Vast Virtue
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大成若缺，其用不弊。大盈若沖，其用不窮。大直若屈，大巧若拙，大辯若訥。躁勝寒，靜勝熱，清靜為天下正。
The greatest completion looks lacking, but its use never wears out. The greatest fullness looks empty, but its use never runs out. The greatest straightness looks bent. The greatest skill looks clumsy. The greatest eloquence looks tongue-tied. Restlessness pushed to the limit turns cold; stillness pushed to the limit turns hot. Be clear and still, and you are the standard for the world.
Five paradoxes about what true greatness looks like, with a textual crux over how many of them get an explanatory refrain.
These paradoxes have the same shape as chapter 41’s: the greatest of anything looks like its opposite, because true completeness has nothing showy left to prove. Heshang Gong reads the closing lines through the seasons, with clear stillness as the standard a ruler should hold to.
Wang Bi’s text makes the same point more insistently, giving all five paradoxes a refrain, each ending differently (其用不弊, 不窮, 不居, 不輟, 不差). This text has it only after the first two, so straightness, skill and eloquence stand on their own.
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