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Pheurton Skeurto

Identify the quote (a.k.a. Time to get to the bottom of this one...)

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Ok, it's ALL over the Internet... I've seen it in the odd book... and EVERYONE claims's it's Laozi.. but curiously, no one can identify the origin of this quote. What is your 2 cents on the matter?

 

"Music in the soul can be heard by the Universe."

 

 

???????????

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I was unable to find the exact translation but it is most likely a translation of Chapter 41, Line 16.

 

Henricks' translation reads: "The Great Tone makes little sound;"

 

Peace & Love!

Edited by Marblehead

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It doesn't sound like Lao Tsu to me and I can't find that quote in any translations I have. Also - what is it supposed to mean???????

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I bet Marblehead is right. Translations go all over the place. One person writes a 'unique' spin on a line of DDC and others attribute it to Laozi.

 

We can't even agree on how to spell his name in english!! :)

 

 

Michael

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I was unable to find the exact translation but it is most likely a translation of Chapter 41, Line 16.

 

Henricks' translation reads: "The Great Tone makes little sound;"

 

Peace & Love!

 

Ok, so according to Star translation (which recovers thevarious translation arounds and compares them)

the line you refer to is (I think)

ta yin hsian sheng

 

with

 

ta that has been translated as (great, the greatest, perfect, highest

yin (music, sound, music note, tone, sound)

hsi (without, void of, "soft", "rarefied")

sheng ( sound/music/tone)

and the last two have been translated together as

is faint, hard to hear, silent, "is hushed".

 

How from ta yin hsi sheng

we reach

Music in the soul can be heard by the Universe

really beats me.

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How from ta yin hsi sheng

we reach

Music in the soul can be heard by the Universe

really beats me.

 

How about we just imagine Lao Tzu was trying to say that? Then we could say that 'this is what he meant. Translation and interpretation mixed together.

 

(Sorry, I have no better answers. Hehehe)

 

Peace & Love!

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How about we just imagine Lao Tzu was trying to say that? Then we could say that 'this is what he meant. Translation and interpretation mixed together.

 

(Sorry, I have no better answers. Hehehe)

 

Peace & Love!

 

I would translate it as:

the sound of the big bang can't be heard!

 

In fact we should retranslate the whole TTC from the point of view of modern physics. NOT quantum physics, just astronomy.

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"Music in the soul can be heard by the Universe."

I think this is a beautiful quote - it really speaks to me.

I have no idea who said it and don't recall anything similar form Dao De Jing, but then again I'm not much of a scholar.

It doesn't sound like something from Laozi.

In any case, Laozi probably wasn't a historical individual anyway so i'm not too concerned with who said it...

:)

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Thanks to everyone for their input on this. However, as you can imagine, I am still not convinced that it's Laozi... or really linked to any other stuff that we've covered here. There's just too much variation for it to even be close...

 

I hope that, one day, we can get a line on this one and get some more context for it.

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Well Pythagoras is quoted along similar lines.

 

My whole masters thesis and subsequent research is based on this concept. I discovered that yang is the Perfect 5th music ratio and yin is the Perfect 4th music ratio -- thereby joining Pythagorean philosophy with Taoist philosophy.

 

The West has completely mistranslated Pythagoras -- for example we always are told Pythagoras stated:

 

"all is number." But that's wrong.

 

He stated:

 

"All is number and harmony."

 

And Harmonia was the Goddess as the Emptiness of Taoism.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input on this. However, as you can imagine, I am still not convinced that it's Laozi... or really linked to any other stuff that we've covered here. There's just too much variation for it to even be close...

 

I hope that, one day, we can get a line on this one and get some more context for it.

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or in music, the fundamental tone assigns the root, but the myriad combinations of harmonics are what gives that note character (i.e. timbre...)

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