An old chinese proverb => its source?

[Jan Bosselaers]

christian thompson wrote:

>There is an old chinese proverb that I picked up some where and have now
>forgotten the source.
>
>Does any one know the source of the following:
>
>The beginning of knowledge consists in learning to call things by their
>names.
>
>Thanks
>
>F. Christian Thompson
>Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA
>c/o Smithsonian Institution
>MRC-0169 NHB
>PO Box 37012
>Washington, DC 20013-7012
>(202) 382-1800 voice
>(202) 786-9422 FAX
>cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov e-mail
>www.diptera.org  web site
>
>
I think this is one of the translations of a famous verse from Lao Tzu's "Te-Tao Ching". Unfortunately, parts of Lao Tzu's text are missing and copyists made mistakes, resulting in many competing translations of the same verse. Adding to the confusion is the fact that even unmutilated Chinese phrases can be translated in various ways, as I discovered when dealing with Chinese collegues. Business deals, for example, are always "back translated" from the English translation into Chinese and re-checked by the Chinese partner, to avoid misinterpretations that so easily arise.
In the case of this verse, which is from Chapter 32, I have to other translations (in Dutch) here. Translated again into English they sound more or less like:
1) "When Tao revealed itself by actions, it obtained a name. When giving names, one should know where to stop"
2) "As soon as we start building a system, we have names. As soon as there are fixed names, one should know that it is also time to stop" This second translation comes from Robert Henricks (1990) "Lao-Tzu - Te-Tao Ching" Ballantine Books, New York. This seems to be a very thorough translation and one of the most recent.

Best regards,

Jan

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jan Bosselaers
"Dochterland", R. novarumlaan 2
B-2340 Beerse, Belgium               tel / fax 32-14-615896
home: dochterland at pandora.be  /  hortipes at dochterland.org
work: jbossela at janbe.jnj.com
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