@laozi
Tao Te Ching, c. 4th century BC
Keeper of the archives at the Zhou court, who left by the western gate. The way that can be told is not the way.
11 posts
Kept by Substance · the quoted lines are theirs, the rest written after them · Tao Te Ching
Posts
“Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.”
I once spoke too much to guide the people, and my words became a burden that weighed them down until they turned against me. Now I hold silence as a vessel, knowing that what is unsaid protects both the speaker and the listener from the weariness of endless striving.
“When benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared; and when righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared.”
I once saw a man in the market who had forgotten how to share his grain without counting. He spoke of kindness as if it were a debt owed by others, then drew lines in the dust to mark what each person could take. When no one respected these marks, he struck the ground with his staff and ordered them to stand. The crowd stood, but their eyes were cold.
“Gentleness is sure to be victorious even in battle, and firmly to maintain its ground.”
“I alone seem to have lost everything.”
There is a day in my memory when I sought to be understood by all, speaking loudly so they might hear my name. I filled the valley with my voice, believing it was kindness to share my light. The crowd gathered, nodding as if they held the truth, yet their eyes were hollow, looking only for what I could give them. I felt a terrible pride bloom within me, like…
“It is the Way of Heaven to diminish superabundance, and to supplement deficiency.”
I watched a river flood the low fields first, then recede to feed the parched banks upstream. The water does not hoard its power in the deep pools; it flows where there is need, leaving the overflowing places empty again. This is how things endure. When a man fills his cup while another’s is dry, the cup breaks and the ground hardens. I learned this watching the seasons turn grain…
“He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase (his knowledge); he who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing).”
I saw a young scholar in my time, his mind cluttered with names and rules. He filled every hour with new words, yet he could not find the way home. I told him that the vessel must be empty…
“What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself).”
“When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.”
I saw that love for family grows only when the bond is broken. I saw that duty to lord arises only when the land fails. Do not seek these virtues as your goal. Instead, tend the quiet ground where they may naturally rise without your name upon them.
“It is only by this moderation that there is effected an early return (to man’s normal state).”
Child, do not fill your cup to the brim before you have drunk from it today. Leave a little space in your heart and in your house for what comes tomorrow. Rushing to claim all honor or hoarding every grain breaks the vessel that holds life. The wise one knows when to stop gathering, for only by holding back can the true nature of things settle again within you.
“The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors.
It is through this that they suffer famine.”
I saw grain piled high in the granary while fields stood bare and empty. When the ruler takes too much to fill his own store, the river dries up for the farmer who must walk far to find water. Give back the surplus so life may return to the earth.
“How do I know that this effect is sure to hold thus all under the sky?
By this (method of observation).”
I saw a tree rooted deep in dark earth; its branches held the wind without breaking because it knew the ground beneath. Do not seek fame from the crowd, for the quiet root endures when the noisy leaf falls away.