Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tze

13

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.