孝 “filial piety” (translated as “devoted children”) : respect your elders and parents, duty to your parents, care for the elderly 慈 “compassion” : benevolence, mercy; as specifically applied to parents’ attitude towards their children, this is translated as “loving parents” 君 子 “noble man” : literally “son of the ruler”, this can mean “nobleman” (one who belongs to the nobility), but is also a Confucian term that means one who is noble or moral in character and embodies the above qualities; sometimes translated by others as “gentleman” or “superior man” Many symbols in the DDJ are used to provide emphasis (similar to an exclamation point in English), and can either come at the end of a sentence or can be used to emphasize a word or phrase in the middle of a sentence. Many translators ignore these latter symbols entirely, while others preface the emphasized word with “so…”, “such…”, “very…”, “oh,…”, etc. Here, an exclamation point is used immediately after the word, but then the sentence continues on. One symbol in particular implies that what precedes it is not only true but has always been true, which is translated as “indeed!” ============================================================== References Introduction : Laozi, by Alan Chan; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/laozi/; 2009 Translations : Dao De Jing : A Philosophical Translation, by Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall; Ballantine, New York; 2003 (note that this is a translation of the MWD sources) Lao Zi zhi Dao De Jing : Two Literal English Translations, by Bradford Hatcher; http://www.hermetica.info/LaoziA.htm; 2005 Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, by D.C. Lau; Penguin Books, London; 1963 (this is a reasonably literal translation, with minimal interpretation; note that his 1994 book is an MWD translation) The Way and Its Power, by Arthur Waley; Grove Press, New York; 1958 These were mostly used for their own explanations of the more difficult passages and ancient Chinese idioms, but were sometimes used for comparison during the translation process. Ancient Chinese Sources : Comparisons of Chinese Versions, by Nina Carerra; http://www.daoisopen.com/Comparisons.html; 2005 These charts were used to compare the symbols between all sources, and for end-of-sentence and end-of-chapter markers. I personally verified the WB symbols in these charts against several different references. Key to Notations Symbols used for the translation • = end-of-line character appears in some source (•) = symbol usually starts or ends a line Of the 6 ancient sources (see Introduction), this translation uses WB except where the majority of the other sources disagree with it. The notations for these changes are : ( ) = WB symbol has been changed __ = WB symbol has been deleted