He Who Is Filled With Virtue Is Like a Newborn Child
This chapter uses the physical vulnerability and vitality of an infant as a model for a fully virtuous person, then warns that deliberately trying to force or extend that vitality actually destroys it.
Laozi compares the person filled with virtue to a newborn infant (赤子), noting that poisonous insects don't sting it, fierce beasts don't seize it, and birds of prey don't strike it — not because the infant is strong, but because it presents no aggression for a predator to react to. He continues the physical description: its bones are weak and sinews soft, yet its grip is firm; it doesn't yet know the union of male and female, yet its vitality stirs, showing utmost vital energy (精之至); it can cry all day without growing hoarse, showing utmost harmony (和之至). From this the chapter builds two key definitions: knowing harmony is called constancy (知和曰常), and knowing constancy is called clarity — placing the infant's unforced, harmonious vitality as the model for a deeper understanding. The chapter then reframes the whole comparison with a warning: trying to add to life through deliberate effort is called an ill omen (益生曰祥/災), because things that grow forcefully strong then grow old, which is called "not the Tao" — the newborn's vitality is a model precisely because it isn't striving, and striving to reproduce that vitality artificially defeats the purpose.
He who is filled with virtue is like a newborn child.
Tao Te Ching