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1.
Stand it up and
overfill it -- not as good as stopping.
2.
Hammer and sharpen it -- it won’t last long.
3.
Gold and jade fill a room – no one can keep them.
4.
Honored, rich, and proud – you bring yourself disaster
5.
To
accomplish the
task and then withdraw is
Heaven’s Way.
Interpretation: Frugality, caution, modesty: the
commonsense lessons of the Tao Te Ching. In line 1 the image is a
vessel being filled; in line 2, a blade being sharpened.
Text: There are many textual questions about the first two
lines, especially in the MWT and Guo Dien texts translated by
Henricks. I have given the commonest interpretation of the
traditional text.
Cross-references: Line 5 is echoed in Chs. 2, 10, 34, 51, and
77.
1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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19
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20
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21
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22
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23
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24
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25
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26
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27
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37
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38
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39
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40
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41
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42
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43
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44
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45
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55
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56
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57
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58
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59
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60
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61
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62
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63
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73
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74
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75
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76
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77
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78
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79
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80
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81
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10
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11
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12
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13
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14
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15
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16
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17
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18
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28
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29
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30
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31
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32
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33
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34
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35
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36
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46
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47
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48
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49
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50
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51
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52
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53
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54
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64
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65
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66
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67
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68
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69
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70
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71
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72
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73
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74
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75
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76
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77
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78
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79
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80
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81
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Original materials copyright John J
Emerson |