Dharma & Dao

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 7 of 81

Chapter 7

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. Heaven lasts long and earth endures. The reason heaven and earth can last and endure is that they do not live for themselves. This is why they can endure.

  2. So the sage puts himself last, and yet ends up in front; he treats himself as an outsider, and yet his self is preserved. Isn’t it because he has no private aims that his aims are fulfilled?

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