The spectrum of colors makes the eye go blind.
The octave of pitches makes the ear go deaf.
The palate of flavors makes the tongue go numb.
Excessive hunting makes the mind unstable.
Prizing rarities makes obstacles in life. 5
Therefore
Sages fill the stomach, not the eye.
They let go of all that
And embrace this.
***
NOTES
lines 1–3: The original text refers to “the five colors,” “the five tones,” and “the five flavors,” following China’s tradition of five-phase organizations.
line 5, prizing rarities: Such enthusiasms are also decried in poems 3 and 64.
line 7: See poem 3 for a variation of this line.
lines 8 and 9: These lines also conclude poems 38 and 72.
COMMENTARY
Laozi recognizes a capacity for harm in the very diversity of material things. This concern, implicit in poem 1’s Behold whatever it manifests, is here made explicit – and he quite deliberately points out how these dangers reside in activities an affluent class holds dear: colorful display, music, gastronomy, hunting, and of course obtaining rarities. But Laozi’s conclusion is not to stand materialism on its head and preach asceticism; rather, he proposes practicality, seeing to it that genuine needs are met – Sages fill the stomach, not the eye. And what Sages do for themselves, they also do for others, according to poem 3. The concluding pair of lines is a gnomic observation Laozi employs in two other poems of the Dao De Jing. If at the end you’re not sure what he means by this, just keep reading. Because when you’re reading nothing, then you know you’re getting it.
Links To:
The Classic of Dao and De by Laozi: Contents
For more on Daoism, see:
Film Dreams: Frank Capra
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 