Tao Te Ching
THE TAOISM OF LAO TZU

     
     


Fake Lao Tzu Quote

"To the mind..."

Fake Lao Tzu quote: To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

This is NOT a quote from Tao Te Ching:


"To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders."



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The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained. The great Taoist philosophy classic by Lao Tzu translated, and each of the 81 chapters extensively commented. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

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Some Internet posts and memes write "a mind" instead of "the mind," which makes no difference to the meaning.

       The idea that the universe should surrender to a human mind would be absurd to Lao Tzu. On the contrary, humankind must yield to the Way of Heaven and learn its working in order to adapt to it. Nonetheless, the main method by which we can reach this awareness and accept it is by stillness, wu-wei (non-action), and by letting the world take its course.


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90 of the most spread false Lao Tzu quotes, why they are false and where they are really from. Book by Stefan Stenudd. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

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       Also, the term "universe" is questionable when translating Lao Tzu, since it has a meaning today so far from the understanding of ancient times. In Lao Tzu's China the whole world was one of Heaven and Earth — and the ten thousand things, which simply meant everything in between those two. So, the most adequate word for it all would be the world. Still, several translators have used the word "universe," so it is sort of a matter of taste.

       But a surrendering universe won't do.

       Still, this is a genuine quote — though from Chuang Tzu, and not Lao Tzu. The mix-up is understandable, since the quote is in Arthur Waley's introduction to his translation of Tao Te Ching from 1934 (page 58). He used "a mind" and put "still" within quotation marks to signal the complexity of the original Chinese term — and he accredited it to Chuang Tzu, book XIII.1.

       He did not state what translation of Chuang Tzu it was from, so probably it was his own. It deviates rather significantly from other versions of the Chuang Tzu text. The version by Herbert A. Giles from 1889 reads (page 158):


The mind of the Sage being in repose becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.


       James Legge's version in Text of Taoism, volume 1, from 1891 reads (page 331):


The still mind of the sage is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of all things.


       And here is Burton Watson's version from 1968:


The sage's mind in stillness is the mirror of Heaven and earth, the glass of the ten thousand things.


       So, nothing about a surrendering universe. And again, not Lao Tzu.

       Occasionally this quote has been ascribed to Lieh Tzu, a 5th century BC philosopher, but the text with his name is considered to be from the 4th century CE. The oldest book with the Lieh Tzu accreditation is The Tao of Painting from 1956, by Mai-mai Sze (page 18), giving the same Waley source page as mentioned above, which points to Chuang Tzu and none else.

       On this page of Waley's book, he referred the quote to Chuang Tzu in one footnote, and the following note has a reference to Lieh Tzu — but that does not concern this quote. Sze might have mixed that up.

       The slightly altered version of the quote, with "the mind" instead of "a mind," may have originated with The Religions of Man from 1958, by Huston Smith (page 180), where the quote from Waley's book was used but with this little typo. This wording is also used in the oldest book I have found to accredit Lao Tzu with the quote: Zen and the Art of Gardening from 2000, by Gill Hale (page 217). Several books followed, doing the same.

       On the Internet, the false Lao Tzu accreditation has also been around for quite long. On Goodreads the quote with "a mind" got its first like January 26, 2008, which was the year after the site was launched.

       On Facebook the quote started to appear in 2011, but only with Chuang Tzu accreditations. It took until May 2014 for the first post ascribing it to Lao Tzu to appear, with an accompanying meme, using "the mind."

       The first appearance on the web of the version with "the mind" was in 2010, already then with the Lao Tzu accreditation. In books as well as on the web, it seems that most Lao Tzu references are with "the mind" and most Chuang Tzu references with "a mind."

       The flawed "the mind" quote is vastly more spread on the web than the correct one: almost 34,000 links versus 5,400 (September 2020). A clear example of how quantity can be misleading on the Internet.

Stefan Stenudd
September 22, 2020.



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Tao Te Ching — The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained. Book by Stefan Stenudd. Tao Te Ching

The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained. The great Taoist philosophy classic by Lao Tzu translated, and each of the 81 chapters extensively commented.

       More about the book here.

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The Ancient Wisdom of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. 389 quotes from the foremost Taoist classic, divided into 51 prominent topics. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

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Fake Lao Tzu Quotes — Erroneous Tao Te Ching Citations Examined. Book by Stefan Stenudd. Fake Lao Tzu Quotes

Erroneous Tao Te Ching Citations Examined. 90 of the most spread false Lao Tzu quotes, why they are false and where they are really from. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

       More about the book here.



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