Yetgeul › China
Caigentan (Discourses on Vegetable Roots)菜根譚
A book of maxims on making one’s way through the world, named from the saying that one who can chew vegetable roots can accomplish a hundred things. The former collection tells how to keep oneself whole among people, the latter how to set the heart at rest in nature. The three streams of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism are gathered here in one vessel.
The 356 items of the Ming block-print edition (222 in the first collection and 134 in the second), together with the dedicatory verses, fully translated. 9 entries and 360 paragraphs. At the one place where a variant marking was broken, only the graph of the main text was taken.
Complete in one volume
- Latter Collection 3 (nos. 91–134)後集 · 44 passages · 1,998 Chinese characters
- Latter Collection 2 (nos. 46–90)後集 · 45 passages · 1,776 Chinese characters
- Latter Collection 1 (nos. 1–45)後集 · 45 passages · 1,598 Chinese characters
- Former Collection 5 (nos. 181–222)前集 · 42 passages · 1,381 Chinese characters
- Former Collection 4 (nos. 136–180)前集 · 45 passages · 1,706 Chinese characters
- Former Collection 3 (nos. 91–135)前集 · 45 passages · 1,664 Chinese characters
- Former Collection 2 (nos. 46–90)前集 · 45 passages · 1,709 Chinese characters
- Former Collection 1 (nos. 1–45)前集 · 45 passages · 1,571 Chinese characters
- Preface — On the Caigentan菜根譚題詞 · 4 passages · 387 Chinese characters