Dharma & Dao

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 46 of 81

Chapter 46

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.

  1. When the Tao prevails in the world, swift horses are sent back to pull dung-carts. When the Tao is ignored, war-horses are bred on the borderlands.

  2. There is no guilt greater than indulging ambition; no disaster greater than discontent with one’s lot; no fault greater than the craving to acquire. So the contentment of having enough is a lasting and unchanging sufficiency.

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