Chapter 9 is the Tao Te Ching's teaching on enough, delivered as a series of domestic accidents waiting to happen. Hold a cup filled to the brim and it will spill — better to stop in time. Hammer a blade to its very sharpest and the edge will not last. Fill your hall with gold and jade and you cannot keep it safe. Each image catches the same moment: the step past optimal, where more becomes less and improvement becomes damage.
The social case is the sharpest: wealth and rank held with arrogance bring ruin on themselves — not by bad luck but by their own weight. And then the conclusion, one of the book's most quoted lines: to withdraw when the work is done — that is the way of heaven. Not to abandon work, but to know its completion point and leave before success curdles. In a culture of maximising, the chapter offers the rarer skill: recognising the brim, the edge, the finished task — and stopping there.
Key verses
Hold a cup to the brim and it will spill — better to stop in time. Hammer a blade to its sharpest and the edge will not last long. Fill your hall with gold and jade and you cannot keep it safe. Wealth and rank with arrogance bring ruin on themselves. To withdraw when the work is done — that is the way of heaven.
Read Chapter 9 in full
Every verse with translation, word meanings, and commentary — free.
অ্যাপে বিনামূল্যে পড়ুনপরম্পরাগুলিকে জিজ্ঞাসা করুন
একটি প্রশ্ন। পাঁচ পরম্পরার উত্তর।
অ্যাকাউন্ট ছাড়াই প্রতি ২৪ ঘণ্টায় ২টি প্রশ্ন।