No Fixed Heart
Read the full text in our reader
聖人無常心，以百姓心為心。善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之，德善。信者，吾信之；不信者，吾亦信之，德信。聖人在天下怵怵，為天下渾其心。百姓皆注其耳目，聖人皆孩之。
The sage has no constant heart; he takes the people’s heart as his heart. To those who are good I am good; to those not good I am also good; and so virtue makes them good. To those who are trustworthy I am trusting; to those not trustworthy I am also trusting; and so virtue makes them trustworthy. The sage, living in the world, is wary and fearful; for the sake of the world he muddies his own heart. The people all lend their ears and eyes; the sage treats them all as children.
A ruler with no opinions of his own, who meets every kind of person with the same goodness.
The sage’s goodness does not depend on what he meets, and that steadiness is what ends up making people good and trustworthy. In Heshang Gong’s words, the muddied heart makes him seem foolish and dull.
Wang Bi’s text reads 歙歙 “withdrawn, drawn in on himself” where Heshang Gong’s has 怵怵 “wary, apprehensive”. The two are close in feel, and either way the picture is a ruler holding himself back instead of asserting a view of his own.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Tao Te Ching 49 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Tao Te Ching — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Tao Te Ching 49 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/tao/49/