As part of preparing for our first discussion of the Daodejing, you should (as always) think of questions that we might discuss. You should (also as always) direct people to a particular location in the text. In the case of the Daodejing it’s enough to provide a chapter number (which is the same as the page number for book 1 in Ivanhoe’s edition). Your assignment is to send me one question before 6 am on Fri.

I ordered the edition translated by Ivanhoe for our section. It has useful notes, which you’ll find near the end (pp. 85-99). It also has a “Language Appendix” (pp. 101-114), which discusses some of the issues that arise in translating the work (using ch. 1 as an example). I haven’t assigned the introductory discussion (xv-xxxii), but it is also useful. Finally, you’ll find a brief discussion of the calligraphy and paintings appearing in the edition on pp. xi-xii.