Guarding Against Excess
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持而盈之，不如其已；揣而銳之，不可長保。金玉滿堂，莫之能守；富貴而驕，自遺其咎。功成名遂身退，天之道。
Holding it and filling it to the brim is not as good as stopping. Hammer it and sharpen it, and it cannot be kept for long. When gold and jade fill the hall, no one can guard it. Rich and honoured, and proud, you bring disaster on yourself. When the work is done and the name is made, you step back: this is Heaven’s Way.
Heshang Gong titles it 運夷 “Guarding Against Excess”.
Every picture here is of overdoing it, and the cure is to stop in time.
Heshang Gong’s text has two characters Wang Bi’s lacks, 成名, “and the name made”. His note gives the reason for stepping back: the sun at noon begins to move on, the moon at full begins to wane, and what reaches its height begins to decline.
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