Tao Te Ching · Chapter 12 of 81

Chapter 12

modern paraphrase of James Legge's 1891 translation

Modern paraphrase. This is an AI-generated retelling in contemporary English (model: claude-opus-4-7). It is not the James Legge translation. The original is one click away.

The five colors blind the eyes; the five tones deafen the ears; the five flavors dull the palate. Racing and hunting drive the mind to madness, and rare, hard-to-find goods lead people into harmful behavior.

  1. So the sage attends to the belly, not the eye. He lets go of the one and chooses the other.