Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 13
Chapter 13 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
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。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
Favor and disgrace are both startling; prize great affliction as you prize the self.What does it mean that favor and disgrace are both startling?Favor is a lowering thing: gain it and be startled; lose it and be startled. This is called “favor and disgrace are both startling.”What does it mean to prize great affliction as you prize the self?The reason I have great affliction is that I have a self; if I had no self, what affliction would I have?Therefore, one who prizes giving his self to all under heaven may be entrusted with all under heaven;One who loves giving his self to all under heaven may be charged with all under heaven.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
Favor and disgrace are equally alarming; value great calamity as you value your own body.What does it mean to say that favor and disgrace are equally alarming?Favor places you beneath another: gaining it startles you, and losing it startles you. This is what it means for favor and disgrace to be equally alarming.What does it mean to value great calamity as you value your own body?I suffer great calamity because I have this body to call my own. Were I without this body, what calamity could be mine?So whoever treasures the world as their own body may be given custody of the world;whoever cares for the world as for their own body may be entrusted with the world.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind).
2. What is meant by speaking thus of favour and disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position (after the enjoyment of favour). The getting that (favour) leads to the apprehension (of losing it), and the losing it leads to the fear of (still greater calamity):--this is what is meant by saying that favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared.
And what is meant by saying that honour and great calamity are to be (similarly) regarded as personal conditions? What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself); if I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?
3. Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honouring it as he honours his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it.