Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
知白守黑 (zhī bái shǒu hēi)
Reworked from chapter 28
知白守黑 (zhī bái shǒu hēi), “know the white, keep to the black”, shortens a line of chapter 28 of the Dao De Jing: see clearly, yet stay in the background.
Character by character
| 知 | zhī | to know |
|---|---|---|
| 白 | bái | white, the bright |
| 守 | shǒu | to keep, to guard |
| 黑 | hēi | black, the dark |
| 知白守黑 | Seeing clearly what is bright, yet keeping oneself in the dark: knowing much without showing it. | |
Where it comes from
The idiom is not in the text as such: it reworks the line 知其白，守其黑.
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知其白，守其黑，为天下式。
Know whiteness, abide by darkness, be as the world's model.
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为天下式，常德不忒，
Be as the world's model, and the enduring virtue shall be faultless,
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复归于无极。
ever reverting to infinity.
How the meaning moved
This is the second of the three parallel sayings that make up the first half of chapter 28: “Know whiteness, abide by darkness, be as the world's model.” (知其白，守其黑，为天下式). The idiom drops the two 其, “its”. Before it comes “Know masculinity, abide by femininity”, after it “Know glory, abide by disgrace”; each time the reader is told to know the high side and keep to the low one.
White here is the bright, the clear, what is seen; black is the dark, the obscure, what stays unseen. Keeping to the dark makes one “the world's model”, the chapter goes on, and brings one “ever reverting to infinity.” Chapter 41 has the same paradox in a single image: “the purest white seems soiled”.
Today 知白守黑 is a literary phrase for a person who understands a great deal but keeps quiet and out of sight, without showing off what they know.
Using it today
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老张什么都看在眼里，却知白守黑，从不当面点破。
lǎo zhāng shén me dōu kàn zài yǎn lǐ, què zhī bái shǒu hēi, cóng bù dāng miàn diǎn pò.
Old Zhang sees everything, yet he keeps it to himself and never points it out to anyone's face.
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真正的高手往往知白守黑，不轻易显露自己的本事。
zhēn zhèng de gāo shǒu wǎng wǎng zhī bái shǒu hēi, bù qīng yì xiǎn lù zì jǐ de běn shi.
True masters often know much and stay in the background, rarely showing what they can do.