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The world calls me great great but useless it’s because I am great I am useless if I were of use I would have remained small but I possess three treasures I treasure and uphold first is compassion second is austerity third is reluctance to excel because I’m compassionate I can be valiant because I’m austere I can be extravagant because I’m reluctant to excel I can be chief of all tools if I renounced compassion for valor austerity for extravagance humility for superiority I would die but compassion wins every battle and outlasts every attack what Heaven creates let compassion protect

HO-SHANG KUNG says, “Lao-tzu says the world calls his virtue ‘great.’ But if his virtue were great in name alone, it would bring him harm. Hence, he acts foolish and useless. He doesn’t distinguish or differentiate. Nor does he demean others or glorify himself.”

WANG PI says, “To be useful is to lose the means to be great.”

SU CH’E says, “The world honors daring, exalts ostentation, and emphasizes progress. What the sage treasures is patience, frugality, and humility, all of which the world considers useless.”

TE-CH’ING says, “‘Compassion’ means to embrace all creatures without reservation. ‘Austerity’ means not to exhaust what one already has. ‘Reluctance to excel’ means to drift through the world without opposing others.”

WANG AN-SHIH says, “Through compassion, we learn to be soft. When we are soft, we can overcome the hardest thing in the world. Thus, we can be valiant. Through austerity, we learn when to stop. When we know when to stop, we are always content. Thus, we can be extravagant. Through reluctance to excel, we are surpassed by no one. Thus, we can be chief of all tools. Valor, extravagance, and excellence are what everyone worries about. And because they worry, they are always on the verge of death.”

LIU SHIH-P’EI says, “To be chief of all tools means to be the chief official.” (For “chief of all tools,” see verse 28.)

CONFUCIUS says, “The gentleman is not a tool” (Lunyu: 2.12).

WU CH’ENG says, “Compassion is the chief of the three treasures. The last section only mentions compassion because it includes the other two. All people love a compassionate person as they do their own parents. How could anyone oppose their parents? Hence, those who attack or defend with compassion meet no opposition.”

MENCIUS says, “Those who are kind have no enemy under Heaven” (Mencius: 7B.3).

To be a tool means to be limited. To have no limits means to be chief of all tools. Among compassion, austerity, and reluctance to excel, only compassion has no limits. Hence, Lao-tzu ranks it first. Line one of the Wangpi edition reads: “The world calls my Tao great.” But the word tao does not appear in the Fuyi or Suotan editions or in the Mawangtui texts. Thus, I have omitted it. In line sixteen, Han Fei and Mawangtui A have ch’eng-shih, “chief of those who succeed.” But there is no other support for this variant. Finally, for the penultimate line, I have followed the Mawangtui version, which has chien (create) instead of the usual chiu (save). This verse is not present in the Kuotien texts.