Daodejing Chapter 49: the Daoist has no heart-and-mind

Richard Brown
1 min readJul 28, 2023

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The Daoist has no heart-and-mind.
He takes the heart-and-mind
Of the common people as his own.
I treat the good as good.
I also treat the not good as good.
This is the power of goodness.
I trust the trustworthy.
I also trust the untrustworthy.
This is the power of trust.
In all-under-heaven,
The Daoist is humble and cautious,
Blurs his heart-and-mind,
For the benefit
Of all-under-heaven
The common people fix
Their ears and eyes on him.
The Daoist treats them all as children.

「聖人常無心,以百姓心為心。善者吾善之,不善者吾亦善之,德善。信者吾信之,不信者吾亦信之,德信。聖人在天下,歙歙為天下渾其心。百姓皆注其耳目,聖人皆孩之。」

Wise leaders put the interests of their people first and treat them all with equal respect. By showing trust and confidence in people and refraining from imposing your own agenda on them, you create an open environment in which everyone will thrive. The more receptive you are towards other people’s opinions and ideas, the more willing they will be to tell you what is really happening in the world.

Note
I took this image at Longhu (Dragon Tiger) Mountain, a famous Daoist site about ten miles south of Yingtan in Jiangxi Province. A great place to visit!

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Richard Brown
Richard Brown

Written by Richard Brown

I live in Taiwan and am interested in exploring what ancient Chinese philosophy can tell us about technology and the rise of modern China.

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