The Use of Emptiness
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天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗；聖人不仁，以百姓為芻狗。天地之間，其猶橐籥乎？虛而不屈，動而愈出。多言，數窮，不如守中。
Heaven and earth are not kind; they treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs. The sage is not kind; he treats the common people as straw dogs. Between heaven and earth, is it not like a bellows? Empty, yet it does not collapse; move it, and more and more comes out. Talk too much, and you often run dry; that is not as good as holding to the center.
Heshang Gong titles it 虛用 “The Use of Emptiness”.
“Not kind” here means playing no favourites. Straw dogs were honoured during the ceremony and thrown out after, and heaven, earth and the sage treat things the same way, without special tenderness.
The Song print itself records a disagreement over 數 in the last line: Wang Bi hears “reckoning”, so talk uses up your lot, while the Tang emperor Xuanzong reads it shuò, “often”. Heshang Gong’s advice is plain: keep to the centre, nourish the spirit, cherish the breath, speak little.
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