I started translating Tao Te Ching alone and found hidden information 🌼

Spiritual & Metaphysical Matters
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Here are all the negations I’ve found in the book so far, and their corrected meanings.

非 means “not be”. It is used when describing a state in which an object/thing will NOT be in. For example, when we want to say that “it is not sleeping”.

不 means “not”. It is a clear denial, without any ambiguity. You could say it’s a 100% denial.

弗 means “not exaclty”, (“not exactly as you think”). It is a negation, but indicating that the object spoken of is not being done as it is thought of. But nevertheless, it is PERFORMED. This is the key difference.

This is my key mistake, because with this new translation comes a new accuracy.

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2/81 Corrected part two.

  1. The sky is below everything
  2. Know beauty and do beauty. Evil will go away
  3. When everyone knows what is Good, it’s not “Good” at all
  4. To have and not to have, together mean “To Live”
  5. Difficult and easy, together mean “Success”
  6. Long and short, together mean “Shape”
  7. Tall and low, together mean “Full”
  8. Thought and sound, together mean “Harmony”
  9. Preceding and behind, together mean “Descending of Permanent”
  10. Undoubtedly, man lives with the help of Sound
  11. Doing nothing is “Work”
  12. Walking without saying anything is “Teaching”
  13. All things in the world are very old, and they started not exactly as you think
  14. Do, and wish, but not in the same way as before
  15. Reach your goal and live, but not in the same way as before
  16. And lastly, live by leaving, but not in the same way as before
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No offense intended but there is a legitimate reason that ancient languages is an entire field of study. Copy and pasting characters into a dictionary is very unlikely to yield a correct understanding. Best of luck to you.