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CHAPTER 25.

The word shi, "departing," may very well be understood in the sense of dying.

The word fan means literally "return," denoting "coming back," and in order

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to imitate the terse Chinese text, the best translation for "having come back" is "home." Lao-tze says: "Reason, the great distant beyond, is our home."

Section 5 seems to be a gloss which slipped into the text. At any rate the bracketed portion is too trivial to come from the hand of Lao-tze.


Next: Chapter 26