Casual Talk on Tao Te Ching 019

Author: Dao Yingzi
In Chapter Eighteen, we uncovered the root of worldly troubles: after the Great Dao declined, benevolence, filial piety, compassion and loyal ministers all became acquired remedies to mend cracks in human hearts. The more loudly a virtue is propagandized, the more it is lacking in the world; artificially glorified morality breeds endless hypocrisy and pretension.
Chapter Eighteen is a diagnosis that lays bare the vanity and falsity of human nature, while Chapter Nineteen delivers Laozi’s fundamental mental cultivation remedy for curing such ills. The full text below is collated based on the combined comparison of the A and B silk manuscripts of Mawangdui:
Abandon sagehood and discard cleverness, and the people will benefit a hundredfold;
Abandon benevolence and discard righteousness, and the people will return to filial piety and compassion;
Abandon craftiness and discard profit, and bandits and thieves will disappear entirely.
These three maxims alone are insufficient as written guidance, so here is what they must align with: Embrace the unadorned and uphold simplicity; lessen selfishness and reduce desires; abandon superficial learning and be free from worry.
I. Dispelling Three Common One-Sided Misinterpretations and Upholding the Core of "Preserving Authenticity"
Rigid Bias of Confucian Scholars
Many Confucian readings claim that Laozi rejects human ethics and holds a world-weary, passive attitude through "abandon sagehood and discard cleverness, abandon benevolence and discard righteousness". Such interpretations sever the logical coherence of the full text and ignore the chaotic moral landscape of the Spring and Autumn Period.
What Laozi renounces is never the innate filial piety and kindness springing from human hearts, but performative benevolence wielded by nobles and lords to fish for fame and bind common people. Treating artificially constructed moral shackles as the origin of the Great Dao reverses root and branch.
Extreme Distortions by Later Cultivators
Many later readers quote passages out of context and conclude that "lessen selfishness and reduce desires" means cutting off livelihoods, abandoning wealth and ceasing all thinking, choosing only to retreat from the world and sit in stagnant meditation.
This strays entirely from Laozi’s original intent. Laozi never rejects stable, abundant material wealth. Honest living, rational life planning and positive contemplation to perceive the Dao are all faultless. What he restrains is the warped thoughts arising when humans interact with external things, not wealth or human relationships themselves.
Superficial Reading by Ordinary People
Average readers only fixate on literal meaning, believing that casting aside scheming and dismissing material gains alone can eradicate theft in society. Yet most apply these standards to judge others rather than reflect inwardly. They only criticize the world outside without purging greed, vanity and calculation from their own hearts, thus merely addressing symptoms rather than the root cause.
II. Line-by-Line Analysis of the Three Abandonments, Centered on the Thieves Within the Heart
Abandon sagehood and discard cleverness, and the people will benefit a hundredfold
Here, "sagehood" refers to the hollow reputations of sages admired by the world and artificially crafted noble personas. "Cleverness" does not mean genuine wisdom that penetrates and observes the Dao, but utilitarian trickery used to manipulate others and seize power, echoing Chapter Eighteen’s line: "When wisdom emerges, great hypocrisy follows."
The Chongzhen Emperor serves as a perfect historical example. Convinced he mastered political stratagems to control his ministers, he lived in constant suspicion of all officials, frequently replacing grand secretaries and executing generals, his mind filled with petty calculating tactics for balance. Every official lived in fear and dared not take responsibility, the imperial court fractured and divided, and the dynasty ultimately fell. A mind consumed by political scheming harbors an inner thief: though seemingly in full control, it drains the people and destroys one’s own foundation, which perfectly validates this line. Let go of false cleverness used to manipulate others, eliminate internal strife and mutual suppression between superiors and subordinates, and the people can live in peace.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, feudal lords vied to proclaim themselves sagacious, strategists exhausted stratagems to plot against one another, those in power exploited common folk through craftiness, and the lower classes followed suit with opportunistic schemes. Everyone was trapped in mutual calculating friction.
Abandon the pursuit of external sage reputations, discard scheming petty cleverness, cease mutual harm through crafted personas and mental trickery, and the people no longer need to conform to various hypocritical indoctrinations to live in peace. Laozi opposes hollow sagehood and false wisdom that chase fame and gain, yet never rejects true insight that perceives heaven and earth.
Abandon benevolence and discard righteousness, and the people will return to filial piety and compassion
This follows the previous chapter’s line: "When the Great Dao fades, benevolence and righteousness arise." When human innate authenticity is veiled by selfish desires, benevolent rituals and codes of righteousness are forcibly established as restraints. Countless people practice filial piety and good deeds solely to win reputations as gentlemen or dutiful sons, reducing kinship and goodwill to tools for social prestige.
Duke Huan of Qin from the Spring and Autumn Period is a typical case. He swore treaties of trust with the State of Jin, yet secretly allied with other states to ambush his ally for personal gain. His constant talk of morality and righteousness was merely a cover for plunder. Such performative morality dissolves genuine human affection. If everyone lets go of the urge to exploit benevolence for profit, heartfelt care, filial piety and compassion will naturally return.
Cease using benevolence and righteousness as shackles to bind others or cloaks for profit; stop forcing oneself to stage displays of goodness. Freed from pretense, innate familial care and original kindness will revive. Laozi rejects utilitarian, performative benevolence and righteousness, while heartfelt filial piety and compassion are the natural state of the Great Dao.
Abandon craftiness and discard profit, and bandits and thieves will disappear — the core of the whole text: thieves dwell within the heart, not outside
Most readers interpret this line only in terms of visible robbers and thieves on the streets, missing Laozi’s profound true meaning: thieves never lurk in alleys, but are rooted within human consciousness as inner heart thieves.
What are heart thieves? The obsessive drive to chase fame and fortune in all matters, the mindset of acting only for profit and maximizing personal gain, the constant tallying of one’s own advantages and losses — this greedy, self-centered obsession is the thief dwelling deep in one’s soul. Once such covetous thoughts take root, people will readily resort to unscrupulous means: crafty extortion, deception and calculation follow.
Negative Historical Cases: Deeply Rooted Heart Thieves Lead to Isolation and Ruin
Duke Yu of the State of Yu (the story of borrowing a path to attack Guo): Presented with fine jade and fine horses by the State of Jin, Duke Yu coveted immediate gains and ignored the interdependence of lips and teeth. He allowed foreign troops passage to attack his ally, eventually losing his kingdom and all treasures. A heart consumed by greed for profit betrays one’s homeland, making its ruler the greatest thief of all.
Lü Bu betrayed his lords for gain: He abandoned two adoptive fathers in succession for the Red Hare steed and high official titles, seeing nothing but profit and lacking all faithfulness. All feudal lords feared and guarded against him, leaving him isolated at White Gate Tower to face execution. Without eradicating the inner thief of profit, one will never have reliable companions in life.
Shi Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty amassed immense wealth by robbing merchants while governing Jingzhou. He indulged in rare crafty treasures to flaunt and compete with others, chasing vanity and wealth his whole life, only to be killed for his riches. A lifetime spent pursuing profit ultimately leads to destruction by profit.
The worldly pursuit of fancy crafted goods and shortcuts to huge profits only amplifies public greed as external inducements. The real root of chaos lies in every person’s inner urge to covet wealth and fame beyond their due share.
Laozi’s words on abandoning craftiness and profit superficially aim to eliminate theft across society, yet their fundamental purpose is to sweep away inner thieves of greed and self-interest. Do not obsess over opportunistic tricks, nor cling to delusional cravings for unlimited gains, and eradicate covetous thoughts at their source.
III. The Three Abandonments Are Merely External Restraints; Mental Cultivation Fundamentally Relies on the Six-Character Mental Formula
Laozi states clearly that the above three standards for rejecting vanity are only superficial regulations, as "written words alone are insufficient". Relying merely on restraining outward behavior cannot fully restore alignment with the Great Dao. Hence he established the ultimate foundation for all self-cultivation and worldly conduct: Embrace the unadorned and uphold simplicity; lessen selfishness and reduce desires; abandon superficial learning and be free from worry.
Embrace the unadorned and uphold simplicity: Preserve the authentic state of one’s original heart
Su means undyed white cloth; pu means uncarved raw timber, representing the innate original heart unmodified by external forces. Interact with others and handle affairs with pure, unmasked authenticity, guarding one’s natural inner truth. Do not deliberately glorify oneself or pretend to possess noble virtue, stripping away all acquired artificial adornment. This is the foundation for sweeping away heart thieves and cultivating the Dao, with the entire chapter centered on adhering to one’s "authenticity".
Lessen selfishness and reduce desires: Eradicate thieving thoughts within the heart
All hypocrisy, contention and calculation stem from excessive selfishness and overflowing desires, which feed the thieves in the heart.
Lessen selfishness: Reduce the one-sided obsession of prioritizing only oneself in everything, rather than refusing to plan stable livelihoods for oneself and one’s family.
Reduce desires: Cut down boundless, excessive cravings, rather than embracing ascetic hardship and rejecting all wealth and resources.
This mental formula carries clear boundaries: Seek wealth without unscrupulous hoarding; practice filial piety without performative displays for fame. All conduct follows one’s genuine heart, unled astray by illusory cravings. Reducing desires never means ceasing thought — positive contemplation to perceive the Dao and plan life remains fully intact; only crafty schemes to manipulate others and seize profit must be cast aside.
Once greedy, self-centered inner thieves fade completely, one’s character becomes steady and profound.
Positive Cases of Virtue: Free of Inner Greed, One Naturally Attracts Wealth and Blessings
Pei Du returning lost treasure: Down and out in his early years, he found a nobleman’s jade belt and waited at the spot for its owner, refusing all generous rewards. He lived a just and pure life free of inner greed, later rising to prime minister, with his clan prospering for a thousand years and blessed with lasting fortune.

Honest Huizhou merchants: Ancient Huizhou merchants ran businesses with genuine goods at fair prices, never shortchanging customers or engaging in opportunistic fraud. Whenever business opportunities arose, trustworthy merchants were the first choice of partners. Without scheming and chasing gains, customers and wealth gathered naturally — a demonstration that an inner heart free of thieves draws prosperity effortlessly.
Yang Zhen rejecting gold under cover of night: A subordinate sent him gold after dark, claiming "no one will know". Yang Zhen sternly refused, stating "Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know". Harboring no covetous inner thoughts, his profound virtue was passed down through the ages.
Abandon superficial learning and be free from worry
This phrase appears exclusively in the silk manuscripts yet was arbitrarily deleted from circulated editions, removing a core element of mental cultivation. The "learning" referenced here refers to complicated ritual dogma, power-strategic knowledge used to compete for status, and empty flowery rhetoric for judging others — not genuine wisdom that perceives the Dao of heaven and earth.
People spend all day reciting moral standards and political stratagems, ranking others by rigid rules, their spirits constantly pulled by external things, giving rise to endless anxieties. Let go of superficial external learning that disturbs one’s original heart, cease binding oneself and demanding others by rigid standards, and with a pure mind, one attains peace without worry.
IV. Two Profound Core Meanings of This Chapter: Cultivating Kun Virtue, the Precondition for Possessing Profound Virtue to Bear All Things
First Layer: The full text emulates the virtue of the Kun Trigram
The I Ching states of the Kun Trigram: "The earth’s momentum is Kun; the gentleman carries all things with profound virtue." Every tenet of this chapter perfectly aligns with Kun’s virtue:
Embracing the unadorned and upholding simplicity mirrors the earth’s natural, uncarved, unostentatious essence;
Lessening selfishness and reducing desires mirrors the earth nurturing all creation without claiming merit, free of fame-chasing greed;
Abandoning sagehood, cleverness, craftiness and profit mirrors Kun’s quiet, tolerant nature that does not flaunt wisdom or reputations outwardly.
Qian Dao manifests outwardly, advancing and employing cleverness; Kun Dao preserves authenticity inwardly, harboring profound virtue with leniency. Laozi’s words in this chapter urge people to abandon vain external pursuits, cultivate the plain, lenient Kun virtue within, and deepen the capacity of one’s character to hold the Dao and all worldly things.
Emperor Taizong of the Zhenguan Period exemplified emulating Kun virtue in governance: He rejected fancy luxury crafts, lightened corvée and taxes, ruled with simplicity, and guided people to live in honest livelihoods, avoiding political trickery and performative righteousness at court. Historical records note that during the Zhenguan era, lost items were left untouched on roads and doors remained unlocked at night, with visible thieves vanishing across society. The root cause lay in the reduction of greed, craftiness and profit-seeking from top to bottom, returning human hearts to simplicity.
Second Layer: Only after sweeping away inner heart thieves can one possess profound virtue to bear all things
People often speak of profound virtue bearing all things, yet few understand that pure, unhypocritical inner authenticity is its foundation.
If inner heart thieves dwell within a person — one who chases profit above all, calculates every exchange, and stages performative goodness — their character is shallow. Even temporary wealth and power cannot be sustained, for their virtue cannot uphold such external possessions, and fame and fortune will ultimately slip away. The fates of Duke Yu, Lü Bu and Shi Chong serve as warnings: until greedy thoughts are eliminated, all wealth and power are fleeting mist.
Only by preserving plain, authentic original nature, easing excessive selfishness and cravings, and sweeping away inner covetousness for fame and gain can one gradually cultivate a lenient, pure character — the starting point of profound virtue.
Laozi never urges people to reject material abundance; instead, he recognizes stable resources as the foundation of a secure life. Those with hearts free of thieves who act justly and trustworthily need not scramble desperately for business opportunities, as others will actively seek them for cooperation, bringing smooth wealth naturally. This is the modern principle of establishing oneself through integrity.
In contrast, those consumed by inner thieves and obsessed with profit calculate and harm others in every interaction, eroding trust until no one wishes to associate with them, cutting off all sources of prosperity.
When one’s original heart aligns with heaven’s Dao, prioritizing collective interests over personal gains, a positive natural attraction forms, bringing wealth and blessings unsought. This is the true meaning of profound virtue bearing all things.
In-Depth Interpretation through the Three Ancient Systems of Changes
We may distinguish shallow worldly perspectives from Laozi’s grand Dao vision using two thought models from the ancient Three Changes, thoroughly explaining the origin of inner heart thieves and the logic of worldly conduct.
Ordinary people’s views of gain and loss and cooperation are trapped within the two-dimensional linear framework of the Lianshan Changes, fixated solely on their own immediate benefits. Greedy inner thieves dwell in every heart, fostering mutual suspicion and distrust. Long-term estrangement spawns a mode of interaction reliant on written contracts rather than personal integrity. External regulations only resolve superficial conflicts, unable to eradicate the root of inner covetousness.
The Dao passed down by Laozi relies on the three-dimensional complex system of nested trigrams and interwoven transformations within the Zhouyi, centered on bearing all things through the Dao. The Zhouyi evaluates events by balancing seasonal timing, human hearts and long-term fortune, transcending individual gains and losses to seek win-win outcomes for all parties. Through inward cultivation of embracing the unadorned, upholding simplicity, lessening selfishness and reducing desires, inner greedy delusions are fully eliminated.
When hearts are free of thieves and virtue profound, people interact with sincere trust without strict contractual safeguards. Flaunting superficial cleverness and relying on written restraints represents shallow two-dimensional wisdom from the Lianshan Changes; plain, uncompetitive coexistence rooted in virtue embodies the three-dimensional heaven-aligned great wisdom of the Zhouyi. Outer appearances never equal inner essence.
V. Interpreting against the Spring and Autumn Historical Background to Avoid Out-of-Context Distortion
Laozi lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period, an era of collapsed ritual order: feudal lords launched wars under the guise of benevolence and righteousness, strategists sought power through clever schemes, noble clans chased rare treasures to compete in luxury, and filial piety and loyalty were merely tools to bind ministers. This chapter criticizes the fully alienated, utilitarian system of sagehood, benevolence, craftiness and profit of that age.
Two clear boundaries must be drawn to avoid biased readings and controversy:
What Laozi rejects: warped thoughts that exploit virtue and wealth to fish for fame;
What Laozi affirms: innate heartfelt filial piety and compassion, stable legitimate wealth, and honest livelihood planning.
Times past and present differ drastically. Positive human ethics, legal livelihoods and upright learning form the foundation of social stability today. When we study this classic, we reflect inwardly on our own vanity and greed, rather than abandoning normal social ethics and daily life.
VI. Personal Insights from Practical Cultivation
Reading Chapters Eighteen and Nineteen consecutively reveals a complete cycle of human character: when human hearts stray from the Dao, artificial moral standards arise to mend the rift; clinging to external standards breeds rampant hypocrisy and inner covetous thieves. Wang Yangming’s line — "It is easy to suppress bandits in the mountains, yet hard to conquer thieves within the heart" — perfectly captures the core of this chapter. Visible external robbers are mere surface phenomena; covetous, self-centered delusions dwelling in the heart are the root ailment.
Many cultivators invert root and branch: restless and consumed by desires, they deliberately perform good deeds and recite moral texts to glorify themselves; envious of others who profit through smooth trickery, they seek to learn political stratagems everywhere; craving luxurious goods, they endlessly chase money and luxury items. Such actions pile on artificial outer adornment, nourishing inner heart thieves and drawing one further from the authentic Dao.
True practice to return to the Dao lies in sustained inward subtraction: let go of the urge to glorify one’s own nobility, discard profit-chasing petty cleverness, release boundless cravings, and abandon the multitude of trivial dogmas used to compare and judge others.
Uphold the single core of "authenticity": act with open, pure original thoughts, free of performance, greed and hypocrisy. Sweep away inner thieves that covet fame and fortune, cultivate the lenient Kun virtue within, and with a profound character, one can steadily bear wealth, human relationships and all blessings. This is the complete path of self-cultivation and worldly living left by Laozi in Chapter Nineteen.
Preview of the Next Chapter
Having covered abandoning falsity to return to simplicity, sweeping away inner heart thieves, cultivating Kun virtue and nurturing profound virtue in this chapter, Chapter Twenty will contrast two entirely different spiritual states: the worldly masses chasing vanity, and Dao cultivators abiding by their authentic inner hearts. We will continue to unpack the original heart of the Dao based on the silk manuscript text.
I analyze the Mawangdui Laozi chapter by chapter, delving into inward self-seeking interpretations free of vanity. Fellow practitioners who resonate with this perspective may offer voluntary support as they wish; no payment is required. May all people cast off inner covetous thieves and guard their plain, authentic original hearts.
I live by writing, seek peace and blessings