第七十章 Dao De Jing · Chapter 70
The teaching is simple, yet few understand it; the sage looks plain but holds jade within.
Text
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吾言甚易知，甚易行。
My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practice.
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天下莫能知，莫能行。
Yet no one in the world can understand them, no one can practice them.
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言有宗，事有君。
Words have an ancestor; deeds have a master.
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夫唯无知，是以不我知。
It is because people do not understand this that they do not understand me.
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知我者希，则我者贵。
Those who understand me are few; those who follow me are rare and precious.
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是以圣人被褐怀玉。
So the sage wears coarse cloth but carries jade inside.
Words in this chapter
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 吾 | wú | I |
| 言 | yán | words, to speak |
| 甚 | shèn | very |
| 易 | yì | easy |
| 知 | zhī | to know |
| 行 | xíng | to carry out, put into practice |
| 天下 | tiān xià | all under heaven, the world |
| 莫 | mò | no one, nothing |
| 能 | néng | can, to be able |
| 有 | yǒu | to have, to possess |
| 宗 | zōng | ancestor, origin |
| 事 | shì | affairs, work |
| 君 | jūn | ruler, master |
| 夫唯 | fú wéi | precisely because |
| 无知 | wú zhī | without knowing, without cunning |
| 是以 | shì yǐ | therefore, for this reason |
| 不 | bù | not |
| 我 | wǒ | I, me |
| 者 | zhě | one who, that which |
| 希 | xī | faint, rare; sparing |
| 则 | zé | to follow, take as model |
| 贵 | guì | noble, honored |
| 圣人 | shèng rén | the sage |
| 被 | bèi | to wear, to put on |
| 褐 | hè | coarse cloth |
| 怀 | huái | to carry in the bosom |
| 玉 | yù | jade |
Compare: James Legge (1891)
My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practise; but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practise them.
There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words, and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). It is because they do not know these, that men do not know me.
They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth, while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom.
Public domain. Source: Wikisource.
Meaning of chapter 70
Chapter 70 is the speaker's complaint that simple words go unheard. They are very easy to understand and very easy to practice, yet no one in the world can understand or practice them. Words have an ancestor and deeds a master (言有宗，事有君): they come from something, and because people do not know it, they do not know the speaker.
Line 5 is read in two ways. 则 can be the verb "to take as a model", and the house translation reads it so: those who understand me are few, and those who follow me are precious. It can also be the word "then", giving "those who know me are few, and so I am the more valued", which is closer to Wang Bi's comment and is how Legge translated it.
The chapter ends with one of the book's lasting images: the sage wears coarse cloth but carries jade inside (被褐怀玉). The worth is hidden under a plain surface. Chapter 78 makes the same complaint about the soft overcoming the hard, which everyone knows and no one can practice, and chapter 41 describes how people laugh when they hear of the Way.