Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 71
Chapter 71 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
知不知上；不知知病。夫唯病病，是以不病。聖人不病，以其病病，是以不病。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
Knowing not-knowing is highest;Not knowing, yet thinking one knows, is sickness.Only by knowing sickness as sickness does one cease to be sick.The sage is not sick because he knows sickness as sickness, and so is not sick.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
Nothing is higher than knowing that you do not know;not knowing, yet believing you know, is sickness.Only by recognizing the sickness as a sickness can you be free of it.The sage is not sick; because he recognizes the sickness as a sickness, he remains free of it.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease.
2. It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.