绝圣弃智 (jué shèng qì zhì)

How the meaning moved

Chapter 19 opens with three things to give up, each with what the people gain: “Reject the divine and abandon wisdom, the people will benefit a hundredfold. Get rid of humaneness and abandon justice, the people will return to filial piety and compassion. Get rid of cleverness and abandon profit, thieves and gangsters will not exist.” Words are not enough, the chapter says, so it gives something to hold on to: “look at the essence and embrace simplicity. Lessen selfishness and reduce desire.”

圣 and 智 here are not the sage of the book, who governs by non-action, but sageliness and cleverness put on display: the knowledge that rulers use to manage people, and that people use against each other. The Zhuangzi takes up the words in its chapter “Rifling Trunks” (胠箧): “cast out sageliness, throw away knowledge, and the great thieves will stop” (故绝圣弃知，大盗乃止). The oldest manuscript reads differently: the Guodian bamboo slips have 绝智弃辩, “cut off cleverness, throw away disputation”, with no word against 圣 at all. Today 绝圣弃智 is used mostly when writing about Laozi's thought; it is sometimes read as hostility to all learning, which is more than the chapter says.