Source

五色令人目盲；五音令人耳聾；五味令人口爽；馳騁田獵，令人心發狂；難得之貨，令人行妨。是以聖人為腹不為目，故去彼取此。

Glossary

五味

five flavors

五色

five colors

五音

five tones

為目

strive for the eye-pleasures

為腹

provide for the belly

田獵

wild hunting

聖人

the sage

馳騁

reckless galloping

令人口爽

spoil the palate

令人行妨

impede one's proper conduct

去彼取此

discard that and embrace this

難得之貨

hard-to-get goods

令人心發狂

drive the mind mad

Translation Notes

1. "The five colors make people blind; the five tones make people deaf; the five flavors spoil the palate; reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits make the heart unhinged; hard-to-come-by goods corrupt one’s conduct. Therefore the Sage (the sage-ruler) puts his sustenance in the belly and not in the eyes; thus he rejects that and takes this." (五色令人目盲；五音令人耳聾；五味令人口爽；馳騁田獵，令人心發狂；難得之貨，令人行妨。是以聖人為腹不為目，故去彼取此。) — Alternatives considered: keeping 五色/五音/五味 as “five hues/ five sounds/ five tastes” rather than the more idiomatic “colors/ tones/ flavors” (chosen to match the sensory-faculty pairings of 目/耳/口) · rendering 爽 as “dulls the palate” or “makes taste feel odd” (chosen “spoil the palate” to preserve the specialized negative sense of 爽) · rendering 發狂 as “sets the mind racing” (rejected as too weak; chosen “unhinged” to reflect loss of self-control) · rendering 行 as “behavior” rather than “conduct” (chosen “conduct” to foreground the ethical charge of 妨) · rendering 故去彼取此 as “abandon the wrong and choose the right” (rejected as too general; chosen “rejects that and takes this” to keep the tight deictic contrast) · Chose present rendering because The main translation decisions prioritize (1) the paradoxical causal logic in the fivefold sequence, (2) the ethical register of 行妨, and (3) the epigrammatic compression of the closing formula 去彼取此. Softer or more modern-positive senses of 爽 and 發狂 would weaken the passage’s moral alarm and destabilize the Laozi’s intended rhetorical shock.

Footnotes

1. "The five colors make people blind" (五色) — 五色 (wǔ sè, “five colors”) is a conventional Laozi phrase using “five” plus a sensory category to represent the total range of dazzling visual display. In such contexts, it is not merely the literal pentachromatic set but the proliferation of sights (arrayed adornments, display, spectacle) that overwhelms perception. For parallel use of enumerations to stand for sensory excess, see also Laozi 12’s broader argument and later moralizing Daoist readings. Kong Yingda (孔穎達) treats these enumerations as overstimulation in general, rather than as a technical account of a specific color system; see Chunqiu Zuozhuan Zhengyi for the exegetical habit of taking such “five” lists as rhetorical comprehensives (類用“備舉”).
2. "the five tones make people deaf" (五音) — 五音 (wǔ yīn, “five tones”) similarly uses a canonical “five” to denote excessive acoustic stimulation. In classical Chinese musical theory, “five tones” are often the pentatonic (宮商角徵羽), but here the phrase functions rhetorically: repeated stimulation produces loss of true hearing rather than refined auditory perception. Yang Bojun (楊伯峻) notes that the passage’s effect-words (目盲／耳聾) should be read as paradoxical consequences of indulgence, not as straightforward medical causation. (Because the received text of Laozi is remarkably stable here, major textual-variant discussion is not central; disagreements are mainly interpretive about the strength of the metaphor.)
3. "spoil the palate" (令人口爽 / 爽) — “Spoil the palate” corresponds to 令人口爽. The crucial word 爽 (shuǎng) is not used in its modern sense of “refreshing” or “pleasant.” Classical dictionary and commentary traditions record 爽 here as meaning impairment/loss or deviation—i.e., that the palate’s discriminative capacity is corrupted by excessive flavors. Early philological treatments connect 爽 with loss/defect senses (cf. Kangxi Dictionary record of 失、差忒). Yang Bojun’s translation practice in related Laozi passages supports taking 爽 as a negative consequence (“go awry” / “spoils”). The translation choice “spoil” aims to preserve this negative, not merely neutral, semantic value.
4. "reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits" (馳騁田獵) — 馳騁田獵 (chí chěng tián liè) combines physical speed and large-scale hunting. 馳騁 suggests “to gallop/ride to the point of unrestrained exertion,” and 田獵 (tián liè) literally involves field-hunting; together they evoke aristocratic leisure that is also a socially prestigious and quasi-military pursuit. The Daoist critique targets not hunting as such but its mode—reckless and excessive—which destabilizes the mind. Du Yu (杜預) is representative of early moralizing exegesis that takes such activities as “harmful luxuries” when pursued without measure. In editions of Laozi, the collocation is stable; most differences are confined to punctuation rather than variant characters.
5. "make the heart unhinged" (心發狂 / 發狂) — 心發狂 renders 令人心發狂. 発狂 is strongly active and indicates psychological disturbance leading to loss of self-command (“be driven mad,” “become unhinged”). The verb 發 here does not merely mean “to become excited,” but “to erupt/manifest” an abnormal frenzy, aligning with the passage’s escalation from sensory impairment to mental disorder. The choice “heart” follows the common translation of 心 as the seat of mind and volition in early Chinese moral psychology. If one instead translated with a purely cognitive term (“mind”), the volitional and moral dimensions implied by 心 (thought/feeling/intent) could be weakened. Yang Bojun and other modern scholars tend to preserve the force of 發狂 as “mad/unhinged” rather than soften it into mild agitation.
6. "hard-to-come-by goods corrupt one’s conduct" (難得之貨 / 行妨 / 行) — 難得之貨，令人行妨 centers on two ethical-philological points. First, 難得 (nán dé, “difficult to obtain”) signals not just unusual goods but coveted rarity—objects whose desirability encourages acquisitiveness. Second, 行 (xíng) in 行妨 is ethical/conductual, referring to proper behavior or one’s moral course, not merely locomotion or generic “actions.” 妨 (fáng) indicates obstruction, harm, or corruption. Thus 令人行妨 should be understood as “thereby harming or corrupting one’s proper conduct.” Yang Bojun’s glossing practice in Laozi supports an ethical reading of 行 here. The clause is stable across major editions; emphasis is interpretive rather than textual.
7. "puts his sustenance in the belly and not in the eyes" (為腹不為目) — 為腹不為目 is the passage’s key antithesis. “Belly” (腹, fù) here is not simply gluttony or appetite; it denotes basic sustenance, inner necessity, and the simpler nourishment that supports life from within. “Eyes” (目, mù) stands for outward sensory cravings, display, and dependence on visible allure. This is a Daoist methodological claim: prioritize inner sufficiency over external stimulation. Du Yu and later commentators generally read 聖人 in Laozi as the Daoist sage whose conduct exemplifies this inward orientation, though they may differ in the emphasis (bodily necessity vs. metaphysical inwardness). Textual variants are not prominent, but punctuation and capitalization conventions in English can affect whether the antithesis feels epigrammatic or explanatory.
8. "rejects that and takes this" (故去彼取此 / 彼此) — 故去彼取此 (“therefore he discards that and takes this”) is a formulaic decision-making structure typical of Laozi. 彼 and 此 compress the prior antithesis: 彼 points to external, harmful attractions (colors, sounds, hunting, rare goods), while 此 points to inward nourishment/essential conduct. The compactness is integral to the gnomic force; expanding it into a fully explanatory sentence risks losing the epigrammatic command. In modern practice, translations often vary between “reject that and take this” and “abandon the one and choose the other,” but the core imperative/discriminating function remains the same.
9. "The Sage" (聖人) — 聖人 (shèngrén, “the sage”) is the Daoist sage figure who embodies Dao and whose conduct exemplifies the Way’s practical implications. It is not “saint” in a later religious sense but a philosophical designation for the perfected person. In English translations, scholars frequently capitalize “Sage” to mark its technical status within Daoist discourse (cf. standard usage in Laozi studies). Du Yu’s early commentary tradition tends to treat 聖人 as the exemplary perfected being whose behavior aligns with the doctrine of non-excess. The same term in related chapters can be accompanied by variants in interpretive focus (individual cultivation vs. rulership), but here it is explicitly contrasted with sensory indulgence and acquisitive conduct.

Glossary References

五色

five colors · In Laozi 12, “five colors” is a rhetorical index of dazzling visual display rather than a literal technical chromatic theory.

五音

five tones · In Laozi 12, “five tones” functions as a conventional marker for acoustic/music stimulation; the concern is overstimulation that impairs hearing.

五味

five flavors · “Five flavors” denotes the full range of gustatory richness; here excessive tasting spoils the palate’s proper discernment.

令人口爽

spoil the palate · 口爽 uses 爽 in a negative/impairing sense in this Laozi context (not modern “refreshing”).

馳騁田獵

reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits · A composite image of aristocratic, high-exertion hunting; the Daoist critique targets its unrestrained excess and psychological disturbance.

發狂

unhinged / driven mad · 發狂 indicates eruptive frenzy and loss of self-command rather than mild excitement.

難得之貨

hard-to-come-by goods · 难得 marks coveted rarity; acquiring such goods is treated as morally dangerous.

行妨

corrupt one’s conduct · 行 is ethical conduct in this context; 妨 is harm/obstruction.

聖人

the Sage · Daoist technical term for the perfected sage; rendered with capitalization to signal status as a philosophical figure.

為腹不為目

for the belly, not the eyes · 腹 = essential inner nourishment/sustenance; 目 = outward sensory allure. The phrase is a sharp antithesis structuring the passage’s ethical guidance.

故去彼取此

rejects that and takes this · An epigrammatic deictic formula: 彼 points to the external harmful attractions listed above; 此 points to inner essential sustenance. ---

Context

This passage is from the Laozi, traditionally chapter 12 of the received text. The work took shape in the late Spring and Autumn to Warring States period, though its precise date and compositional history remain debated. In intellectual history, it belongs to the early Daoist critique of sensory excess, acquisitiveness, and socially cultivated desire. The passage presents a characteristic inversion of ordinary values: what elite culture prizes as refinement, excitement, and rarity is treated as a source of injury to human integrity. The closing contrast between the sage's concern for the belly and not the eyes expresses an early Daoist program of returning from outward stimulation to inward sufficiency.

The passage presumes an aristocratic world in which cultivated pleasures carried social prestige: brilliant colors in visual display, elaborate music, rich cuisine, mounted hunting, and the possession of rare goods. In early China, court music and hunting were not merely private amusements but markers of rank, ritual order, military training, and elite identity. Laozi revalues these practices by emphasizing their damaging effects when pursued as sensory indulgence. The phrase 為腹不為目 contrasts basic bodily sustenance with desire driven by the eyes; 腹 here suggests inner need, nourishment, and simplicity rather than gluttony. The critique is thus not anti-body but anti-excess, warning against forms of stimulation that unsettle perception, appetite, and moral self-command.

Themes

1. Critique of sensory excess The passage argues that overindulgence in color, sound, and flavor does not perfect perception but damages it. Sensory refinement becomes self-defeating when pursued to excess.
2. Psychological and moral injury The argument moves from bodily impairment to mental disturbance and then to ethical harm. Wild hunting and coveted goods are portrayed as forces that can drive the mind mad and corrupt proper conduct.
3. Simplicity over stimulation The sage chooses what nourishes fundamental life over what merely dazzles the senses. The contrast between belly and eyes encapsulates a Daoist preference for inward sufficiency over outward allure.
4. Revaluation of elite values Practices associated with aristocratic prestige such as music, cuisine, hunting, and rare treasures are overturned and treated as spiritually dangerous rather than admirable.

Idioms

1. 五色令人目盲 A famous Laozi formulation meaning that excessive visual stimulation blinds rather than clarifies. It is often cited as a warning that abundance of appearances can destroy true seeing.
2. 五音令人耳聾 Parallel to the previous phrase, this says that an excess of sound makes the ears deaf. The point is paradoxical: overstimulation defeats the very faculty it seems to gratify.
3. 五味令人口爽 A difficult and important line. 爽 here does not merely mean 'dull' in a weak sense, but suggests that taste perception is spoiled, impaired, or goes awry through excess of flavors.
4. 馳騁田獵，令人心發狂 This links reckless galloping and hunting pursuits with psychological disturbance. 發狂 is much stronger than simple excitement: it suggests becoming unhinged, driven mad, or losing self-command.
5. 難得之貨，令人行妨 Rare and hard-to-get goods are said to obstruct or corrupt conduct. 行 should be understood in an ethical sense: one's proper conduct, behavior, or moral course in life.
6. 為腹不為目 One of the best-known aphorisms in the chapter. It contrasts attending to basic nourishment and inner sufficiency with catering to the eye's cravings for display and sensory allure.
7. 去彼取此 A compact concluding formula meaning 'reject that and take this.' It functions as a summative Daoist gesture of discriminating between superficial attractions and what truly sustains life.

Literary Devices

1. Enumerative parallelism The opening sequence stacks parallel clauses on color, sound, and flavor, creating a rhythmic catalogue of sensory excess and its consequences. The balance gives the argument aphoristic force.
2. Paradox Each statement is paradoxical: what appears to enhance sight, hearing, and taste instead damages them. This reversal is central to Laozi's style of unsettling ordinary assumptions.
3. Gradation or escalation The passage moves from sensory faculties (eyes, ears, mouth) to the mind and then to conduct. This progression broadens the critique from perception to psychology to ethics.
4. Antithesis 為腹不為目 sets up a sharp opposition between inward nourishment and outward sensory craving. The contrast gives the sage's choice memorable clarity.
5. Concise summative closure 故去彼取此 closes the argument with an epigrammatic decision formula. It compresses the practical takeaway into four characters of decisive contrast.

Translation Challenges

1. 五色令人目盲 — 五色 can mean the canonical five colors, but in context refers broadly to the full range of dazzling visual stimuli; a translator must decide whether to preserve the traditional cosmological expression or generalize it. 目盲 is rhetorical rather than strictly medical: it means blindness or loss of true seeing caused by excess, not necessarily literal physical blindness.
2. 五音令人耳聾 — 五音 refers literally to the five notes of the traditional scale, but also more broadly to music and patterned sound; translation may preserve the traditional term or unfold its cultural meaning. 耳聾 should retain the strong paradoxical force of 'deafen' rather than be softened into mere distraction.
3. 五味令人口爽 — 爽 is the key difficulty. Here it indicates impairment, spoilage, or corruption of taste perception; translations like 'dull the palate' may be too weak if they fail to convey that taste goes wrong or is spoiled. 口爽 is not a common modern collocation, so the English should clarify that the mouth's capacity to taste is adversely altered by excessive flavors.
4. 馳騁田獵，令人心發狂 — 馳騁田獵 is more than neutral 'riding and hunting'; it suggests reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits associated with dangerous exhilaration and excess. 心 in this text may be rendered as 'heart,' 'mind,' or 'heart-mind'; the choice affects philosophical nuance. 發狂 must be translated strongly: 'drive the mind mad,' 'make one unhinged,' or similar. Weaker renderings such as 'set the mind racing' miss the sense of psychological disturbance and loss of self-control.
5. 難得之貨，令人行妨 — 難得之貨 refers to rare, coveted, hard-to-obtain goods; the wording should suggest desirability and scarcity, not merely unusual objects. 行妨 is ethically charged. 行 means conduct or one's course of behavior, and 妨 suggests obstruction, impairment, or corruption. A translation should bring out the moral dimension, such as 'corrupt one's conduct' or 'impede one's proper conduct.'
6. 是以聖人為腹不為目 — 聖人 is the Daoist sage, not a saint in a later religious sense; the term should be rendered consistently with early Chinese philosophy. 腹 does not simply mean appetite or gluttony; it signifies basic sustenance, inner need, and what genuinely nourishes life. 目 stands for the lure of outward appearances and sensory desire, not merely the physical eyes. The translator should preserve the compact antithesis while making the implied contrast intelligible.
7. 故去彼取此 — The demonstratives are intentionally compressed. 'That' and 'this' refer back to the two opposed orientations, but English may need a slightly fuller phrasing to avoid obscurity. The sentence is formulaic and forceful; it should sound decisive and aphoristic rather than explanatory.

Allusions

1. 五色令人目盲；五音令人耳聾；五味令人口爽；馳騁田獵，令人心發狂；難得之貨，令人行妨 — Daodejing, Chapter 12

Technical Terms

1. 聖人 (Taoist philosophy): The foundational Taoist text's term for a perfected person who embodies the Way. - Translation: Standard English: 'the Sage' (should be capitalized to indicate philosophical status). Avoid alternatives like 'sage king' unless historical specifics demand.
2. 為腹不為目 (Taoist philosophy): A fundamental Taoist dichotomy: internal necessity vs. external sensory engagement, representing simple sustenance vs. illusory cravings. - Translation: Requires concise rendering that captures the ethical choice: e.g., 'is for the belly, not the eyes', 'provides for necessities not pleasures'. Maintain antithetical pairing.

Ambiguous Terms

1. 爽 — 95% confidence - Possible meanings: `impairment` · `corruption` · `spoil` · `go awry` · `lose perception` - Resolution: In this context, as per Kangxi Dictionary notes and classical commentary, 爽 means 'harm', 'impairment', or 'deviation' of taste, not the modern meaning of 'refreshing' or 'satisfying'. It is a specialized term in this Daodejing passage for the corruption of the palate.
2. 發狂 — 90% confidence - Possible meanings: `become insane` · `become mad` · `be unhinged` · `lose self-control` - Resolution: Here, 發狂 refers to psychological disturbance leading to loss of self-control. It goes beyond mere excitement or racing thoughts and implies a state of frenzied madness or being unhinged.

Glossing Notes

This is a key passage (Ch. 12) from the Daodejing, attributed to Laozi (6th century BCE?). It represents core Taoist philosophy: excessive sensory indulgence leads to impairment while simplicity brings inner peace. Special attention needed for terms carrying negative connotations (爽, 發狂, 妨) and activities with moral implications (馳騁田獵). The translation must preserve the parallelism (five colors/five sounds/five flavors) and escalate the critique from physical impairment to mental and moral corruption.

Translation Principles

1. Preserve the strong parallelism of the opening clauses; the repeated syntax is essential to the chapter's rhetorical force.
2. Retain the paradoxical sharpness of the verbs: colors 'blind,' sounds 'deafen,' flavors should 'spoil' or make taste 'go awry,' rather than being softened into mild distraction.
3. Render 發狂 with full psychological force, such as being driven mad, unhinged, or losing self-control; avoid weak phrasing like 'set the mind racing.'
4. Bring out the excessive and morally dangerous connotation of 馳騁田獵; a rendering such as 'reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits' may better capture the warning than a neutral literal version.
5. Treat 行 in 令人行妨 as ethical conduct, not merely movement or generic action; the line concerns impairment or corruption of proper conduct.
6. Preserve the compact antithesis in 為腹不為目 while making clear that 'belly' means basic nourishment and 'eyes' stand for outward sensory craving.
7. Keep the conclusion concise and epigrammatic. 故去彼取此 should land as a decisive summation, not as an expanded paraphrase.

Segmentation

1. 五色令人目盲 `sentence`
2. 五音令人耳聾 `sentence`
3. 五味令人口爽 `sentence`
4. 馳騁田獵 `clause` `ambiguous`
5. 令人心發狂 `clause`
6. 難得之貨 `clause`
7. 令人行妨 `clause`
8. 是以聖人為腹不為目 `sentence`
9. 故去彼取此 `sentence`

Segmentation Notes

Segmentation is guided by the recurring 使役 frame “令人/令(人)” + result predicate, by the nominal-genitival marker “之” in “難得之貨”, and by the conclusion markers “是以” and “故”. The only flagged ambiguity is “馳騁田獵”, which is clearly an action clause preceding the result clause “令人心發狂”, but its exact clause status (standalone sentence vs tightly bound clause) can vary depending on punctuation convention; grammatically it functions as the occasion/trigger clause.

Tone & Style

The tone is aphoristic, admonitory, and sharply corrective. It begins with brisk, paradoxical warnings about sensory indulgence, intensifies into psychological and moral alarm in the lines about hunting and rare goods, and concludes with calm but firm normative guidance in the sage's choice.

The style is terse, formulaic, and highly patterned, characteristic of the Laozi. Short parallel clauses, semantic reversals, and compact antitheses create a gnomic register. The prose is philosophically compressed: ordinary courtly pleasures are recast through minimal wording into a critique of excess and a program of simplicity.

None

Terminology

五色

five colors

五音

five tones

五味

five flavors

爽

spoil / make the taste go awry

馳騁田獵

reckless galloping and wild hunting pursuits

發狂

become unhinged / drive the mind mad

令人行妨

harm/corrupt one’s proper conduct

Terminography Notes

Registered high-consequence sensory and moral-damage terms that are likely to be re-rendered inconsistently across chunks: the parallel sensory triad (五色/五音/五味), the special negative semantic load of 爽 (taste corruption), the paired excess-morality action (馳騁田獵), the intensified psychological state (發狂), and the ethical bearing of 妨 (in 令人行妨). These standards are intended to preserve the passage’s escalating critique from sensory impairment → mental unhinging → ethical corruption.