"I highly recommend this translation by Reid and have actually made it required study for my priests in training."
- Shifu Michael Rinaldini, Daoist Abbbot and founder of the American Dragon Gate Lineage of Quanzhen Daoism
Central to Daoism (Taoism), Zen Buddhism, and neo-Confucianism, Lao Zi's "Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)" may be the single most influential Eastern philosophical text of the last 2500 years, and has since become the second most translated book in the world.
"The Heshang Gong Commentary" has long been considered essential reading for Daoist initiates and scholars, owing to the author's authentic experience and knowledge of Lao Zi's cultural and historical influences. Heshang Gong ("Riverside Elder," circa 200 AD) expands on Lao Zi's language and metaphors while offering a Sage's insights into how they may be applied to the cultivation of wisdom, vitality, longevity, harmonious leadership, and Daoist virtues such as naturalness, sincerity, and ease.
Guided by Heshang Gong's commentary and linguistic analysis, Dan G. Reid provides translations of the "Dao De Jing" and "Heshang Gong Commentary" which are both eloquent and exceptionally faithful to the Chinese text. Drawing on Classical Chinese Medicine and Daoism's rich wisdom, meditation and textual traditions, Reid offers in this second edition his own comments on the writings of Heshang Gong and Lao Zi.
With an audience of scholars and Daoist practitioners in mind, this translation includes the Chinese text and a brief guide to reading Classical Chinese.
"Dan has really put a great tool into a lot of people's hands. Heshang Gong has been living in a cave as far as anyone interested in Laozi has been concerned. Now he's out. And the introduction as well as the textual aids for the non-Chinese reading reader at the back really make this a major contribution to the field, especially to those readers leery of the scholarly gauntlet."
- Red Pine (Bill Porter), translator of Lao-Tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years