Honor ones duty
loving the world as oneself
trusted forever.
Erdos 2022
Verse 13
Favor and disgrace come with a warning
honor and disaster come with a body
why do favor and disgrace come with a warning
favor turns into disfavor
gaining it comes with a warning
losing it comes with a warning
thus do favor and disgrace come with a warning
and why do honor and disaster come with a body
the reason we have disaster
is because we have a body
if we didn’t have a body
we wouldn’t have disaster
thus those who honor their body more than the world
can be entrusted with the world
those who cherish their body more than the world
can be encharged with the world
Lao -Tzu Taoteching
Translated by Red Pine
“Be wary of both honor and disgrace”
“Endless affliction is bound to the body”
What does it mean,
“Be wary of both honor and disgrace”?
Honor is founded on disgrace
and disgrace is rooted in honor
Both should be avoided
Both bind a man to this world
That’s why it says,
“Be wary of both honor and disgrace”
What does it mean,
“Endless affliction is bound to the body”?
Man’s true self is eternal,
yet he thinks, ” I am this body, I will soon die”
This false sense of self
is the cause of all his sorrow
When a person does not identify himself with the body
tell me, what troubles could touch him?
One who sees himself as everything
is fit to be guardian of the world
One who loves himself as everyone
is fit to be teacher of the world
Lao-tzu’s Tao Teching
Interpreted by Jonathan Star
WANG CHEN says, “People who are favored are honored. And because they are honored, they act proud. And because they act proud, they are hated. And because they are hated, they are disgraced. Hence, sages consider success as well as failure to be a warning”
SU CH’E says, “The ancient sages worried about favor as much as disgrace, because they knew that favor is followed by disgrace. Other people think favor means to ascend and disgrace means to descend. But favor cannot be separated from disgrace. Disgrace results from favor.”
HO-SHANG KUNG says, “Those who gain favor or honor should worry about being too high, as if they were at the edge of a precipice. They should not flaunt their status or wealth. And those who lose favor and live in disgrace should worry more about disaster.”
LU NUNG-SHIH Says, “Why does favor become disgrace and honor become disaster? Favor and honor are external things. They don’t belong to us. When we try to possess them, they turn into disgrace and disaster.”
SSU-MA KUANG Says, “Normally a body means disaster. But if we honor and cherish it and follow the natural order in our dealings with others, and we don’t indulge our desires, we can avoid disaster.”
HUANG YUAN-CHI Says, “We all possess something good and noble that we don’t have to seek outside ourselves, something that the glory of power or position cannot compare with. People need only start with this and cultivate this without letting up. The ancients said, `Two or three years of hardship, ten thousand years of bliss:”
WANG PANG Says, “It isn’t a matter of having no body but of guarding the source of life. Only those who refuse to trade themselves for something external are fit to receive the kingdom”
WANG PI says, “Those who are affected by favor and disgrace or honor and disaster are not fit to receive the kingdom’
TSENG-TZU Says, “The superior person can be entrusted with an orphan or charged with a state and be unmoved by a crisis” (Lunyu: 8.6).
The first two lines are clearly a quote, but commentators disagree about how to read them: are “favor” and “honor” verbs and “disgrace” and “disaster” their noun objects (“favor disgrace as a warning / honor disaster as your body”)? Or are they both nouns, as I (Red Pine) have read them? There is also the issue of how to read juo. Normally, it means “like” or “as.” But it can also mean “to lead to,” which is how Ho-shang Kung reads it, or “to entail” or “to come with;’ which is how I (Red Pine) read it. An unusual usage, but it is after all a quote. Note, too, that in lines fourteen and sixteen, juo means “then;’ which I have left implied. In line three, the Kuotien texts, as well as some other editions (but not the Fuyi, Wangpi, or Mawangtui texts), omit juo-ching, “come with a warning” The last four lines are also found in Chuangtzu: 11.2, where they are used to praise the ruler whose self-cultivation doesn’t leave him time to meddle in the lives of his subjects. They also appear in Huainantzu: 12, where they are used to praise the ruler who values the lives of his people more than the territory in which they live. In both cases, they agree with the Mawangtui version of lines thirteen and fifteen in reading yu-wei-t’ien-hsia, “more than the world,” instead of the standard wei-t’ien-hsia, “as the world’
From Red Pine
[1 ] Ch’ungiuio ching: (a) “accept honor and disgrace as a surprise/ like a shock” (b) “be fearful /apprehensive when receiving praise or blame”
[2]Huan is made up of ch’uan (two objects pierced or strung together on a rod) and hsin (heart). It implies affliction, a series of troubles, continual suffering, “a heart pierced over and over again.” Ta huan (great affliction) can be interpreted as the continual hardship of life, but perhaps more fittingly as the continual suffering that arises from the endless cycle of birth and death (samsara).
[3]Kuei to huan jo shen: “Value great disasters as your body.” (Duy); “Accept misfortune as the human condition.” (Feng); “High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.” (Waley); “Honor is great trouble if identified with the self.” (Wei); “Honor this teaching:’Great Sorrow (the cycle of birth and death) comes from identification with the body.”‘ (Janwu)
[4]>Alt: replace ch’ung wei hsia (favor makes low) with ch’ung wei shangjuh wei hsia (favor makes high, disfavor makes low)
[5]Chi: from “roof’ + (over) “great” + “ability” (holds a surplus of ability under his roof and can therefore be trusted to accomplish the task)
[6]Ku kuei yi shen … t ien hsia: “Therefore he who values the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire,” (Chan); “Therefore, one who honors his own duty (in the world) will win the trust of the world.” (Janwu); “He who fulfills his own duty (with love) is a guardian of the world.” (Ming); “Only he who can do it with love is worthy of being steward of the world.” (Wu); “Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things. Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” (feng); “If, for the sake of dignity, one seeks to make himself ruler of the world, he may be permitted, indeed, to rule it temporarily; But if, for love, one seeks to make himself ruler of the world, he may be entrusted with it forever.” (Chalmers)
[7]T’o: from “words” + “stand next to” (true to one’s word)
[8]Line 13.60-13.70 is virtually the same as the line below it (13.71-13.81) except that kuei (esteem, honor) is replaced by ai (love). Carus omits the second line as an interpolation that was “slipped into the text.” One could preserve the meaning of both lines by combining kuei and ai: “One who honors and loves his own self as the universe can be trusted to care for the world.”
貴 大 患 若 身
Honor ones duty
loving the world as oneself
trusted forever.
Erdos 2022
Ku
Notes from From Jonathan Star below
13-04 Ch’ungiuio ching: (a) “accept honor and disgrace as a surprise/ like a shock” (b) “be fearful /apprehensive when receiving praise or blame”
13-07 Huan is made up of ch’uan (two objects pierced or strung together on a rod) and hsin (heart). It implies affliction, a series of troubles, continual suffering, “a heart pierced over and over again.” Ta huan (great affliction) can be interpreted as the continual hardship of life, but perhaps more fittingly as the continual suffering that arises from the endless cycle of birth and death (samsara).
13-09 ]Kuei to huan jo shen: “Value great disasters as your body.” (Duy); “Accept misfortune as the human condition.” (Feng); “High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.” (Waley); “Honor is great trouble if identified with the self.” (Wei); “Honor this teaching:’Great Sorrow (the cycle of birth and death) comes from identification with the body.”‘ (Janwu)
13-18 Alt: replace ch’ung wei hsia (favor makes low) with ch’ung wei shangjuh wei hsia (favor makes high, disfavor makes low)
13-18 Chi: from “roof’ + (over) “great” + “ability” (holds a surplus of ability under his roof and can therefore be trusted to accomplish the task)
13_20 Ku kuei yi shen … t’ien hsia: “Therefore he who values the world as his body may be entrusted with the empire,” (Chan); “Therefore, one who honors his own duty (in the world) will win the trust of the world.” (Janwu); “He who fulfills his own duty (with love) is a guardian of the world.” (Ming); “Only he who can do it with love is worthy of being steward of the world.” (Wu); “Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things. Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” (feng); “If, for the sake of dignity, one seeks to make himself ruler of the world, he may be permitted, indeed, to rule it temporarily; But if, for love, one seeks to make himself ruler of the world, he may be entrusted with it forever.” (Chalmers)
13-79 T’o: from “words” + “stand next to” (true to one’s word)
13-81 Line 13.60-13.70 is virtually the same as the line below it (13.71-13.81) except that kuei (esteem, honor) is replaced by ai (love). Carus omits the second line as an interpolation that was “slipped into the text.” One could preserve the meaning of both lines by combining kuei and ai: “One who honors and loves his own self as the universe can be trusted to care for the world.”
貴 大 患 若 身
