Chapter LXXXI

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Sacred Texts Taoism Buy this Book at Amazon.com

The Tao Teh King: A Short Study in Comparative Religion, by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

p. 131

CHAPTER LXXXI.

Sincere words are not (necessarily) pleasant, nor are pleasant words (necessarily) sincere.

The good are not (necessarily) skillful debaters, nor are skillful debaters (necessarily) good men. ¹

The wise are not (necessarily) well-informed, nor are the well-informed (necessarily) wise. ²

The Holy Man does not accumulate. He works for others, yet ever has abundance for himself; he gives to others, yet himself ever possesses superabundance.

The divine way is advantageous, without danger; the way of the Sages is effective without struggle. ³

The book closes as it began. In the first chapter we saw the Tao differentiate and lose itself that the universe might become, and in the last our attention is directed to the Man in whom the Tao is incarnate—ever active, but keeping nothing for himself.

"A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he gave away, the more he had." ^*

Footnotes

131:1 "Confucius remarked, 'With plausible speech and fine manners will seldom be found moral character.'" Analects.

131:2 "Confucius remarked, 'A man who possesses moral worth will always have something to say worth listening to; but a man who has something to say is not necessarily a man of moral worth.'" Analects.

131:3 The last sentence is according to the rendering of Mr. T. W. Kingsmill.

Lit.—"Heaven's Tao benefits but injures not; the Holy Man's Tao acts but strives not."

131:* Quoted by Dr. Legge from Bunyan, in loc.

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