The Book of Peace

About 2500 years ago, the imperial archivist Lao Tzu (engl. »The old Sage«),
who was already known throughout China for his wisdom, set out to leave the
increasingly shattered empire for mountain solitude. He found himself
detained, though, by the border guard, who told him, he would not be allowed
to leave, until he wrote down his wisdom. This left Lao Tzu in a quandary.
After all, he had diligently avoided the latter, in the knowledge of its
fundamental impossibility. According to the legend, he finally bowed to the
coercion of the official and wrote down the »Tao Te Ching« (literally: »The
Book of the Tao«) in the customs house within a few days. In order to escape
at least a little from this dilemma, Lao Tzu made it clear right at the
beginning: »The words one can speak are not the right words.« Because of this
relativization and not least in relation to the central term »Tao«, which is
considered incomprehensible, the number of versions and interpretations of the
»Tao Te Ching«, now a classic of world literature, became legion. As a
makeshift, the scholars and translators commonly attributed the English terms
»Meaning« and »Way« to the »Tao«. In reference of Arthur Schopenhauer, the
probably most precise and articulate western intellectual ever, the
translation undertaken here applies for »Tao« the simple term »The World«,
which Schopenhauer characterized as the most comprehensive of all terms. As
the reader will notice soon, the use of the term »World« for »Tao«, as well as
the Schopenhauerian world-view as the translation-background, lends this
literary soul balm a fascinating additional conciseness - timeless in its
peace-inducing simplicity and closeness to life.