Chapter 70 — Hard to know知難

可不出戶窺牖而知，故曰甚易知也。無為而成，故曰甚易行也。惑於躁欲，故曰，莫之能知也。迷於榮利，故曰，莫之能行也。

One can know them without going out the door or peering through the window, and so it says they are very easy to understand. They are completed without acting, and so it says they are very easy to practice. People are led astray by haste and wanting, and so it says that no one can understand them. They wander lost after glory and gain, and so it says that no one can practice them.

老子言：吾所言省而易知，約而易行。

Laozi (老子) said: what I have spoken is sparing and so easy to understand, brief and so easy to practice.

人惡柔弱，好剛強也。

It is because people dislike the soft and weak and are fond of the hard and strong.

宗，萬物之宗也。君，萬物之主也。

Zong (宗) is the source of the ten thousand things, and jun (君) is the master of the ten thousand things.

我所言有宗祖根本，事有君臣上下，世人不知者，非我之無德，不與我反也。

What I have spoken has a source and a root, and affairs have ruler and minister, above and below. That the people of the age do not understand is not because I am without virtue, but because they run counter to me.

以其言有宗、事有君之故，故有知之人不得不知之也。

Because his words have a source and his affairs have a master, one who knows cannot but know them.

夫惟聖人也，是我德之暗，不見於外，窮極微妙，故無知也。

It is only the sage who is so. My virtue is dark and does not show outwardly, and it reaches the utmost of the fine and subtle, and so they do not understand.

唯深，故知者希也；知我益希，我亦無匹。故曰，知我者希則我者貴也。

Only because it is deep are those who know it few; and the rarer the knowing of me, the more there is nothing to match me. Therefore it says that when those who understand me are few, those who take me as their model are precious.

希，少也。唯達道者乃能知我，故為貴也。

Xi (希) means few. Only one who has reached the Dao can understand me, and so I am precious.

被褐者，同其塵，懷玉者，寶其真也。聖人之所以難知，以其同塵而不殊，懷玉而不渝，故難知而為貴也。

To wear coarse cloth is to share in the dust; to hold jade within is to treasure one's genuineness. The sage is hard to know because he shares in the dust yet is not set apart, and holds jade within yet does not change. Therefore he is hard to know and so becomes precious.

被褐者薄外，懷玉者厚內，匿寶藏德，不以示人也。

To wear coarse cloth is to keep the outside thin; to hold jade within is to keep the inside thick. He hides his treasure and stores up his virtue, and does not show it to others.