Yetgeul › Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue) › Dejing (The Classic of Virtue)

Chapter 78 — Relying on faith任信

Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue) 道德經 · Laozi, with commentaries by Wang Bi and Heshang Gong · 4th–3rd century BC (Wang Bi's commentary, 3rd century AD) · 2 passages · 64 Chinese characters · reading time 0.3 min

Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue) Dejing (The Classic of Virtue) Eighty-one chapters, five thousand characters. The silk manuscripts that came out of the tombs differ in their characters from the recension in use today, so there are many places where the reading of one and the same passage divides. Wang Bi reads the book as philosophy; Heshang Gong reads it as governing and the nurture of life.

1Nothing under heaven is softer or weaker than water

天下莫柔弱於水，而攻堅強者，莫之能勝，其無以易之。

Nothing under heaven is softer or weaker than water, yet for attacking what is hard and strong nothing can beat it. Nothing can take its place.

note 4
王弼

以，用也。其，謂水也。言用水之柔弱，無物可以易之也。

Yi (以) means to use, and qi (其) refers to water. This says that if one uses the softness and weakness of water, there is nothing that can take its place.

河上公

圓中則圓，方中則方，壅之則止，決之則行。

Put into a round vessel it is round, put into a square vessel it is square; dam it and it stops, open a way and it flows.

河上公

水能懷山襄陵，磨鐵消銅，莫能勝水而成功也。

Water can embrace mountains and rise over hills, can wear away iron and melt bronze. Nothing can beat water and accomplish what it does.

河上公

夫攻堅強者，無以易於水。

For attacking what is hard and strong, there is nothing to put in place of water.

2Straight words sound turned around

弱之勝強，柔之勝剛，天下莫不知莫能行。是以聖人云﹕「受國之垢，是謂社稷主；受國不祥，是為天下王。」正言若反。

That the weak beats the strong and the soft beats the hard, no one under heaven fails to know, yet no one can do it. So the sage said, "One who takes on the filth of the state is called the lord of the altars of soil and grain, and one who takes on the ill fortune of the state is called the king of all under heaven." Straight words sound turned around.

note 8
河上公

水能滅火，陰能消陽。

Water can put out fire, and the shade can wear away the sun.

河上公

舌柔齒剛，齒先舌亡。

The tongue is soft and the teeth are hard, yet the teeth perish before the tongue.

河上公

知柔弱者久長，剛強者折傷。

They know that the soft and weak lasts long and that the hard and strong is broken and injured.

河上公

恥謙卑，好強梁。

They are ashamed of humbling and lowering themselves, and are fond of being hard and overbearing.

河上公

謂下事也。

It refers to the matters that follow below.

河上公

人君能受國之垢濁者，若江海不逆小流，則能長保其社稷，為一國之君主也。

If a ruler can take on the filth and the muddiness of the state, as rivers and the sea do not turn away the small streams, then he can long keep his altars of soil and grain and be the lord of a state.

河上公

人君能引過自與，代民受不祥之殃，則可以王天下。

If a ruler can draw a fault to himself and take on in the people's place the disaster of ill fortune, then he can be king over all under heaven.

河上公

此乃正直之言，世人不知，以為反言。

These are straight and upright words, yet the people of the age do not understand them and take them for words turned around.

‹ Chapter 79 — Relying on the contractContentsChapter 77 — The way of heaven ›Listen to this piece