Page 7 - Zen Tzu

As the Appendices will explain, such a transcription into
English was fraught with many challenges, the first of which was
the cultural differences between China and Japan. Fortunately,
some of these differences were ameliorated by the similarities
between China's native Taoism and the indigenous Shinto that
formed the spiritual foundation of the Japanese culture—indeed,
half of the Japanese kanji glyph for Shinto is comprised of the
Chinese glyph for Taoism. These inherent similarities eased the
arrival of Chinese thought into Japan, thus accommodating the
formation of Zen from the teachings of Taoism. Not surprisingly
then, when the Buddhist overlay in Zen has been removed from
the practice called Zen Buddhism, the Zen that remains is very
close to the core principles shared by both Shinto and Taoism.
This closeness, along with the history of philosophical ideas that
passed between China and Japan, also invited a Zen transcription
of the Tao Te Ching.

But this did not make the Zen Tzu challenge any easier. The
obstacles presented by trying to convert a glyphic language into
an alphabetical one have proven to be daunting. As all past efforts
attest, a definitive translation of the Tao Te Ching from Chinese
into English is probably not possible. Even complete competence
in both languages does not allow the depth, breadth, nuances and
dynamics that are contained in Chinese glyphs to be accurately
rendered into the symbolic structure of English. In actuality, each
written language shapes its own version of reality. And attempts
to replicate one reality from another language can be so fraught
with obstacles that even the most arduous of efforts may yield
only approximate meanings. However, the alternative to these
inevitable failings would be blank pages and the bewilderment of
no inter-cultural communication, neither of which are tolerable
options when considering the rich stores of wisdom available in
the East. So this Zen transcription of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching into
English, despite its acknowledged deficiencies, is respectfully
offered as a better alternative to nothing at all.

However, in its efforts to avoid this “nothing at all”, the
Zen Tzu does take three liberties that need to be acknowledged.
First, it presumes to vaguely understand the essence of Taoism,
even though no definitive version of the Tao Te Ching exists, and
the many competent translations of it vary immensely. Second, it
presumes to express this understanding in terms of Zen, the very
essence of which is usually conveyed in the most confusing of

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