Laozi in 30 Pages
Heaven and Earth Play No Favourites
When bad luck hits, do you ask, “Why me, of all people?”
Original
天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗；聖人不仁，以百姓為芻狗。天地之間，其猶橐籥乎？虛而不屈，動而愈出。多言數窮，不如守中。In plain words
Heaven and earth play no favourites: they treat all things like straw dogs. The sage plays no favourites: he treats the people like straw dogs. Isn't the space between heaven and earth like a bellows? Empty, yet never exhausted; the more it moves, the more comes out. Many words soon run dry. Better to keep to the centre.
Key words
- 芻狗chú gǒuA dog woven of straw, set out with honour at a rite and left by the road after. Neither loved nor hated.
- 橐籥tuó yuèA bellows: empty inside, which is why air keeps coming.
- 守中shǒu zhōngKeeping to the still, empty centre: fewer words, no fixed side.
Reading it step by step
"Heaven and earth play no favourites" sounds cold, as if Laozi were calling the universe heartless. In fact this chapter shows a basic difference between the Daoists and the Confucians. The Confucians put people at the centre. The Daoists put the Dao at the centre.
First: "not kind" doesn't mean cruel. It means no favourites. A straw dog was woven for a ritual, set on the altar with great respect, and tossed by the roadside afterwards. No one loved it; no one hated it. Heaven and earth treat things the same way. Rain falls on the great tree and on the weeds. The sun shines on good people and bad. It doesn't look after you more because you tried hard, and it doesn't single you out for punishment because you slipped.
Second: the sage plays no favourites either. He draws the circle wider until he stops drawing it. There's an old story. The king of Chu lost a famous bow and said, "A man of Chu lost it; a man of Chu will find it." Confucius heard and said: why "of Chu"? "A person lost it; a person will find it." Laozi heard and said: why "a person"? "It was lost; it will be found." Can't a monkey find it? An ant?
From the nation, to humanity, to all things: that is the move from a human-centred view to a Dao-centred one. Put on yellow glasses and everything looks yellow; human eyes come with human glasses already on. We say the flower is lovely and the leaves are nothing special, but the leaf never chose to be a leaf. You could just as well enjoy the leaves, with the flower setting them off. Take the glasses off and each thing has its own worth.
The circle widens until there is no circle: from people to the Dao
Third: the bellows, and keeping to the centre. The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows: empty inside, and that is why the air never runs out. Emptiness is not lack; it is capacity. By contrast, "many words soon run dry." The more we talk, the more rules we make, the easier it is to corner ourselves. Better to keep to that empty, quiet centre.
Bring it home. Illness, a layoff, an accident: we ask, "Why me?" Laozi's answer sounds cold, but it actually loosens something. It wasn't aimed at you. Heaven doesn't especially dislike you, and it doesn't owe you either. Once you stop taking every blow as personal, you can stand more steadily and ask better questions: what is real right now, and what can I do?
No one is favoured, so no one is targeted.
No one is favoured, so no one is targeted.
Today's question
What recent setback did you take as “aimed at me”? If it wasn't personal, what would you do next?
Quick check
What is the best reading of “heaven and earth are not kind”?
Straw dogs are neither loved nor hated: the universe centres on the Dao, not on us.
I · Facing a World in Disorder — When values and meaning both wobble, what can we stand on?
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