TaoismChapter 48HOLYMAP · SACRED TEXTS
Tao Te ChingChapter 48

Tao Te Ching

Chapter 48

48
English · James Legge

He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase (his knowledge); he who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing). He diminishes it and again diminishes it, till he arrives at doing nothing (on purpose). Having arrived at this point of non-action, there is nothing which he does not do. He who gets as his own all under heaven does so by giving himself no trouble (with that end). If one take trouble (with that end), he is not equal to getting as his own all under heaven.

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Chinese text from Chinese Wikisource (zh.wikisource.org), transcribed by Wikisource volunteers. Public domain. · Source ↗

Translated by James Legge, The Texts of Tâoism, Part I, Sacred Books of the East vol. 39 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891). Public domain. E-text from Project Gutenberg (#216), checked word by word against scans of the 1891 printing (Internet Archive). · Source ↗

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