Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Original Text

天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗。
聖人不仁，以百姓為芻狗。
天地之間，其猶橐籥乎？
虛而不屈，動而愈出。
多言數窮，不如守中。

Translation

Heaven and Earth are not ren;benevolent; they treat the ten thousandmyriad beings likeas straw dogs.
The sageSage is not ren;benevolent; he treats the hundredcommon clanspeople likeas straw dogs.

Between Heaven and Earth—is it not like a bellows?
HollowEmpty yet unexhausted;not pressed down; when it moves, all the more it moves, the more it issues forth.

Many words—soonoften impoverished;they end in exhaustion; better to holdkeep to the center.

Word Notes

• 芻狗 — “straw dogs”: straw-dogdogs effigiesplaited usedfrom in sacrifice—handled with ceremony and then trampled; a figurestraw for Nature’ssacrifice; impersonalafter process.use, they are trampled underfoot.

• 橐橐籥 — “bellows”: 橐 is the leather bag of a smith’s bellows—airbag (hollow, bottomless.without a bottom); 籥: theis bellows’its mouth.mouth/nozzle.

• 屈 — “to be pressed/bent”: to bend/collapse;be hereforced down or contorted; here, “not collapse,pressed down/exhausted.”

• 不仁 — “not benevolent”: not runpartial down.”or sentimental; letting life-and-death follow nature.

• 守中 — “keep to the center”: hold to the mean; abide in the middle way.

Chapter Explanation

Heaven and Earth are not “benevolent”benevolent: inat the sense of partial kindness: sometimestimes they give life,life sometimesand at times they cutkill, it off—letting beings follow their own course—nature, treating them like straw dogs.

The sageSage is likewise “not benevolent,”benevolent: sometimesat giving,times sometimeshe takinggives away—lettingand at times he takes away, listening to the people follow theirpeople’s nature.

BetweenWhat lies between Heaven and Earth is like a bellows: itswithin insideit is empty yet not collapsed;pressed down; the more it is set in motion,moves, the more itqi sendsissues forth.

MuchSaying talkmany runsthings only leads to arunning deadout end;of ways; it is better to keep to the center.middle way.

Discourse

In everythis erachapter andLaozi land,observes the people and creatures,all withoutbeings exception,across alternate between lifeeras and death,lands: turningthere is no one who does not live and overturning,die, die and live, tossing back and forth, suffering withoutbeyond measure—as thoughlike a speckmote of dust whirlingspinning in space, unable to master itself:itself. tossedNow high,whirling castupward low,to a height, now dipping down below—up and down without rest.

If we traceTracing the root of thissuch suffering, weone cannot avoidhelp returning it to Heaven and Earth. People and thingsbeings are born fromof Heaven and Earth.Earth: Where therewhat is birthborn therecannot mustfail beto death.die. The very ren by whichThat Heaven and Earth give life to beings is alsotheir thebenevolence; “not-ren” by which they cut life off.

Moreover, when they give life, even what is base is produced—as though greatly cherished; when they take life, even what is fine is destroyed—as though greatly despised. Hence, “straw dogs.”

The sage follows the naturalness ofthat Heaven and Earth inkill justbeings thisis way.precisely Yettheir not-benevolence. Moreover, when it is time to give life, even bad things are brought to life—as if cherished to the utmost; when it is time to kill, even good things are cut down—as if despised to the utmost. Hence “they treat beings as straw dogs.” The Sage, following Heaven-and-Earth’s naturalness, is likewise so.

But Heaven and Earth do not intend to give life or to kill:kill. theThe principle between Heaven and Earth goesis outa going and returns,a coming, cycling without end. Heaven and Heaven-and-Earth operatework without intention:a heart; giving life is not loving beings;beings, and killing is not hating them. It isOne only thatcultivates whatthe isstanding plantedones isand supported,overturns whatthe istoppled overturnedones, isletting overthrown—eachbeings accordingfollow to itstheir own nature. If Heaven and Earth had ahearts heartthat loved beings, so that there were birth but no death, the transformation of partial love for beings, and only gave life without ever cutting off, then the transformations of qi would reach an end.

Therefore onea person must break through all names and sayings,sayings, empty the heart and keep to the center, and stand beyondtranscend Heaven and Earth—Earth, and only then areavoid youbeing not tossedknocked about by fatefate’s norcycles, sweptdragged along inwith the round of comings and goings of the cycle.goings.

Laozi foresaw that later students would easilyoften misunderstandmisread the scriptures and becomebe bound by them—them: splitting into sects,sects and schools; burrowing into phrases,phrases; trappedgetting bystuck “principle”on principles or by “method,”methods; doing only mouth-work and book-learning,bookish fustyDao-and-De—stodgy and useless. WorseWorse, still,some the lower sort lapsefall into superstition:, unable to be strongself-reliant inand themselves,self-mastering: they dependrelying on Heaven and leanEarth, leaning on spiritsgods and sages.spirits. They do not realizeknow that althoughthough Heaven lovesand Earth delight in life, itthey cannot “protect”protect people;a althoughperson; godsthough the holy and the buddhas are compassionate, they cannot “save”save people.a person. Even whenthe saintsteachings of sages, immortals, and buddhasbuddhas—anything teach,that whatever can be spoken and whateveror cannamed—is be named isbut one-sided—paired withspeech, anset opposite.within Whereopposition: where there is “good,”an advantage, there willis bea “not-good.”disadvantage. ThusHence the Buddha saidsays “inconceivable, unsayable”; Confuciushence saidConfucius’s “I would wish not to be without words,speak,” and spokehis ofteachings theon six sayings and six obscurations—obstructions—all the same intent.

HenceTherefore Laozi must takereason his stand infrom the sourceroot,: franklyhe callingdirectly calls Heaven and EarthEarth—and even the Sage—“not ren,benevolent,” callingin the sage “not ren,”order to break people ofpeople’s superstitious dependence. and idolatry; heHe says “many words—soonwords impoverished”often end in exhaustion” to smashbreak people’s fixationattachment onto doctrine;doctrines and methods. He says “keep to the center” to showpoint wherepeople to abide.their home. High indeed! Lofty indeed;indeed! subtle indeed; spirit-likeDivine and wondrous indeed.indeed!

In the Buddhist dispensation,Formerly Śākyamuni ispreached as teacher of humansmen and gods—hisgods, preachingand isit thewas called a lion’s roar. LaoziLaozi, laysby laying bare the workings of Heaven and Earth and the sage,Sage, leadinglifts people beyond humans and men-and-gods—thishow is thethis not a dragon’s song.? AYet a lion’s roar makesstartles the mountains tremble and easily moves people; a dragon’s songrumble is delicatesubtle and unfathomable—hard to gauge—without an attuned ear, one hears little savor. Thus students of the right ear, it seems dull. Thus peoplesutras still likeprefer studyingto thestudy sutras;them; Laozi is not even counted amongalongside Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad,Muhammad. and hisHis book is treated like poison—judgedpoison, bylooked theat world’swith eyes,worldly whicheyes cannotthat plumbpresume to peer at a saintgreat sage whose transformationtransformations isare beyond measure.