《老子》傳世久遠，歷經傳抄刊刻，故訛誤不免，而各家或據誤本訛文作解，是以歧解多有。其訛文者如第一章「無名萬物之始也」，今本「萬物」訛作「天地」。如第二章「有無之相生也」下共六句，今本並奪六「之」字。如第三章「使夫智不敢、不為而已，則無不治矣」，今本訛作「使夫智不敢為也，為無為，則無不治」。是證今本正文多謬，而第十章亦多訛文，故校正而析解之。本章「滌除玄鑑」，唐宋以來各本「鑑」訛作「覽」，此形近之訛。「愛民治邦，能毋以知乎」、「明白四達，能毋以知乎」，此前句「知」，當解作「智」，後句「知」，當解作「知」。而今本前句作「知」，而後句訛作「能無為乎」，是詭更正文也。至若章首「載」字，不得妄改作「哉」。「載」猶「設」也，是設問語，本章此六句三組，皆設問句，不得妄改也。今就本章文字，正其底本，析解正文，以明原旨，是為論文。唯不敢自是，故就正於先進，尚祈不吝賜正也。
There have been omissions and commissions in different texts and annotations of Lao-tzu due to the fact that this great work has enjoyed a long history. For example, in "Namelessness is the beginning of all things" in the first Chapter, the present texts mistake "all things" for "heaven and earth"; the character "zhi(字)" is left out in six instances after the "reciprocity of existence and nonexistence" in the second Chapter; in the third Chapter, misunderstanding happens to "Ruling is possible if the intelligent do not dare and are unwilling to do"; and so are some cases in the tenth Chapter. In this Chapter, in "cleaning a deep dark bronze mirror", the "bronze mirror(鑑)" has been mistaken for "looking(覽)" since the Tang and Sung dynasties. In "Can intelligence be not applied to loving people and ruling the country?" and "Can knowledge be not applied to understanding all directions?", the present texts confuse the intelligence and knowledge. As for the first character "zai(載)", it means "suppose", used as an if-word to lead a phrase, a clause, or a sentence. This is the same with the six other sentences. The article tries to analyze and explain what have been misunderstood in the tenth Chapter.
