Tao Te Ching Chapter 45

the short of it:

Fighting fire with fire only creates a bigger fire. 

45. Overflowing Virtue. 

[Those] who [regard their] greatest achievements as unattained, may employ [themselves] without decay. 

[Those] who [regard their] greatest fulness as emptiness, may employ [themselves] without exhaustion. 

[Their] greatest uprightness is as crookedness. [Their] greatest skill is as stupidity. [Their] greatest eloquence is as stammering. 

Activity conquers cold, and quietness conquers heat; (but there is a) purity and quietude by which one may rule the whole world. 

Lau Tsze. Chalmers, John. The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality, of “the Old Philosopher,” Lau-tsze, Translated from the Chinese, with an Introduction by J. Chalmers. United Kingdom: Trübner, 1868.

45. ‘Great or Overflowing Virtue.’

	45.1	Who thinks [their] great achievements poor
		Shall find [their] vigour long endure. 
		Of greatest fulness, deemed a void, 
		Exhaustion ne’er shall stem the tide.
		Do thou what’s straight still crooked deem;
		Thy greatest art still stupid seem,
		And eloquence a stammering scream. 

45.2 Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven. 

Lao-tze. Legge, James. The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Tâoism. United Kingdom: Clarendon, 1891.

45. Greatest Virtue. 

	45.1 “Greatest perfection imperfect will be, 
		But its work ne’er waneth. 
		Greatest fulness is vacuity, 
		Its work unexhausted remaineth.” 
	45.2 Straightest lines resemble curves; 
		Greatest skill like a tyro* serves; 
		Greatest eloquence stammers and swerves.” 

45.3 Motion conquers cold. Quietude conquers heat. Purity and clearness are the world’s standard. 

*Novice

Lao-tze. Suzuki, D.T. and Carus, Paul. The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Lao-tze’s Tao Teh King. United States: Open court publishing Company, 1913.

The Long of It: 

The world is a hotbed of activity, and it doesn’t help to show up with a flame thrower. Instead bring water, and rule the world with a cool head.

Extra Credit:

The word purity in the last line throws Chapter 45 a little off the tracks. Pure can mean so many different things.

The basis for that translation are the characters ch’ing ching, which, translated without grammar, is pure still.

Part of the radical for peaceful/calm/still/pure (ch’ing) is also one of the radicals inside serene/quiet/tranquil/stillness (ching) (Star 189). We could easily translate the last line of this chapter without referring to purity at all. Peaceful stillness, for instance. 

So to flesh out the last line into a whole paradox: the world is violently noisy. Rule it with pure quiet. 

-TB

Works Cited

Lao Tzu. Star, Jonathan. Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition. United States: Penguin Publishing Group, 2003.