TaoismChapter 50HOLYMAP · SACRED TEXTS
Tao Te ChingChapter 50

Tao Te Ching

Chapter 50

50
English · James Legge

Men come forth and live; they enter (again) and die. Of every ten three are ministers of life (to themselves); and three are ministers of death. There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason? Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life. But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason? Because there is in him no place of death.

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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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