Favor and disgrace both startle — the chapter opens with a psychological observation most people have never made about themselves. Praise agitates us as much as blame; receiving favor startles, and losing it startles, because both hand our equilibrium to someone else's opinion. Anyone whose mood rises and falls with recognition lives permanently jumpy, honoured or not.
Lao Tzu then digs to the root: the reason I have great trouble is that I have a self. When I have no self, what trouble do I have? The self here is the anxious project of an image to defend — the thing favor inflates and disgrace punctures. The chapter's resolution is subtle and political: one who values the world as his own body, who loves the world as himself, may be entrusted with it. Not self-erasure but self-expansion — when care stops orbiting the small self, a person becomes, for the first time, safe to hand power to.
Key verses
Favor and disgrace both startle — treasure great trouble as you treasure your own body. What does it mean that favor and disgrace both startle? Favor is something lesser; receiving it startles, losing it startles — this is what is meant by 'favor and disgrace both startle.' What does it mean to treasure great trouble as you treasure your body? The reason I have great trouble is that I have a self. When I have no self, what trouble do I have? Therefore, one who values the world as himself may be entrusted with the world; one who loves the world as himself may be given the world.
Read Chapter 13 in full
Every verse with translation, word meanings, and commentary — free.
Read free in the appAsk the traditions
One question. Five traditions answer.
2 questions every 24 hours without an account.