 A few years back I read a commentary on the Tao Te Ching in which the author stipulated that instead of assuming the popular translation of the Chinese character Te as power, he was using a less common translation, a translation in which the character Te is translated as "virtue." Oddly, this is the same translation used in Benjamin Hoff's popular book, The Te of Piglet. Frankly, I don't know enough about the Chinese language to know if this translation is truly accurate, but it seems to make sense. So moving forward, I have held this interpretation in mind ever since. Somewhat reassuring for me, Nine Nights with the Taoist Master takes the same approach.
Enter Master Waysun Liao, a well-known instructor of the external and internal arts and an author whose previous projects have been very well received. Nine Nights with the Taoist Master is unique and insightful, highly entertaining, likely provocative, and well worth the read. I usually juggle several books at once, moving back and forth as the mood hits me or as boredom takes over. But once I began reading Nine Nights with the Taoist Master, I sat other readings aside. While it does have a few short-comings, it was that engrossing. You may be asking why the unusual title, why another translation of the second most translated book on the planet, and what made it such a compelling read. Good questions all... Master Liao takes a unique approach. Nine Nights with the Taoist Master is written with the storyline of a fictional novel rather than the standard intellectual text that usually wraps itself around the Tao Te Ching. The book comes in two versions, both a standard and a deluxe edition. The deluxe edition comes with an interesting ten page interview with the author, an expanded preface, a special meditation application glossary, and the original Chinese text as well as Waysun Liao's translation in its entirety. In Master Liao's version, the sage Lao Tzu is again traveling toward the setting sun when he arrives at the border town of West Peace . The prince of West Peace urges the famous sage to stay on as his chief spiritual advisor. Lao Tzu eventually agrees to stay, but only for nine nights, nine nights during which he will allow the prince to ask nine questions per night - nine nights, nine queries, the eighty-one verses of the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu graciously allows additional questions from the ruler's invited subjects and Waysun Liao, through the voice of Lao Tzu, uses these additional questions and the chapters between these official question and answer periods to gift readers with lots of additional lessons into human nature and the ways of The Way. There are many important lessons to be had here and I plan to reread this book. I am sure Nine Nights with the Taoist Master will be one of the books I return to time and time again. The deluxe edition runs nearly 400 pages, of which more than 250 is made up of the story line, the rest being the aforementioned additions that go beyond the standard version. The standard text costs roughly $30 while the deluxe model will cost buyers and additional two-thirds, $50, a lot for a paperback but worth the additional cost. The interview with Waysun Liao is insightful and the meditation application glossary is extremely helpful, no matter the reader's level of experience. And if you don't already have a copy of the Tao Te Ching's original text, you will be gaining that as well... |
