the short of it:
The teacher recognizes value in everyone. The student does not.
27. The use of Skill.
The good walker leaves no traces behind [them]. The good speaker incurs no blame. The good reckoner needs no arithmetic. The good closer needs no bolts and bars; and to open after [them] is impossible. The good fastener needs no cord; and to loose after [them] is impossible.
The sage is ever the good saviour of [people]. [They reject] none. [They are] ever the good saviour of things. [They reject] nothing.
[Theirs] I call comprehensive intelligence. For the good [people] are the instructors of other good [people]; and the bad [people] are the material of the good [people] (the material they have to work upon). [They], then, who [honour] not [their] instructor, and [those] who [love] not [their] material, though accounted wise, are greatly deluded.
This is no less important than wonderful.
27. ‘Dexterity in Using.’
27.1 The skilful traveller leaves no traces of [their] wheels or footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what [they have] shut will be impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to unloose what [they have] bound will be impossible. In the same way the sage is always skilful at saving [people], and so [they do] not cast away any [person; they are] always skilful at saving things, and so [they do] not cast away anything. This is called ‘Hiding the light of [their] procedure.’
27.2 Therefore the [person] of skill is a master (to be looked up to) by [those] who [have] not the skill; and [those] who [have] not the skill is the helper of (the reputation of) [those] who [have] the skill. If the one did not honour [their] master, and the other did not rejoice in [their] helper, an (observer), though intelligent, might greatly err about them. This is called ‘The utmost degree of mystery.’
27. (Untitled).
The skilful traveller leaves no tracks; the skilful speaker makes no blunders; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies. [Those] who [know] how to shut [use] no bolts–yet you cannot open. [Those] who [know] how to bind [use] no cords–yet you cannot undo. Among [people], reject none; among things, reject nothing. This is called comprehensive intelligence. The good [person] is the bad [person]’s teacher; the bad [person] is the material upon which the good [person] works. If the one does not value [their] teacher, if the other does not love [their] material, then despite their sagacity they must go far astray. This is a mystery of great import.
Lao Tzu. Lionel Giles. The Sayings of Lao Tzŭ. United Kingdom: Orient Press, 1904.
the long of it:
Most of Chapter 27 reads refreshingly easy. We learn, logically, how skillful people do what they do without any seeming effort. As does the sage with people.
However, the chapter ends in a paradox. The skilled person recognizes the unskilled, but the unskilled will not recognize the skilled:
The genius of these two distinctions lies in their dependency. Skilled people see value and potential in unskilled people. However, unskilled people do not recognize skill in other unskilled people. But that’s the rub. The skill is recognizing skill, not avoiding the unskilled.
The way of the skilled rejects none, and makes the best use of everybody.
The logic is impermeable. It leaves no one unaccounted for, allows everyone access to the top, and requires those at the top to always remember to whom they owe their allegiance (everyone). Each and every person always has skin in the game, no matter what.
“The good [person] is the bad [person]’s teacher; the bad [person] is the material upon which the good [person] works.” -Lionel Giles
-TB
Works Cited
Lao Tzu. Lionel Giles. The Sayings of Lao Tzu (1904). Delhi Open Books. Kindle Edition. 2021.
