![]() The political doctrine reflected by the Taoists, according to the New Columbia Encyclopedia, is that the duty of a ruler is to protect one's subjects from experiencing material wants or strong passions and to impose a minimum of government. ''Tao-te-ching'' is the book from which the philosophical system of Taoism chiefly derives, and its authorship is traditionally ascribed to Lao-tze (sometimes written Lao-tzu), the Chinese philosopher who lived in 600 B.C., although there is some question that he wrote it at all. ![]() The book is ''Tao-te-ching,'' which is usually translated as ''The Way and Its Power.'' Stephen Mitchell, the translator of the edition acquired by Harper & Row, is a biblical scholar whose translations of Rainer Maria Rilke were published by Random House and Simon & Schuster and whose translation of the Book of Job was published last fall by North Point Press. The amount is one of the highest ever paid to a translator, and it is certainly the most for a work in the public domain that has already been translated into English dozens of times. ![]() ![]() ![]() After a spirited auction involving eight publishers, Harper & Row has agreed to pay $130,000 for a new translation of a Chinese book of philosophy and religion written more than 2,000 years ago. ![]()
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