Chapter 13
Favors received injure as much as disgrace
Greatness weighs down the body.
What is meant by: “Favors received injures as much as disgrace?”
Favors received entails its own reduction
There is anxiety in waiting for it
There is anxiety in losing it.
What is meant by: “Greatness weighs down the body”?
To have a body [person] means to offer a hold
The body is the principle of heaviness
If you did not have it
There would not be possibilities.
Therefore: whoever is detached from greatness
Can freely rule the empire
Whoever is attached to the body as little as the empire
Can be entrusted with the empire.
The text of this chapter is somewhat corrupt. Thus there have been divergent translations. Instead of “favors received” one can also read: fortune, honors received; it refers, then, to depending on the cause of that, with the implicit lowering of its own more intimate dignity, which is “disgrace”. The ideogram for the body can also be rendered as “person”; then the possibilities given as terms of comparison for that to which the outer profane greatness shows, there are those inherent to being person, in the limitative sense: by varying this, with which the whole can agree equally by creating minor modifications, preserving the comprehensive interpretation given to the chapter.
Chinese text and literal translation
Chapter 13 (第十三章)
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寵辱若驚，
貴大患若身。 何謂寵辱若驚？ 寵為下。 得之若驚，失之若驚， 是謂寵辱若驚。 何謂貴大患若身？ 吾所以有大患者，為吾有身； 及吾無身，吾有何患？ 故貴以身為天下， 若可寄天下。 愛以身為天下， 若可託天下。 |
To appoint the person that is ploughed under is the same as to surprise [him],
Respecting trusted subordinate is the same as respecting oneself. Why to appoint the person that is ploughed under is the same as to surprise [him]? Because to appoint is to regard the person as a subordinate, Getting appointed is being surprised, Being disfavored is also being surprised, This is why. Why respecting trusted subordinate is the same as respecting oneself? The reason that I have these trusted subordinate is I care about myself. If I do not care about myself, what trusted subordinate do I have? So, If [you] can change respecting yourself into respecting the world, then the world will be able to be reposed in you; If [you] can change loving yourself into loving the world, then the world will be able to be reposed in you. |
Please be relevant.