Chapter 33: He Who Knows Himself Is Wise

Original Text

Knowing others is wisdom; knowing yourself is enlightenment. Mastering others requires force; mastering yourself needs true strength. Contentment is wealth; persistent effort is willpower. Staying grounded ensures endurance; physical death with spiritual legacy is true longevity.

Guide

Analysis

This chapter discusses personal cultivation and self-design. From the perspective of the Dao, Laozi explains the concepts of wisdom, clarity, strength, power, wealth, ambition, longevity, and immortality, advocating for enriching one's spiritual life. In Laozi's view, the most representative Daoist ideas are "one who overcomes oneself is strong" and "one who knows contentment is rich." While knowing others and overcoming others are important, knowing oneself and overcoming oneself are even more crucial. He believes that if a person constantly reflects on themselves, firmly upholds their life beliefs, and earnestly implements these beliefs, they can maintain vigorous determination and a full spiritual state.

This chapter contains only a few words, seemingly simple and easy to understand, yet it holds extremely profound truths.

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing oneself is enlightenment. Overcoming others requires strength; overcoming oneself requires true power." Laozi believed that those who can distinguish between others and external things possess only worldly wisdom. So, who can be considered to possess great wisdom? Those who reflect on themselves through external affairs and things, thereby perceiving the true nature of life, are the ones with great wisdom, which is "enlightenment." Laozi also held that those who conquer others through force can only be considered strong in a physical sense, because this strength is bestowed by the Dao and is a manifestation of the Dao's own life activity. Then, who can be considered truly powerful? Those who can overcome their own selfish desires and prejudices are the truly powerful. Human desires are endless and extremely harmful; if a person can restrain their desires and reach a state where both self and objects are forgotten, they can embrace all things without exception, and they are naturally strong.

Laozi's concept of "being content is wealth" in this chapter differs greatly from our common saying "contentment brings happiness." What we understand as contentment bringing happiness means knowing satisfaction always brings joy, with its main characteristic being complacency with the current state, which is vastly different from the ideas Laozi expounds. What is true wealth? True wealth is not having vast riches or owning luxurious carriages; true wealth is not what you actually possess, but to what extent you can eliminate selfish thoughts and discard your delusions. Only by achieving this can one be called truly wealthy.

What is delusion? When observing specific things, people understand the trajectory of the Great Way's life operation; within this trajectory lies what the Way grants us and what we rightfully deserve, while outside this trajectory lies what we should not obtain. If we develop the desire to acquire such things, this is called delusion. Delusions are difficult to realize; even if realized, they bring no benefit; even if we gain a slight advantage, it will not last long. Since the Great Way has given us life, it will surely provide all we need—why then crave any other benefit? Worrying about one's own situation shows a lack of understanding and trust in the Way, thus violating it and inevitably incurring its punishment. If we do not delude ourselves into wanting anything, there is no gain or loss to speak of, and naturally we possess everything by possessing nothing. Only by refraining from delusion can we be truly rich.

"He who perseveres has will." There is a saying, "The value of a person lies in self-knowledge," and the earliest expression of this comes from Laozi. What does "he who knows himself is wise" mean? It means being able to clearly understand and treat oneself. A person who can achieve self-knowledge is the most intelligent and commendable. Connecting with the content of previous chapters, we can conclude that the "strength" in "he who perseveres has will" does not refer to arrogantly showing off one's martial prowess, but rather to "he who knows himself is strong." What is a "self-knower"? It is someone who can reflect on themselves through external things, thereby confirming the true nature of life. Self-knowers are very clear about the meaning of life itself and also deeply understand the relationship between themselves and others. They profoundly understand that only by truly mastering themselves can they completely eliminate their selfish thoughts and desires, achieving "preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires" (here, this does not mean binding one's concepts, but rather completely liberating human nature), and heavenly principles and human desires are a relationship of unity of opposites. Heavenly principles refer to things that are inherently in line with the natural way of life; human desires refer to things subjectively generated that are not in line with the natural way of life. Heavenly principles are objective, human desires are subjective, and conflicts often arise between the two; only by restraining one's desires can one be considered truly strong.

"He who does not lose his place endures long; he who dies yet does not perish enjoys longevity." This sentence feels somewhat detached from the preceding text: "not losing one's place" means returning to one's roots, which refers to two things: one is that leaves return to the roots that gave them life and nourishment; the other is that humans also return to the heaven and earth that nurtured them. From birth to death, a person lives only a few decades. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are natural laws in harmony with the Tao; we do not have the power to transcend the great way of life, and life and death are beyond our control. In Laozi's view, "place" is our ultimate destination, a natural abode, the point where we align with the great Tao. Our journey from initially refusing to accept death to now understanding life and facing death directly embodies the principle that the way of heaven cannot be defied. Only by conforming to the way of heaven and merging with the great Tao can we truly achieve "endurance" and "death without perishing." A drop of water returning to its place of life—the ocean—will never disappear; this is the same principle.

In this chapter, Laozi strongly advocates for the concept of "dying without perishing," which embodies his core principle of "non-action." The idea of "dying without perishing" does not promote a belief in ghosts or the immortality of the soul, but rather suggests that while the physical body may disappear, the spirit is immortal and can thus be considered long-lived. Liang Qichao, a renowned thinker from the late Qing and early Republican periods, once said that a person's physical life lasts only a few decades, and one cannot achieve eternal youth, but one's spirit can be everlasting because, even though the body fades, one's teachings, thoughts, and spirit can profoundly influence both contemporary and future generations. In this sense, a person can truly achieve "dying without perishing." Liang Qichao's view was primarily influenced by Laozi's philosophy.