A Daoist Interpretation of Balfour’s Translation of the Daodejing

This study examines Frederic Henry Balfour’s 1884 English translation of the Daodejing through the lens of Daoist religious interpretation, contextualizing it within the broader framework of “Global Laozegetics.” While the Daodejing is often studied as a philosophical text, Balfour’s translation uniquely emphasizes its religious dimensions, drawing on Lü Chunyang’s Daoist commentary. The study first engages with the Daodejing ’s original polemical context, particularly its critique of Confucian values, and explores the dual nature of Dao as both immanent and transcendent. By analyzing Balfour’s paratextual strategies, including peritexts such as prefaces, annotations, and epitexts such as historical context and base text selection, this paper then argues that his work represents a significant yet understudied contribution to Western sinology. The study further situates this achievement within its historical and philological limits, arguing that “religious” and “philosophical” must be treated as historically situated concepts rather than timeless analytical categories. This reframing enriches our understanding of cross-cultural communication and contributes to ongoing debates about how the Daodejing has been read, translated, and transformed across cultures.