The qi vessel tips over when it is filled with water. The moneybox stays whole only so long as it is not filled up with money.
Therefore, a man of virtue prefers plain poverty to ostentatious wealth, choosing to live with relative paucity instead of extreme abundance.
攲器以满覆，扑满以空全；故君子宁居无不居有，宁处缺不处完。
Notes
Fullness invites collapse; Emptiness ensures preservation
- Tilting vessel metaphor: Overflowing leads to overturning; Excess breeds downfall.
- Saving jar metaphor: Emptiness maintains integrity; Void allows endurance.
Echoes Laozi: “Reversal is the movement of the Dao” — extremes self-destruct; balance endures.
Transcending material obsession
- Obsession with “possession” traps one in anxiety and moral compromise.
- The noble chooses “non-possession”; Freedom through detachment, finding richness in simplicity.
Rejecting the illusion of perfection
- False completeness is an unsustainable facade;
- Imperfection reflects life’s truthful state.
Nobility lies in embracing flaws while cultivating inner wholeness.
Ultimate Insight:
This passage from Cai Gen Tan – Tending the roots of wisdom reveals that true fulfillment arises not from external accumulation, but from the courage to remain hollow like a jar and incomplete like the moon — ever receptive, ever evolving.
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