The most virtuous are unaware of virtue.
Thus they have De.
The least virtuous are never unaware of virtue.
Thus they do not have De.
The most virtuous do not act and pursue no agenda. 5
The least virtuous act in pursuit of an agenda.
The most humane act but pursue no agenda.
The most dutiful act in pursuit of an agenda.
The most lawful act, and if you do not react
They lay their bare hands on you. 10
Therefore
When Dao is lost, people try to be virtuous.
When virtue is lost, people try to be humane.
When humaneness is lost, people try to be dutiful.
When duty is lost, people try to enforce laws. 15
Truly
To place your faith in whatever laws you can pass
Is to keep the corn husk and toss the tamale.
Confusion has reared its head.
Foreknowledge is but a flower of Dao. 20
Ignorance of the root is foolishness.
Therefore
Realized people abide in the real and not the husks
In the root and not the flowers.
They let go of all that 25
And embrace this.
***
NOTES
lines 7 and 8, humane, dutiful: See notes to poem 18, line 2.
line 9, lawful: Laozi is here referencing the Confucian concept of li: propriety, etiquette, ritual. For contemporary American society, the law is the closest we come to such pervasive mandated patterns of social behavior.
line 10: More literally, “They bare their arms and use force.”
lines 17–19: I have taken liberties here, building on Laozi’s use of the word bao – something worn thin, a husk – to arrive at a familiar image in line 18. More literally, the three lines read, “Li is the husk of loyalty and faith and the onset of confusion.”
line 21, the root: Unity. See Introduction section IV.8.
lines 25 and 26: These lines also conclude poems 12 and 72.
COMMENTARY
In poem 38 Laozi underscores the distinction between the Confucian ethic of de as having the strength and character to be virtuous, and the Daoist sense of De as the power of Dao to enable self-realization, discussed in the Introduction section III. Showing the same enthusiasm for repetition that characterizes the first lines of poem 1, Laozi begins poem 38 by literally saying, “The greatest de does not know de, therefore has de.” Throughout the Dao De Jing he insists that self-awareness strips you of naturalness and authenticity – and the meaning and effectiveness that accompany action when it is natural and authentic. To turn virtue (de), humaneness (ren), dutifulness (yi), and ritual (li) into ethical obligations is to saw off the branch from which we all dangle – the very energies we want to see flourish are being attenuated. Laozi clearly has the most respect for ren, because the humane heart has no agenda other than to express itself through service to other beings; this way of relating is, in its highest form, beyond reproach. The others are all ideas about reality, a Bingo card of values one is expected to fill up. And when folks run low on chips, stand back. The readiness to violence in response to frustration shows how shallow these values really are – what virtue and humaneness are at work when you’re laying hands on others?
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 