Chapter 24 — The bitterness of favor苦恩

物尚進則失安，故曰，企者不立。

When a thing works only at pressing forward, it loses its ease. This is why it says that one who stands on tiptoe cannot stand long.

跂，進也。謂貪權慕名，進取功榮，則不可久立身行道也。

Qi (跂) means to press forward. It means that if one covets power and longs for a name, pressing forward to take merit and glory, one cannot set oneself up and practice the Dao for long.

其唯於道而論之，若郤至之行，盛饌之餘也。本雖美，更可薉也。本雖有功而自伐之，故更為肬贅者也。

Measured against the Dao alone, they are like the conduct of Xi Zhi (郤至), the leftovers of a well-laid table. However fine the basis may be, it can still turn foul. However much merit the basis may have, if one boasts of it oneself, it turns instead into a useless growth.

自以為貴而跨於人，眾共蔽之，使不得行。

If one takes oneself to be noble and strides over others, the many together block him and keep him from going.

人自見其形容以為好，自見其所行以為應道，殊不知其形醜，操行之鄙。

A person looks at his own looks and calls them good, and looks at his own conduct and calls it a match for the Dao, yet he has no idea at all that his looks are ugly and his bearing mean.

自以為是而非人，眾共蔽之，使不得彰明。

If one calls oneself right and others wrong, the many together block him and keep him from standing out.

所謂輒自伐取其功美，即失有功於人也。

It means that if time and again one takes the merit and the beauty of it for one's own, one straightaway loses the merit that lay with others.

好自矜大者，不可以長久。

One who likes to preen and call himself great cannot last long.

贅，貪也。使此自矜伐之人，在治國之道，日賦歛餘祿食以為貪行。

Zhui (贅) means coveting. Put such a person, one who preens and boasts of himself, in the place of governing a state, and day by day he levies taxes and piles up leftover stipend and food, so that it becomes an act of coveting.

此人在位，動欲傷害，故物無有不畏惡之者。

When such a person is in office, at every move he means harm, and so there is nothing that does not fear and loathe him.

言有道之人不居其國也。

It means that a person who has the Dao does not dwell in such a state.