“so take me as I am / this may mean you’ll have to be a stronger man”

Offered without commentary (but one footnote):

Opening of Journey to the West

The poem goes:

Ere primal chaos parted, heaven and earth were mixed—
In boundless vastness, there was not a man to see;
But ever since Pangu broke up that mistiness,
Both clear and muddy’s been distinguished separately.
The crowded, overflowing lives all aim for humaneness,
Ten-thousand creatures ’neath the sun tend towards the best.
If you would know how Nature gathered its first merit,
Read “Tales of Woes Resolved upon the Journey West.”

( 诗曰 )

Opening of the Three-Character Classic

People at birth
Are naturally good.
In nature they’re close,
Through habits they part.

If they aren’t taught,
Their natures degrade.
The right way of teaching
Is valuing focus.

Old Mencius’s mother
Picked a good neighborhood.
When the boy wouldn’t learn
She cut shuttle from loom.

( 人之初 )

Opening of Dao De Jing

A way that can be described is not the constant Way.
A name that can be named is not the constant Name.
Without a name, it’s the origin of heaven and earth^[1-1];
With a name, it’s the mother of the ten-thousand things.
Thus, those constantly without desires see its mysteries,
While those constantly with desires see its surface^[1-2].
These two things, coming forth the same yet having different names, together are meaning’s Mystery.
The Mystery’s most mysterious [part] is the gate to all subtlety.

[1-1] Other texts have “the ten-thousand things”
[1-2] Other texts have “what they want”

( 道可道，非常道 )

---L.

Index of Chinese translations

Subject quote from Bitch, Meredith Brooks.