This chapter contrasts the attitude of the Daoist Sage with that of ordinary people, using paradoxes to reveal the essence of the Dao.
While worldly people indulge in sensual pleasures and material gains, the Sage persists in simplicity and sobriedad, pursuing spiritual elevation and refusing to follow the crowd.
When we renounce learning we have no troubles.
The (ready) ‘yes,’ and (flattering) ‘yea;’
Small is the difference they display.
But mark their issues, good and ill;
What space the gulf between shall fill?
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)! The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos. Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Dao).
Ordinary people:
- Delight in feasts and ambitions;
- Dwell in the anxiety of social competition.
The Sage:
- Appears foolish and unrefined;
- Retains primordial innocence.
Philosophical key:
- A critique of vain erudition that obscures natural intuition.
- The greatest knowledge resembles ignorance. Spiritual richness appears as emptiness.
- Abandoning artificial learning brings true peace.
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