The Yielding Nature
Read the full text in our reader
上善若水。水善利萬物而不爭，處眾人之所惡，故幾於道。居善地，心善淵，與善仁，言善信，正善治，事善能，動善時。夫唯不爭，故無尤。
The highest good is like water. Water is good at benefiting the ten thousand things, and it does not contend. It dwells in the places that the crowd hates, so it is close to the Way. In dwelling, it is good at the low ground. In heart, it is good at being deep. In giving, it is good at kindness. In speech, it is good at being true. In governing, it is good at order. In work, it is good at being capable. In moving, it is good at timing. It is only because it does not contend that no one blames it.
Heshang Gong titles it 易性 “The Yielding Nature”.
Water is the book’s favourite picture of strength through softness, and it keeps coming back: rivers and seas in chapter 66, and water again in chapter 78, softer than anything and still the thing that wears down the hard. The closing line echoes chapter 2.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Tao Te Ching 8 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 8 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/tao/8/