“Sin” of course has very negative religious connotations in the West, while “crime” and “vice” also have stronger negative associations than “fault”. But there are other, even more significant ways in which the translator’s choices affect the result. Because of the many (sometimes unrelated) possible meanings of each Chinese symbol, it is possible to come up with multiple translations of the exact same sentence that are completely different in meaning! For example, in chapter 41, there is a line : 大 方 無 隅 where 方 can mean both “region” and “square”, while 隅 can be “border” or “corner”, so both of these are valid translations : The greatest region is without borders. The greatest square is without corners. And in chapter 45 : 大 巧 若 拙 where 巧 can be “skillful” or “clever”, and 拙 can mean “stupid” or “clumsy”, both of these are equally likely : Great skillfulness seems clumsy. Great cleverness seems stupid. Finally, even when there is no ambiguity about the meaning of the individual symbols, it sometimes hard to determine what overall meaning was intended. From chapter 35, there is a line : 道 之 出 言 淡 兮 in which the first four symbols literally mean “words of Dao”, but does this mean “talking about Dao” or “the words that come out of Dao”? It can be argued both ways due to subtleties in the meanings of the symbols, but there is a tremendous difference in meaning between the two translations. In addition, there are a few symbols whose modern English meanings just don’t make sense within the context of the sentence, probably due either to transcription errors or changes in meaning over the millennia. The English words used for these symbols are usually selected according to context. ============================================================== Common Terms Because the translation itself is meant to involve minimal interpretation and explanation, some of the words and phrases that are used repeatedly need to be discussed beforehand for clarity. Keep in mind that volumes have been written about some of these concepts – these are just brief summaries for the reader new to Daoism.