Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
大智若愚 (dà zhì ruò yú)
Reworked from chapter 45
大智若愚 (dà zhì ruò yú), “great wisdom seems foolish”, is modelled on 大巧若拙, “great skill seems clumsy”, in chapter 45 of the Dao De Jing, and means that truly wise people often look simple.
Character by character
| 大 | dà | great, big |
|---|---|---|
| 智 | zhì | wise, wisdom |
| 若 | ruò | like, as if |
| 愚 | yú | folly |
| 大智若愚 | People of great wisdom keep it out of sight and may even look foolish. | |
Where it comes from
The idiom is not in the text as such: it reworks the line 大巧若拙.
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大直若屈，
Great straightness seems bent,
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大巧若拙，
great skill seems clumsy,
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大辩若讷。
great eloquence seems to stammer.
How the meaning moved
The four characters 大智若愚 are not in the Dao De Jing. Chapter 45 has three sayings of the same shape: “Great straightness seems bent, great skill seems clumsy, great eloquence seems to stammer.” 大智若愚 follows the pattern of 大巧若拙, with 智, “wisdom”, for 巧, “skill”, and 愚, “foolish”, for 拙, “clumsy”.
Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary (成语典) traces the idiom to Su Shi (1037 to 1101), who, congratulating Ouyang Xiu on his retirement, wrote “great courage seems timid, great wisdom is like folly” (大勇若怯，大智如愚), and it notes that the Laozi already had 大巧若拙. Its example of the wording used today, 大智若愚, is from the Ming writer Li Zhi. The Dao De Jing does praise a kind of foolishness: in chapter 20 the speaker sets himself apart from the busy crowd and says, “Mine is the mind of a fool!” Today 大智若愚 is a very common idiom, said of someone who is far cleverer than they let on.
Using it today
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别看他平时不爱说话，其实大智若愚，心里什么都明白。
bié kàn tā píng shí bù ài shuō huà, qí shí dà zhì ruò yú, xīn lǐ shén me dōu míng bai.
He may not say much, but he is wiser than he looks: he understands everything.
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真正大智若愚的人，从不急着证明自己聪明。
zhēn zhèng dà zhì ruò yú de rén, cóng bù jí zhe zhèng míng zì jǐ cōng míng.
The truly wise, who look simple, are never in a hurry to prove they are clever.