Curbing Desire
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天下有道，卻走馬以糞。天下無道，戎馬生於郊。罪莫大於可欲，禍莫大於不知足，咎莫大於欲得。故知足之足，常足。
When the world has the Way, the running horses are turned back to manure the fields. When the world lacks the Way, war-horses are born on the borders. No crime is greater than what stirs desire; no disaster is greater than not knowing what is enough; no fault is greater than wanting to get. So the enough of knowing what is enough is always enough.
War-horses at peace versus war-horses at the front, and a textual crux over how many named sources of trouble the chapter counts.
The chapter moves inward, from the battlefield to the mind, and traces crime, disaster and fault each to a different shade of wanting.
Wang Bi’s text drops the first of those three clauses, the one naming desire itself as the worst crime, and opens straight with disaster and discontent. This text keeps all three, which gives the passage its tighter three-part rhythm. The last line is the chapter’s quiet definition of wealth: being satisfied with what is already enough.
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