Tao Te Ching 71

In this particular day I shall interpret a verse from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, namely verse 71.  In A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy, Wing Tsit Chan presents the verse:

“71.  To know that you do not know is the best.

To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

Only when one recognizes this disease as a disease can one be

                free from the disease.

The sage is free from the disease.

Because he recognizes this disease to be disease, he is free

                from it.” ¹

 Firstly, let us discuss the theme of the verse.  The theme of the verse revolves around sincerity about what one knows and what he does not know. Admitting this implies humility and freedom from pretenses.  

Reflecting on the lines, it centers on the right attitude towards one’s ignorance and one’s knowledge. Being aware of one’s ignorance can really aid one into seeing the essence of a thing.  For example, assuming on something without doing some investigation or background check can blind a person to its truth.  There are some people who tend to assume that older people are more likely honest than the younger ones.  Essentially, there is no truth in this.  Advanced age is not a guarantee for honesty.  It takes right attitude to become honest.  Besides, commonly advanced age also is used as basis for saying that one has more knowledge than the other.  Age has nothing to do with being honest or being knowledgeable.  In this case, one loses the opportunities to explore, discover, and reflect in order to learn more insights from many realities in life.  For Lao Tzu, this is like a disease that destroys one’s capacity to become wise.

Another way of looking at this would be in terms of pretensions. When one pretends to know something is like an attractive but empty cup.  It is useless and meaningless.  Pretensions make one anxious, because he already has a superficial ego to fill up.  This then can result to slavery to one’s pride and selfishness. It traps the individual into carrying unnecessary baggage that will drain him of his chance to live a freer and lighter life.

Lao Tzu, then, proposes one to “unlearn”.  This is because it is only in such “unlearning” that one can rid himself of the blinders that he sets in his perspective of things.  Previous knowledge from different sources of information poses a double-edged sword.  Yes, it can aid in preparing one’s mind for something, but on the other hand, it robs the spontaneous wisdom of the moment given by Nature.  In being stubborn to stick to one’s biases, one brings himself to emptiness.  He brings himself to injury, for he goes beyond what is just necessary just to satisfy his ego.  Therefore, in order to resolve this dilemma, Lao Tzu advises one to “unlearn”.  Doing this does not imply forgetting learned things in one’s life.  Rather, one must detach himself from ignorance and pride and make himself open to new things.  It is in being open and willing to learn that one understand things.

Pretenses lead one to despair and insecurity.  They are the common causes of chaos and hatred.  They bury the essential capacity of one to free himself from lies.  Nobody is truly happy with lies.  They deceive people and lead them to misery.  Lies are short-lived.  But every person has the inherent capacity to know, learn and grow in truth.   The truth supersedes lies and sets one free.  One must never stop to know and live the truth.

A person’s tendency to prejudge something or someone acquires illnesses rooted in conceit and narrow-mindedness.  These result to misinformed choices and decisions that lead one to failures.  When one admits sincerely what he knows and what he does not know, he is closer to knowledge and nearer to truth.  It takes humility and sincerity to free oneself from ignorance and conceit.  It takes more miles of virtue to heal oneself of blindness from truth.  Right attitude breeds right values.  These two are the antecedents of virtues.  A life of a sage just simply requires being true to oneself.  The rest of good things follow from this.

Source:

    1.       Wing Tsit Chan, “The Natural Way of Lao Tzu”, (United States: Princeton University Press, 1963), In A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy, 172.