Flooding the cup, straining the bow –
How is that better than knowing when to stop?
Keep on whetting a razor’s edge –
You’ll have nothing left but the scales and the strop.
Surround yourself with gold and jade – 5
Who can guard your treasure and stay true to you?
Accumulate wealth, bask in praise –
Your ego will be enough to undo you.
Depart once your work is done.
This is the Dao of Heaven. 10
***
NOTES
line 1: In the original, the second phrase precedes the first. I have taken the liberty of switching them here.
lines 1 and 2: More literally, “Grasping and overflowing it (a bow, a cup) – Not as good as stopping.”
lines 3 and 4: More literally, “Sharpening and hammering it (a blade) – Not going to last long.”
COMENTARY
The call to know when to stop is a recurring refrain in the Dao De Jing – it’s the surest way to protect yourself from harm in poems 32 and 44. In poem 9 Laozi is particularly concerned with our inability to stop when it comes to material things, and all the pointless hoardings and self-defeating behaviors that ensue. He recognizes a deeper underlying confusion at work, namely the confusion of oneself with what one has, turning right to that conclusion in the poem’s last two lines. His solution of course is to follow the Dao of Heaven, here meaning not to attach yourself to what you’ve done. Poem 10 is even more adamant on this closing point, urging, Produce but don’t own them.
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 