China and the West

Buber, Martin. Lao Tzu al hashilton [ID D19397].
Irene Eber : Except for a brief note on the Dao de jing and Laozi, no other comments are atached to the translated text. Buber obviously did not use von Strauss's German text as the source for the Hebrew rendition, and one cannot tell whether he had an English or German original for preparing this translation. A remarkable feature of Buber's Hebrew version is its closeness to the Chinese text. All eight chapters have two themes in common, government and the condemnation of the use of force and instruments of war. The chapters refer not only to the horrors of war, they also suggest the means by which such horrors can be avoided. These Dao de jing chapters about society and the state were in many ways then, as others had been eralier, in accord with ideas which preoccupied Buber.