Thanks for your comments! I'm afraid I'm not in the city where my copy of the Le Guin version is on my bookshelf, but the printed version has per-chapter autho

Thanks for your comments! I'm afraid I'm not in the city where my copy of the Le Guin version is on my bookshelf, but the printed version has per-chapter authors notes at the end for many chapters where she often discusses her word choices -- I'm not sure if the notes included in this online version capture those or not? If I remember right, there were a few footnotes (which i'm thinking may be what's captured in OP), but then separately additional notes at the end which I'm not sure are captured here. I'm curious if she says anything additional in foreward or notes about her choice of "real". Obviously she was aware it was not a choice other translators typically made. When I'm back home, I'll look! Googling, the scholar who approved of Le Guin's work and worked with her somewhat on it (in some places I see him credited as a contributor to the Tao Te Ching rendition), is J. P. "Sandy" Seaton, who on his own seems to have produced plenty of other well-regarded translations of classical chinese poetry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_P._Seaton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_P._Seaton