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道 Tâo
Chapter 20

1. When we renounce learning we have no troubles.

The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'—
Small is the difference they display.
But mark their issues, good and ill;—
What space the gulf between shall fill?

What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!

2. The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.

3. Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Tâo).

二 十 章

絕 學 無 憂 。
唯 之 與 阿 , 相 去 幾 何 ？
善 之 與 惡 , 相 去 何 若 ？
人 之 所 畏 , 不 可 不 畏 。
忙 □ 其 未 央 !
眾 人 熙 熙 , 若 享 太  ,
若 春 登 臺 。
我 魄 未 兆 ,
若 嬰 兒 未 孩 。
乘 乘 無 所 歸 !
眾 人 皆 有 餘 , 我 獨 若 遺 。
我 愚 人 之 心 , 純 純 。
俗 人 昭 昭 , 我 獨 若 昏 。
俗 人 察 察 , 我 獨 悶 悶 。
淡 若 海 ,
漂 無 所 止 。
眾 人 皆 有 已 , 我 獨 頑 似 鄙 。
我 獨 異 於 人 , 而 貴 食 母 。

Key Terms

Observations and Comments

Legge Translation Notes

###, 'Being Different from Ordinary Men.' The chapter sets forth the difference to external appearance which the pursuit and observance of the Tâo produces between its votaries and others; and Lâo-dze speaks in it as himself an example of the former. In the last three chapters he has 'been advocating the cause of the Tâo against the learning and philosophy of the other school of thinkers in the country. Here he appears as having renounced learning, and found an end to the troubles and anxieties of his own mind; but at the expense of being misconceived and misrepresented by others. Hence the chapter has an autobiographical character.

Having stated the fact following the renunciation of learning, he proceeds to dwell upon the troubles of learning in the rest of par. i. Until the votary of learning knows everything, he has no rest. But the instances which he adduces of this are not striking nor easily understood. I cannot throw any light on the four lines about the 'yes' and the 'Yea.'

Confucius (Ana. XVI, viii) specifies three things of which the superior man stands in awe; and these and others of a similar nature may have been the things which Lâo-dze had in his mind. The nursing-mother at the end is, no doubt, the Tâo in operation, 'with a name,' as in ch. i the mysterious virtue' of chapters 51 and 52.