The remains of Laozi, with Critics

 

By Herbert Allen Giles. Distributor: Lulu. $19.99. 162 pages. Paperback CQ. 2016 (1886).

 

H. A. Giles was a major scholar of Chinese texts in the 19th century. His work The remains of Laozi not only provides a critical analysis of the various translations of Laozi which itself is of great interest in drawing an understanding of the text and of the complexity of rendering its meaning through translations. H. A. Giles also provides a valuable analysis of the history of translations of the text in the 19th century.

The remains of Laozi generated a series of responses by other scholars of the time. Those responses are included here to provide an additional layer of understanding of both the complexity of the interpretations of texts and the relationships among some the first major sinologists.

This edition includes the work of H. A. Giles, and the ensuing critics by Thomas William Kingsmill, Frederic Henry Balfour, John Chalmers, Edward Harper Parker and James Legge. It also includes H. A. Giles’ list of works and a list of over 70 references generated from the text.

167 transliterated terms have been updated to modern pinyin.

 

Contents

 

  • Editioral notice
  • Introduction
  • The Book
  • Critics
    • T. W. Kingsmill – Review.
    • T. W. Kingsmill. Modern Sinology and the Daodejing.
    • Balfour – Giles’ Remains of Lao Tsz
    • Giles’ Answers to F. Balfour
    • J. Chalmers
      • I. The Characters in the Book.
      • II. Order of the Book.
      • III. The book specially necessary in Han.
      • IV. Sima Qian and the Daodejing.
      • V. Ban Gu’s Testimony
      • VI. The Daodejing after the Han Dynasty
      • VII. Professor Legge’s Answer to Mr. Giles
      • VIII. Translation.
      • IX. The Way that cannot be walked on.
      • X. Different texts.
      • Postscript.—The Vanity of Human Wishes
    • Joseph Edkins
    • Giles’s Answer to E. Edkins. ‘Dr. Edkins on the “Tao Te Ching.”’
    • E. H. Parker
    • Giles’ Answers to Chalmers, Edkins and Parker
    • Legge’s Critical Notice of the Remains of Lao Tzu
    • Giles’ Answers to Legge
  • Appendices
    • Biography
    • Work cited
    • Western References
    • Chinese Sources
    • Additional References