Chapter 81 — Showing plainness顯質
1Trustworthy words are not beautiful
信言不美，
Trustworthy words are not beautiful,
note 2
實在質也。
What is real lies in plainness.
信者，如其實也。不美者，朴且質也。
Trustworthy words are words that match their reality. Not beautiful means rough and plain.
2Beautiful words are not trustworthy
美言不信。
and beautiful words are not trustworthy.
note 2
本在樸也。
The root lies in the uncarved log.
美言者，滋美之華辭。不信者，飾偽多空虛也。
Beautiful words are showy phrases seasoned and dressed up. Not trustworthy means that they are decked out in falsehood and much of them is empty.
3One who knows is not a man of much learning
善者不辯，辯者不善。知者不博，
One who is good does not dress up words, and one who dresses up words is not good. One who knows is not a man of much learning,
note 4
極在一也。
The utmost lies in the one.
善者，以道修身也。不綵文也。
One who is good is a man who cultivates his body by the Dao. He does not prettily embellish his words.
辯者，謂巧言也。不善者，舌致患也。山有玉，掘其山；水有珠，濁其淵；辯口多言，亡其身。
One who dresses up words means a man who speaks cunningly. Not good means that the tongue brings on grief. If there is jade in a mountain, they dig that mountain up; if there are pearls in the water, they muddy that pool; and if a man's mouth is dressed up and his words are many, he loses his body.
知者，謂知道之士。不博者，守一元也。
One who knows means a scholar who knows the Dao. Not a man of much learning means that he keeps to the one source.
4The sage keeps nothing for himself
博者不知。聖人不積，
and the man of much learning does not know. The sage keeps nothing for himself,
note 3
無私自有，唯善是與，任物而已。
He has nothing he privately keeps as his own; he gives only what is good, and simply leaves it to things.
博者，多見聞也。不知者，失要真也。
The man of much learning is one who has seen and heard much. Does not know means that he has lost the essential truth.
聖人積德不積財，有德以教愚，有財以與貧也。
The sage piles up virtue and does not pile up goods. Having virtue, he teaches the foolish; having goods, he gives to the poor.
5The more he does for others, the more he has
既以為人己愈有，
so the more he does for others, the more he has,
note 2
物所尊也。
This is what things hold in honor.
既以為人施設德化，己愈有德。
He bestows virtue for others and so transforms them, and virtue comes to be in him all the more.
6The more he gives to others, the more he gains
既以與人己愈多。
and the more he gives to others, the more he gains.
note 2
物所歸也。
This is what things come back to.
既以財賄布施與人，而財益多，如日月之光，無有盡時。
He spreads his goods and gives them to others, and his goods grow all the more many, like the light of the sun and the moon, which has no time of running out.
7The way of heaven benefits and does not harm
天之道，利而不害；
The way of heaven benefits and does not harm,
note 2
動常生成之也。
Its movement always gives birth and brings to completion.
天生萬物，愛育之，令長大，無所傷害也。
Heaven gives birth to the ten thousand things, rears them with love and makes them grow great, and harms nothing.
8The way of the sage acts and does not contend
聖人之道，為而不爭。
and the way of the sage acts and does not contend.
note 2
順天之利不相傷也。
He follows the benefit of heaven, and so they do not harm one another.
聖人法天所施為，化成事就，不與下爭功名，故能全其聖功也。
The sage takes as his model what heaven bestows and does: though his transforming is accomplished and his work achieved, he does not contend with those below over merit and fame, and so he can keep his sagely merit whole.