ ic. In his in troduc tion , W alker m entions that he has com e to th in k  of Lao Tzu . .less as a m an w ho  once lived and  m ore as a song  w ho plays, e te rnal an d  a b id in g .” W alker has b ro u g h t these teach ings across as a m elody that is distinctly  his ow n, yet no t at all in d iscord  w ith the eternal one he so reveres; we are lucky C lark City Press has been so k ind as to play the song for us. The deep black sumi-e (JaPa_ nese ink  pa in ting ) illu s tra tio n s  of insects and  an im als w h ich  are sprinkled here and there th roughout the text— and w hich we assum e to also be W a lk e rs — are possessed  of the  sam e brev ity , w it, and  p ro found  sim plicity  as the text, and  they form  an elegant descant.94

\u3ci\u3eHua Hu Ching: The Teachings of Lao Tzu\u3c/i\u3e translation by Brian Walker

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\u3ci\u3eHua Hu Ching: The Teachings of Lao Tzu\u3c/i\u3e translation by Brian Walker

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