DIANJI · 典籍

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 81

A source-aware reading page for Tao Te Ching chapter 81.

Read Tao Te Ching chapter 81 with the Chinese text, Wang Bi and Heshang Gong commentary, Legge's 1891 translation, and source notes.

Chinese text

信言不美,
美言不信。
善者不辯,辯者不善。
知者不博,
博者不知。
聖人不積,
既以為人己愈有,
既以與人己愈多。
天之道,利而不害;
聖人之道,為而不爭。

English support translation

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those
who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the
disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not
extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.

The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he
expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that
he gives to others, the more does he have himself.

With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with
all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.

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