Former Collection 1 (nos. 1–45)前集

One who dwells in the keeping of virtue is lonely for a while. One who fawns on power is desolate for ten thousand ages. And so the person of understanding looks at the thing beyond things and thinks of the self that comes after this body. Better to take a moment's loneliness than to take on the desolation of ten thousand ages.

Wade shallow into the world, and the stain on you is shallow. Pass deep through affairs, and your cunning runs deep. And so, for the noble person, being worn smooth by experience is not as good as being plain and blunt, and being scrupulous in every small turn is not as good as being open and unbound.

What lies in the noble person's heart should be like a blue sky and a white sun. It must not be kept where others cannot know it. The noble person's gifts should be like jade wrapped away and pearls stored deep. They must not be made easy for others to know.

Power, profit, and glittering splendor: the one who keeps away from them is clean, but the one who goes near them and is not stained is cleaner still. Cunning schemes and clever tricks: the one who does not know them stands high, but the one who knows them and does not use them stands higher still.

Let the ear always hear words that grate against it, and the heart always hold matters that go against it. Only that is the whetstone for advancing in virtue and refining conduct. If every word pleases the ear and every affair delights the heart, then this life is buried in the poison of the zhen bird.

In angry rain and driving wind, even the birds grieve. In clear sun and bright breeze, even grass and trees rejoice. From this it can be seen that heaven and earth cannot go one day without a harmonious air, and that the human heart cannot go one day without a glad spirit.

Strong wine, rich meat, the pungent and the sweet are not the true taste. The true taste is only plain. The marvelous and the strikingly rare is not the perfected person (至人). The perfected person is only ordinary.

Heaven and earth are still and do not move, yet the working of their breath does not pause for a single breath. Sun and moon race on by day and by night, yet their steadfast light does not change through ten thousand ages. And so the noble person needs a mind held tight in idle hours, and needs an easy, unhurried relish in the midst of busy ones.

Deep in the night, when people are quiet, sit alone and watch the heart. Then comes the first awareness that the false is used up and the true stands bare alone, and in this a great working and a great relish are always found. And when the awareness comes that the true has appeared yet the false is hard to escape, in this too a great shame is found.

Harm has always been born inside favor. So when the heart is pleased, turn the head back early. Success sometimes comes after failure. So where things go against the heart, do not let go of your grip at once.

Those whose mouths take goosefoot soup and whose bellies hold amaranth greens are often clear as ice and clean as jade. Those in embroidered robes who eat food like jade are content to kneel like maidservants and wear the face of slaves. For the will is made bright by plainness, and integrity is lost through the rich and the sweet.

The field that lies before you should be opened wide, so that people have no sigh of grievance. The kindness you leave behind you should flow long, so that people hold a remembrance that never runs dry.

Where the path is narrow, hold back a step and let another pass. Where the flavor is rich, take away three parts and let another taste it. This is one supremely peaceful and happy way of crossing through the world.

In becoming a person there is no lofty, far-off enterprise. Shake off common feeling and you enter the ranks of the renowned. In learning there is no work of adding on. Cut away the burden of things and you pass into the realm of the sages.

In making friends, carry three parts of a chivalrous spirit. In being a person, keep one point of the plain, original heart.

In favor and profit, do not stand ahead of others. In virtue and good work, do not fall behind others. In what you receive and enjoy, do not go beyond your portion. In what you cultivate and do, do not cut back within your portion.

In living in the world, to yield a step is high. Stepping back is the very ground of stepping forward. In dealing with people, a measure of generosity is good fortune. To benefit others is in truth the foundation of benefiting oneself.

Merit that covers the age cannot stand against the one word "boast" (矜). Guilt that fills the sky cannot stand against the one word "repent" (悔).

A whole name and a fine integrity should not be held alone. Share some of it with others, and harm can be kept far off and the body kept whole. Shameful conduct and a soiled name should not be pushed off entirely onto others. Draw some of it back to yourself, and the light can be veiled and virtue nourished.

Leave in every affair a sense of something over and not used up. Then the maker of things cannot envy me, and the spirits cannot harm me. But one who must have every undertaking full and every merit brimming over will, if no upheaval arises within, surely call trouble in from without.

There is a true Buddha in the home, and there is a true Way in daily use. If a person can, with a sincere heart and a harmonious air, a glad face and gentle words, melt away the barrier of body from body between parent and child and between brother and brother, and let intent and spirit flow between them, that is ten thousand times better than regulating the breath and watching the heart.

One who loves motion is lightning in the clouds, a lamp in the wind. One who craves only stillness is dead ash, withered wood. There must be, in settled cloud and stilled water, the air of hawks flying and fish leaping. Only that is the heart of one who holds the Way.

Do not attack another's faults too severely. Think of how much they can bear. Do not set the good you teach another too high. Make it something they can follow.

The dung grub is utterly filthy, yet it changes into a cicada and drinks the dew in the autumn wind. Rotten grass has no light, yet it turns into a firefly and shines out under the summer moon. So it is certain that the clean always comes out of the foul, and that the bright is always born from the dark.

Boasting, haughtiness, and arrogance are nothing but bravado. Only when bravado has been brought down and made to submit does the upright spirit stretch out. Desire and the discriminating mind belong wholly to the false heart. Only when the false heart has been worn away to nothing does the true heart appear.

Think of the taste after you are full, and the whole realm of rich and plain vanishes. Think of lust after the act, and every notion of man and woman is cut off. So if a person always uses the regret that comes after a thing to break the foolish delusion that comes before it, the nature settles, and nothing they do is out of the right.

One who lives among carriages and caps must not be without the savor of mountain and forest. One who dwells beneath the woods and springs must hold in the breast the statecraft of the court.

In living in the world, do not go seeking merit. To be without fault is itself merit. In giving to others, do not look for thanks. To draw no resentment is itself a kindness.

Care and diligence are a fine virtue, but taken to bitterness there is no way to suit the nature and gladden the feelings. Plainness is a high manner, but taken to dryness there is no way to save people and benefit things.

For a person whose affairs have run out and whose position has shrunk, look back to the first heart they held. For a person whose merit is accomplished and whose conduct is full, watch the road at the end.

A rich and noble house ought to be generous and kind, yet if instead it is jealous and harsh, that is to be rich and noble while making its conduct poor and low. How can such wealth be enjoyed? A clever person ought to gather in and hide, yet if instead they flaunt and show off, that is to be clever while the sickness is stupidity. How can such a one not fail?

Only after living low does one know that climbing high is perilous. Only after staying in the dark does one know that turning toward the light exposes too much. Only after keeping still does one know that loving motion wears one out. Only after nurturing silence does one know that much talking is restlessness.

Set down the heart that wants fame and rank and wealth, and the common can be left behind. Set down even the heart that makes much of virtue and benevolence and right, and only then can the sagely be entered.

Profit and desire do not do all the harm to the heart. It is one's own opinion that is the pest gnawing at the heart. Sound and color do not necessarily block the Way. It is cleverness that is the fence blocking the Way.

Human feeling turns over and over, and the road of the world is rough. Where you cannot go on, know the method of stepping back one step. Where you can go on, take pains to add the work of yielding three parts.

In dealing with the small person, the hard thing is not to be strict but not to hate. In dealing with the noble person, the hard thing is not to be respectful but to keep the proper rites.

Better to hold to plain simplicity and put cleverness away, keeping back some upright spirit to give to heaven and earth. Better to decline splendor and find plainness sweet, leaving one clean name behind in heaven and earth.

One who would subdue demons must first subdue their own heart. When the heart submits, the whole crowd of evils draws back and obeys. One who would master violence must first master their own temper. When the temper is calm, violence from outside cannot invade.

Teaching a disciple is like raising a daughter in the inner rooms. What matters most is to be strict about going out and coming in, and careful about the company they keep. Once they come near a bad person, it is like dropping one unclean seed into a clean field, and good grain will be hard to plant there for a lifetime.

In matters on the road of desire, do not enjoy their ease and dip a finger in even for a moment. Dip a finger once, and you sink ten thousand fathoms deep. In matters on the road of principle, do not shrink from their difficulty and step back even a little. Step back once, and you are a thousand mountains away.

One whose thoughts run thick treats themselves generously and treats others generously too, and everything about them is thick. One whose thoughts run thin treats themselves meagerly and treats others meagerly too, and everything about them is thin. So in what the noble person likes and enjoys day by day, there must not be too much rich color, nor too much dry emptiness.

They have wealth, I have benevolence. They have rank, I have right. The noble person is not to be caged even by a ruler or a chief minister. When people set their strength together they overcome heaven, and when the will is single it moves the breath. The noble person does not submit even to the mold that creation casts.

In the calm of wind and the stillness of waves, the true ground of human life is seen. Where the taste is plain and sound is rare, the original nature of the heart is known.

If you do not stand a step higher in establishing yourself, it is like shaking out your clothes in the dust and washing your feet in the mud. How could you rise above it all? If you do not hold back a step in living in the world, it is like a moth flying into the candle, like a ram butting a fence. How could you be at peace?

One who studies must gather up the spirit and bring it all into one road. To cultivate virtue while keeping the mind on achievement and reputation is to reach nothing real. To read books while resting your pleasure in chanting verses and elegant style is surely not to reach the deep heart.