Those Who Know Do Not Speak, Those Who Speak Do Not Know
This chapter's opening line is one of the most famous in the whole text; the chapter goes on to describe the specific inward practice — blunting, untangling, dimming, uniting with the ordinary — that produces this wordless knowing.
Laozi opens with the paradox that anchors this chapter: those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know (知者不言，言者不知) — a challenge to any teaching, including the Tao Te Ching itself, that claims to convey the Tao through language. He follows with a list of practices repeated from chapter 4 almost verbatim: block the openings, close the doors; blunt the sharpness, untie the tangles; soften the glare, become one with the dust (和其光，同其塵) — together called "mysterious unity" or "profound sameness" (玄同), a state of being indistinguishable from ordinary things rather than standing out from them. Laozi describes the practical consequence of reaching this state: a person who has attained it cannot be gotten close to and cannot be distanced, cannot be benefited and cannot be harmed, cannot be ennobled and cannot be humbled — immune to the ordinary social levers people use to manipulate one another, because that person no longer offers the usual points of attachment those levers depend on. The chapter closes by calling this condition the most valuable thing under heaven, precisely because it can't be reached through the normal channels of persuasion, reward, or coercion.
Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.
Tao Te Ching
Written about in
- What Taoism says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
The famous line comes with a stated consequence: a person in this condition cannot be drawn close or pushed away, benefited or harmed, ennobled or humbled. Saying less gives other people fewer handles to pull on.