Galleries and Translations > Recent Works / Taoism > Speaking too much invariably results in the loss of all arguments ... (多言數窮, 不如守中)
Speaking too much invariably results in the loss of all arguments;
it is better to follow and keep one’s original idle tranquillity
(多言數窮, 不如守中)
82 X 35 cm
Speaking too much invariably results in the loss of all arguments; it is better to follow and keep one’s original idle tranquillity
(多言數窮, 不如守中)
82 X 35 cm in Cursive Script (草書)
Translation
1. 多言數窮, 不如守中.
Speaking too much invariably results in the loss of all arguments; it is better to follow and keep one’s original idle tranquillity. (1)
Remarks
This phrase is from Chapter 5 of Laozi’s (老子) Tao Te Ching (《道德經》, 2).
“守中” is not “keeping the middle ground”, as seen in most other common interpretations. Wang Chunfu (王純甫) annotate this “中” as “the original intrinsic and idle tranquillity that cannot be named (中也者, 中也, 虛也, 無也, 不可言且名者也)”(3).
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(2) Ibid..
(3) Ibid., pp. 83-84.
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