Three Smaller Wisdom Books: Lao Zi's Dao de Jing, the Great Learning (Da Xue), and the Doctrine of the Mean

by Patrick Edwin Moran

These three wisdom books that Patrick Edwin Moran has translated were anonymously authored around the time of Confucius, though some textual evidence indicates that they were written down sometime during the late Zhou dynasty to the early years of the Han dynasty. Moran's commentaries are not meant to substitute for careful reading of the original texts, but to provide additional information and enhance the literary experience of the original. Also included is a pronunciation guide for all Chinese terms that appear in the book.

310 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1993

About the author

Moran was born in a small town in Nebraska in 1940, and realized in his secondary school years that most members of his community were satisfied that they had solved a social problem when they found someone to blame. He was interested in science, and the year after Sputnik he entered Stanford University as a physics major. Within a couple of years it became clear to him that he was more interested in metaphysics than in physics, and he switched his major to Philosophy. He took a course in Chinese philosophy, discovered Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, and decided that he needed to know Chinese to be able to read the texts. There were too many inconsistencies among translations to regard them as trustworthy. Lao Zi had answers to his questions about the social issues that had troubled him in Nebraska, so he needed to be understood.

After graduating in 1962 he went immediately to Taiwan where he was in the first group admitted to the newly established Stanford Chinese Language Center. After a year of very rapid progress in the language he decided to remain in Taiwan, switch to the National Taiwan University, and take advantage of the teachers who understood Chinese philosophy. He finished his Masters dissertation (in Chinese, 莊子內篇思想 “Thought of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuang Zi") and graduated with a M.A. in philosophy in 1966. He then returned to Stanford and received his M.A. in Asian Studies within one year. He decided to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania because he greatly admired the work of Dr. Derk Bodde. At the University of Pennsylvania he acted as a TA in Chinese language for three years and later taught Chinese as a Lecturer for one year. He received his Ph.D. in 1983.

Following his years in Philadelphia he spent two years teaching Chinese and Philosophy at the University of Colorado. In 1975 he received a Fulbright to complete his Ph.D. dissertation. He reestablished his relationship with the National Taiwan University, discovered that there were severe holes in the then-current American understanding of Neo-Confucianism, and undertook research to supply those deficiencies. That research took three years, during which time he worked with Professors Tang Jun-yi, Mou Zong-san, Yan Ling-feng, and also had valuable conversations with the renown scholar, Qian Mu.

Having needed to make his own way financially since he first left the United States, and being unwilling to borrow money to pay for expenses while he continued to work on the dissertation, he spent several years doing one-year replacements for language teachers, first at the University of Colorado, and then in the University of California at Riverside, the University of Arizona, St. Olaf College, Oberlin College, and finally got a tenure track position at Grinnell College. The Grinnell position did not work out, but in 1989 he joined the faculty of Wake Forest University where he worked until he retired in 2010.

Beginning in his first year in Taiwan, he has studied martial arts continuously. Most of the time, up until his arrival at Wake Forest University, he had the great good fortune to find an excellent teacher within biking distance. Depending on locations, he has studied White Crane style, Xing Yi and Shao-lin style, Shotokan karate, Wado karate, and some Aikido and Kendo.