Making such a translation was not possible alone. Thanks to all the help I’ve received along the way.
Please note that this work, due to its age, is in the public domain. If you want to read the original, there are many platforms to read that, including Ctext and Wikisource.
AI is certainly controversial, and I debated in my head whether I should use it for this translation. When I first played around with ChatGPT at the beginning of 2023, it was clear that it still struggled with Classical Chinese texts. However, when I started testing it now, while it is not perfect, I want to say that it can do a good 95% of its translation task pretty well, and can sometimes even pick more appropriate wording or vocabulary than I can think of. The test tilted the balance in favor of me using AI. Without AI, the translation for this text will definitely take several times longer, with marginal benefits compared to translating manually. While AI was used in the process of translation, since it is not perfect, I took care to read over every single line to make sure nothing looks off. Along the way, I also added some personal commentary to supplement some parts of the original text that might not be clear. These commentaries are clearly marked at the end of each section.
With all that said, I hope you end up finding the text insightful, and contributes to your understanding of Chinese culture and philosophy.
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