Chapter 41 · Scholars High, Middle, and Low

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

Scholars of the highest class,

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the Tao. Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:-- 'The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack; Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back; Its even way is like a rugged track. Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise; Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes; And he has most whose lot the least supplies. Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low; Its solid truth seems change to undergo; Its largest square doth yet no corner show A vessel great, it is the slowest made; Loud is its sound, but never word it said; A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.' The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.

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Chapter 41, in a second rendering

If Nobody Laughed

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

Tell a sharp person about the Dao and they get to work on it. Tell a middling one and they half-buy it, half-forget it. Tell a dull one and they laugh out loud - and honestly, if nobody laughed, it wouldn't be the Dao. So the old sayings go: the clear road looks murky. Going forward looks like falling back. The smooth path looks rough. Real character looks empty. The cleanest thing looks stained. Plenty looks like it's not enough. The biggest square has no corners you can find. The biggest job is never quite finished. The biggest sound you can't quite hear. The biggest shape has no edges. The Dao hides out with no name. And it's the thing that quietly feeds everything and gets it where it's going.

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