Tao Te Ching · Chapter 79 of 81

Chapter 79

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 a deep quarrel is patched up, some resentment is bound to remain in the one who was at fault. How can this really benefit the other party?

  2. So the sage holds the left half of the tally and does not press the other party to pay up. The person of Tao watches only over his side of the agreement; the person without Tao looks only to extract what favors him.

  3. The Way of Heaven shows no favoritism; it is always on the side of the good.