


Lao Tzu for Everyone
Students, Scholars,
& Seekers
Chinese-English Interlinear
Peter Gilboy, Ph. D.

Tao
the Way
regarding the characters
used in this translation.
Lesson 33
Becoming
Wise
明míng
(月 moon shining through 囧 our window)
bright, wise, perceptive, enlightened.
“Know thyself” is inscribed on the ancient Greek Temple of Delphi. Socrates augments this in saying, "To know thy self is the beginning of wisdom."*
If this is so, then wisdom cannot be taught by our colleges and universities. It is discovered only through self-knowledge. As Lao Tzu tells us in Lesson 5:
Hearing much leads
to many dead ends.
It is not as good as
heeding what is within.
Our many psychologies seek to help us "find ourselves" or "go within ourselves." But by this they mean uncovering our feelings, our values, beliefs, emotions and desires.
Lao Tzu is not concerned with these. Nor are any of the other writings from the great wisdom traditions. They do not offer us a "way" to feel better about ourselves or to discover why we do the things we do. They are unconcerned our fitting in, our thinking good thoughts, or that we find the right partner. These have nothing at all to do with wisdom.
In fact, the word "wisdom" has been widely discarded from our social, psychological and even our spiritual vocabulary. When something is no longer even a point at issue, it falls from our lives just as it has from our vocabulary.
Lao Tzu's words, as well as other words from the wisdom traditions, are a reminder to us of our own self, which is neither social nor psychological. Regardless of how ancient or modern the words, their aim is to remind us of our one-of-a-kind self with its own special "way"; a self which we may not even know we have lost or forgotten.
No man is free who has
not obtained the empire of himself.
--Pythagoras
I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential
facts of life, and see if I
could not learn what it had to teach,
and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden
that die upon the field of battle?
A man may show as reckless a courage
in entering into the abyss of himself.
--William Butler Yeats
He who travels to be amused,
or to get somewhat which he does not carry,
travels away from himself, and grows old
even in youth among old things.
In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind
have become old and dilapidated
as they. He carries ruins to ruins.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
The hero obeys his own law.
--Henry David Thoreau, Journal 1852
People travel to wonder at the
at the long courses of rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars;
--Saint Augustine
In this lesson, Lao Tzu adds his own words to these from the wisdom traditions.
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For more regarding "wisdom," among other places, see also in "Who was Lao Tzu?", "How to read Lao Tzu's words," Lesson 6, Lesson 22, and Lesson 28.
Interlinear
Line 1
One who knows
others is informed.
One who knows
himself or herself
is wise.
知zhī 人rén 者zhě 知zhī 也yě
know person one who know (part.)
自zì 知zhī 者zhě 明míng 也yě
self know one who bright (part.)
The one who knows people is knowledgeable;
One who know his or her self is bright.
_______
Lao Tzu is quite consistent in his use of the character 明míng in referring to an understanding or insight that surpasses mere knowledge. For example:
With all your 明míng insight
into the world, can you
keep from becoming clever?
-Lesson 10.
To know the abiding
is to be 明míng enlightened.
-Lesson 16
The 明míng enlightened way
seems dim [to the unenlightened].
-Lesson 41
By means of your
own lights,
return to 明míng wisdom.
-Lesson 52
To know the timeless
is called being 明míng enlightened.
Lesson 55
. . . . . .
Line 2
To triumph over others
is to have power.
To triumph over
oneself is be mighty.
勝shèng 人rén 者zhě 有yǒu 力lì 也yě
victory person one who have power (part.)
自zì 勝shèng 者zhě 強qiáng 也yě
self I/we victory one who strong (part.)
One who is victorious over people has power;
one who is victorious over himself or herself, is strong.
Like the word wisdom, to “triumph over oneself” is rarely a topic for our classroom discussion.
. . . . . .
Line 3
The person who knows
what is enough
is already wealthy.
The person who does not
waver in this, has focus.
知zhī 足zú 者zhě 富fù 也yě
know enough one who wealth (part.)
強qiáng 行xíng 者zhě 有yǒu 志zhì 也yě
strong go/walk one who have will/aim (part.)
One who knows enough, has wealth.
One who walks strongly has will/aim.
To accumulate ever more, is an admission that one is poor. To not waver in this is to prevail.
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Note: "The person who does not waver in this…” is understood by many translators to refer to “persevering in the 道tào Way.” However, the 道tào Way is not an antecedent in this chapter. The antecedents would be “knowing” oneself and “conquering” oneself, and "knowing what is enough."
. . . . . .
Line 4
The person who
does not lose their place,
endures.
不bù 失shī 其qí 所suǒ 者zhě 久jiǔ 也yě
not lose pron. place one who long time (part.)
The one who does not lose
his or her place
lasts a long time.
所suǒ as an object of sentence, refers to a “place.” In the context of the lesson, it is a metaphor for one’s 自zì self. We have similar idioms in English, as when we say "He was beside himself," or, "She was out of her mind."
. . . . . .
Line 5
To die, and yet
not forget oneself
is to live a long life.*
死sǐ 而ér 不bù 忘wàng 者zhě
die and yet not forget one who
壽shòu 也yě
long life (part.)
One who dies and yet
is not forgetting,
is living long
While this may seem to be an odd statement, consider it in view of the previous tow lines and the next lesson.
_____
*Instead of 忘wàng, “forget” found in both MWT texts, the standard texts read, 亡wáng, “to flee,” “disappear,” “perish.” As such, this line is typically translated in the sense of, “One who dies but does not perish, has life everlasting." Note that, because 忘wàng, “forget,” typically takes an object, in the context of the previous lines’ concern for one’s 自zì “self,” I have translated this line to include this as the presumed omitted object. Note too that this is the only use of the character 忘wàng in the MWT texts or the standard texts.
Note: To compare other references to 死sǐ die in the MWT texts, see chapters 6, 50, 50, 51, 67, 74, 75, and 80.
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