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聖人無常心，以百姓心為心。善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之；德善。信者，吾信之；不信者，吾亦信之；德信。聖人在天下，歙歙為天下渾其心，百姓皆注其耳目，聖人皆孩之。

Glossary

信

trustworthy

善

good

孩

treat as children

常

fixed

德

virtue

心

mind

歙

harmonizing

渾

unify

聖

sage

百姓

the people

Translation Notes

1. "The Sage has no fixed heart-mind; he takes the heart-mind of the people as his own." (聖人無常心，以百姓心為心) — Alternatives considered: The sage has no constant mind; he makes the people’s mind his mind. · The sage has no fixed intention; he identifies with the people’s concerns. · Chose present rendering because The chosen wording reflects responsiveness-as-identification while avoiding anachronistic political vocabulary.
2. "Toward those who are good… toward those who are not good…" (善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之) — Alternatives considered: Toward those who are good, I treat them well; toward those who are not good, I also treat them well. · Toward those who are good, I deem them good; toward those who are not good, I also deem them good. · Chose present rendering because “Treat them well” or “respond with goodness” would emphasize benevolence more explicitly; “am good to them” keeps a parallel with the later 信 line and stays close to the text’s lexical symmetry.
3. "This is the goodness of virtue. / This is the trust of virtue." (德善 / 德信) — Alternatives considered: Virtue is goodness… Virtue is trustworthiness. · Through virtue there is goodness… through virtue there is trust. · Chose present rendering because The “of virtue” construction is a compromise between ontological (“virtue is…”) and causal (“through virtue…”), while preserving aesthetic and structural symmetry.
4. "When the Sage is in all under heaven, he draws himself in, and for the sake of all under heaven he blends his heart-mind." (聖人在天下，歙歙為天下渾其心) — Alternatives considered: When the sage is among the world, he is harmonizing, and for the world he makes his heart-mind undivided. · The sage in the world, gathered in, blends the world’s heart-mind. · Chose present rendering because The chosen reading keeps the action centered on the sage (followed by the people’s attention in the next sentence) and preserves the positive unity implied by 渾.
5. "The people all turn their ears and eyes to him; the Sage cares for them as children." (百姓皆注其耳目，聖人皆孩之) — Alternatives considered: The people pour their ears and eyes upon him; the sage treats them like children. · The people fix their ears and eyes on him; the sage nurtures them as infants. · Chose present rendering because The final phrasing retains tenderness (“cares… as children”) and clarifies the reference of 其 in “to him.”

Footnotes

1. "The Sage has no fixed heart-mind" (無常心) — The clause 「聖人無常心」 negates the sage’s possession of a “constant/fixed” (常, cháng) heart-mind. Here 無常心 does not imply moral instability or fickleness, but the absence of rigid, self-enclosed, or predetermined private intentions. On 常 in early Daoist usage, see the discussion of unchanging attachment and private preference in Yang Bojun (楊伯峻) ad loc. The famous parallel is 「知者不言」/「不言之教」-type teaching: the sage does not fix a polemical or proprietary stance, but stays responsive (cf. Daodejing chs. 2, 29).
2. "he takes the heart-mind of the people as his own" (以百姓心為心) — 「以百姓心為心」 is syntactically compressed: literally, “to take the people’s heart-mind as one’s own heart-mind.” It evokes empathy and political attunement—rulership as identification with popular concerns—rather than the modern notion of democratic “public opinion.” The term 「百姓」 (bǎixìng, “hundred surnames/clans”) in classical political discourse designates the broad populace beneath the ruling stratum; thus the sage governs by aligning with what affects the people. Different modern translators sometimes render the second 心 as “mind” rather than “heart-mind” to reflect Chinese 心’s dual cognitive-volitional force; the present translation uses “heart-mind” to keep that semantic breadth.
3. "Toward those who are good, I am good to them; toward those who are not good, I am also good to them." (善者…吾善之…不善者…吾亦善之) — The line 「善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之」 turns on the verbal use of 善. The first 「善者」 likely designates people characterized as good/virtuous (i.e., 善 as a moral adjective), while the second 「吾善之」 uses 善 as a verb: “to treat well,” “to respond with goodness toward,” or “to deem/bring into goodness.” The philosophical point is not to ignore moral difference, but to express an impartial benevolence that extends even to those who are not yet good. For the interpretive split, see modern philological commentary as summarized in Yang Bojun’s notes.
4. "This is the goodness of virtue." (德善) — The compact phrase 「德善」 (de shàn) is grammatically elliptical and thus difficult to translate unambiguously. It can mean (a) “virtue is goodness,” (b) “goodness arises from virtue,” or (c) “this is the goodness that belongs to virtue.” The present rendering (“the goodness of virtue”) follows the parallel structure with 「德信」 in the next line and treats 德 as the source or enabling condition of善/信. The Daodejing often uses such compressed noun-noun or modifier-noun formations without explicit copulas.
5. "Toward those who are trustworthy, I trust them; toward those who are not trustworthy, I also trust them." (信者…吾信之…不信者…吾亦信之) — The parallel 「信者，吾信之；不信者，吾亦信之」 likewise uses 信 both adjectivally (「信者」 “trustworthy”) and verbally (「吾信之」 “to trust them,” or “to be true/trustworthy toward them”). Classical usage allows 信 to mean sincerity/truthfulness as well as “trust,” and the line is therefore open to at least two readings: (1) the sage extends interpersonal trust to those who are not trustworthy; or (2) the sage meets lack of trustworthiness/trust with sincerity (“to be trustworthy toward the untrustworthy”). The present translation chooses the verbal “trust” to preserve the verbal parallel with善, but “trust” here is not mere credulity; it is an ethical-political practice grounded in 德 (see next note).
6. "This is the trust of virtue." (德信) — As with 「德善」, the phrase 「德信」 is densely compressed. It parallels the preceding 「德善」, so the translation should remain symmetric. “Trust of virtue” treats 德 as the source or condition of信, i.e., virtue manifests as trustworthiness and engenders trust as a social effect. Some translators and commentators phrase this as “virtue makes trust possible” or “virtue is trustworthiness”; such options remain consistent with the parallelism but differ in whether 德 is rendered more ontologically (“virtue is…”) or causally (“through virtue there is…”).
7. "When the Sage is in all under heaven, he draws himself in, and for the sake of all under heaven he blends his heart-mind." (歙歙…渾其心) — The clause 「歙歙為天下渾其心」 is notoriously compressed. 「歙歙」 describes the sage’s gathered/contracted, subdued mode of presence (often glossed as “drawn in” or “harmonizing”), while 「渾其心」 literally suggests “blending/making uniform his heart-mind for the world.” The construction can be read as (1) describing the sage’s own interior posture in the world; or (2) describing the effect he produces on the world’s disposition. The present translation favors (1), with political consequences implied by the following sentence about the people’s ears and eyes. For alternative lexical glosses (e.g., constricted, cautious, harmonized), see modern philological work collected and discussed in Yang Bojun’s ad loc. The positive valence of 渾 here is important: it points to unity/undifferentiatedness rather than mere “confusion.”
8. "the Sage" (聖人) — 「聖人」 (shèngrén, “sage”) is the ideal figure of early Daoism: a realized person who embodies and follows the Dao, governing (when it happens) through responsiveness and non-assertive alignment rather than through coercive moral legislation. English “saint” can mislead by importing religious or supernatural connotations; “sage” better fits classical Chinese political-philosophical usage. The term also occurs in Confucian texts, where it carries distinct ethical connotations; thus the translator avoids “holy man” language and leaves interpretive emphasis to the Daoist context.
9. "The people all turn their ears and eyes to him" (注其耳目) — 「百姓皆注其耳目」 uses 「注」 in a metaphorical sense: literally “to pour/stream into,” here “to direct,” “to focus on.” The people’s ears and eyes represent their attention and sensory orientation; thus the sentence depicts dependence or expectancy—people look to the sage for alignment and guidance in a non-coercive environment. The possessive 「其」 refers to the sage (聖人), and the translator should make the reference explicit in English syntax (“to him”).
10. "The Sage cares for them as children." (孩之) — The phrase 「聖人皆孩之」 is striking because 「孩」 is used verbally, meaning “to treat as children,” i.e., to nurture with tenderness and protective care. Modern English “infantize” risks sounding pejorative; “care for as children” conveys the paternal affect without suggesting contempt. Ancient political thought often assumes a hierarchical, familial governance model in which ruler and people are related as parent and children. The line’s gentleness is real, but the imagery also reflects the unequal social structure implicit in classical governance.

Glossary References

德

virtue · In Daoist contexts, 德 denotes virtue/power as the manifestation of the Dao in persons and the efficacious force by which governance harmonizes life. In this passage, 德 frames the paradoxical claims 德善 and 德信.

天下

all under heaven · A cultural-political expression for the world as encompassed within the Chinese cosmic sphere, not merely geographic territory.

百姓

the people · Lit. “hundred surnames/clans”; classical term for the broad populace in contrast to ruling elites. ---

Context

This passage is from the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), chapter 49, traditionally attributed to Laozi and generally associated with the late Spring and Autumn or Warring States intellectual milieu. The text belongs to the foundational corpus of early Daoist thought, though its compilation history is layered and debated. In this chapter, the "sage" (聖人) is presented as an ideal ruler or realized person whose mind is not fixed in private preferences but responds receptively to the people. The passage develops a characteristic Daodejing political ethic: non-assertive governance, moral inclusiveness, and transformative virtue through alignment rather than coercion. Historically, this should not be read as a record of a concrete event but as aphoristic philosophical prose articulating an ideal of rulership that contrasts with more legalistic, punitive, or status-conscious models of government current in the Warring States period.

The passage reflects early Chinese debates about rulership, moral influence, and the relation between elite authority and the common people (百姓). 百姓 originally referred to the broad populace, and in classical political discourse the welfare and disposition of the people were central criteria in evaluating rule. The term 聖人 here is not merely "saint" in a religious sense but the culturally loaded figure of the sage: one who possesses exceptional insight, self-cultivation, and capacity to order the world. The repeated appeal to 德 evokes a core early Chinese concept often rendered as "virtue," "power," or "moral potency"; in Daoist contexts it often indicates an efficacious, non-coercive force by which beings are nurtured and harmonized. The final image of treating the people like children reflects ancient ideals of protective, non-contentious care, but it also carries paternal overtones that modern translators must handle carefully. The chapter participates in a broader classical Chinese vision in which good government works by moral and affective attunement rather than by overt force.

Themes

1. Sage rulership through responsiveness The sage has "no constant mind" of his own and instead takes the minds or concerns of the people as his own. This does not imply lack of wisdom, but a refusal to govern from rigid ego, faction, or private attachment.
2. Universal benevolence beyond moral sorting The sage extends goodness not only to the good but also to the not-good. The point is not moral indifference but a transformative generosity that does not restrict care to the already worthy.
3. Trust as moral practice The parallel claim about trusting both the trustworthy and the untrustworthy suggests that trust itself can be an expression of 德, a moral force that invites or elicits trustworthiness rather than merely rewarding it.
4. Virtue as transformative potency 德善 and 德信 are concise and difficult phrases pointing to virtue as the source, confirmation, or enactment of goodness and trust. The passage suggests that the sage's own 德 creates a field in which these qualities operate.
5. Political non-assertion and harmonization The sage in the world gathers in, quiets, or blends his heart-mind for the sake of the world. The image is of governance by de-sharpening distinctions and reducing contention rather than by imposing personal agendas.
6. The people as objects of care The closing statement that the sage "childrens" the people presents political care in familial terms. It emphasizes nurture, tenderness, and non-domination, though it also reflects hierarchical assumptions of ancient political thought.

Idioms

1. 聖人無常心，以百姓心為心 A famous formulation of the Daoist ideal of the sage's responsiveness. 無常心 does not mean fickleness but absence of fixed, self-enclosed preferences; the sage's orientation is shaped by the people's condition.
2. 善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之 One of the most cited lines in the chapter. It expresses impartial benevolence and has often been invoked in discussions of moral inclusiveness, though translators differ on whether the second 善 means "treat well," "respond with goodness," or "deem good."
3. 信者，吾信之；不信者，吾亦信之 A parallel maxim about trust. It is philosophically provocative because it appears to extend trust even to the untrustworthy, making it a key locus for interpretation of Daoist ethics and political practice.
4. 歙歙為天下渾其心 Not an idiom in later common usage, but a highly compressed classical expression. It evokes the sage's gathered, subdued, or constricted mode of presence and his effort to make his heart-mind undifferentiated or blended for the world.
5. 聖人皆孩之 A striking and memorable phrase in which 孩 is used verbally. It means to treat the people like children, with nurture and tenderness; its unusual diction requires careful handling in translation.

Literary Devices

1. Parallelism The paired sentences 善者...不善者... and 信者...不信者... form a tightly balanced parallel structure. Their symmetry is essential to the chapter's rhythm and philosophical force.
2. Repetition with variation The repeated pattern 吾...之 / 吾亦...之 reinforces the sage's consistency across differing categories of people. The second pair shifts from goodness to trust, broadening the argument.
3. Paradox The idea of trusting the untrustworthy and being good to the not-good creates deliberate tension. Such paradox is characteristic of the Daodejing and is meant to destabilize ordinary moral calculations.
4. Aphoristic compression Phrases such as 德善 and 德信 are radically concise and syntactically open. Their brevity produces semantic density and invites layered interpretation.
5. Personification and verbal conversion 孩 is likely a noun used verbally, meaning something like "to treat as children" or "to infant-care." This grammatical compression heightens the vividness of the closing image.
6. Cadenced progression The passage moves from the sage's inward disposition, to his conduct toward different kinds of people, to his bearing in the world, and finally to the people's response. This creates a compact but deliberate conceptual arc.

Translation Challenges

1. 無常心 — This does not mean capriciousness or instability in the ordinary sense. 常 can mean constant, fixed, regular, or normative; the phrase suggests freedom from rigid private intentions. The translator must choose whether to render 心 as "mind," "heart," or "heart-mind," each with different philosophical implications.
2. 以百姓心為心 — The construction is elegant but compressed: literally "takes the people's heart-mind as heart-mind." It may imply empathy, political responsiveness, identification with popular needs, or governing in accordance with the people. An overly populist or modern democratic phrasing would be misleading.
3. 善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之 — The first 善 may describe good people; the second 善 is verbal and may mean "treat well," "be good to," or "respond with goodness toward." 不善者 could mean morally bad people, those not yet good, or those not good in relation to the sage. The translator must preserve the parallelism without flattening the philosophical ambiguity.
4. 德善 — This compact phrase is textually and interpretively difficult. It may mean "virtue is goodness," "through virtue there is goodness," "such is the goodness of virtue," or "virtue makes them good." Because the phrase lacks explicit grammar, a translator may need either a concise interpretive rendering or a note.
5. 信者，吾信之；不信者，吾亦信之 — 信 can mean trustworthy, sincere, truthful, or trusted; as a verb it can mean trust, believe, or have faith in. The line can suggest trusting the untrustworthy, being trustworthy toward those who are not, or meeting lack of sincerity with sincerity. The translator must decide whether to emphasize interpersonal trust, political credibility, or moral sincerity.
6. 德信 — Like 德善, this phrase is highly compressed and syntactically indeterminate. Possible senses include "virtue is trustworthiness," "through virtue there is trust," or "virtue makes trust possible." Parallelism strongly suggests it should be handled in a way matching the rendering of 德善.
7. 歙歙為天下渾其心 — 歙歙 is difficult and has been understood as gathered in, subdued, constricted, cautious, or quietly absorptive. 渾其心 may mean to make his mind undivided, to blend it, to muddle distinctions, or to simplify it for the world. The entire clause is syntactically compressed and may describe either the sage's own posture in the world or his effect on the world. Because the imagery is obscure, an overly literal version may be unreadable, while an overly interpretive version may erase the strangeness.
8. 百姓皆注其耳目 — 注其耳目 literally suggests that the people focus or direct their ears and eyes toward the sage. It may imply attentiveness, dependence, expectation, or that the people look to him for orientation. The possessive reference of 其 must be handled clearly in English.
9. 聖人皆孩之 — 孩 is unusual as a verb and cannot be translated mechanically. Possible renderings include "treats them like children," "cares for them as children," or more literally but awkwardly, "infantizes them." The translator must preserve the tenderness without introducing a modern pejorative sense unless intentionally discussed in commentary.

Allusions

1. 聖人 — Dao De Jing (multiple chapters), Analects 7.26, Mencius 2A:2
2. 德善/德信 — Dao De Jing Chapter 38

Technical Terms

1. 聖人 (Taoist philosophy): The ideal ruler who embodies the Tao and governs through non-action (無為) - Translation: Standard translation 'sage'; distinct from Confucian sage who cultivates moral virtues
2. 德 (Taoist philosophy): The manifestation of Tao in individuals; natural virtue/power arising spontaneously - Translation: Often capitalized as 'Virtue' or left untranslated as 'Te'; differs from Confucian moral virtue
3. 天下 (Chinese political philosophy): All under heaven; the civilized world encompassed by Chinese worldview - Translation: Standardly rendered as 'the world' or 'the empire'; implies cultural sphere rather than geographical territory

Ambiguous Terms

1. 善 — 95% confidence - Possible meanings: `morally good` · `to treat kindly` · `skillful` - Resolution: In 善者: 'good people'; in 善之: 'treat kindly'; philosophical rather than technical skill
2. 渾 — 85% confidence - Possible meanings: `blend into unity` · `make turbid` · `primordial chaos` - Resolution: Positive connotation of returning to natural unity; not 'muddling' but 'harmonizing'

Glossing Notes

Chapter 49 of Dao De Jing presenting core Taoist governance principles. Key challenges: 1) Rendering paradoxical concepts (德善 arising from treating不善者 with善) 2) Maintaining verbal parallelism in善之/信之 constructions 3) Capturing rare terms like歙歙 and孩之. Translation should reflect non-dualistic philosophy through syntactical balance.

Translation Principles

1. Preserve the strong parallel structure of the two paired maxims: 善者...不善者... and 信者...不信者.... Their symmetry is central to both meaning and cadence.
2. Do not render 無常心 as mere fickleness. It denotes the absence of fixed, private, self-assertive mentality, not instability of character.
3. Handle 德善 and 德信 consistently. Because both are compressed and grammatically open, choose parallel English solutions or retain some ambiguity with brief annotation.
4. Maintain the paradoxical force of being good to the not-good and trusting the untrustworthy; do not domesticate the passage into conventional moralism.
5. Avoid anachronistic political vocabulary such as modern democracy, public opinion, or social contract when rendering 以百姓心為心.
6. In difficult phrases such as 歙歙為天下渾其心, preserve some of the text's strangeness rather than over-explaining it inside the translation itself.
7. Render 聖人 as "sage" unless a specific interpretive context requires "sage-ruler"; if political implications are discussed, they are better explained in notes than forced into every occurrence.
8. Translate 聖人皆孩之 in a way that conveys nurturing care toward the people, while avoiding modern pejorative language unless the translator is explicitly foregrounding the paternal aspect in commentary.

Segmentation

1. 聖人無常心 `sentence`
2. 以百姓心為心 `clause`
3. 善者 `clause` `ambiguous`
4. 吾善之 `clause`
5. 不善者 `clause` `ambiguous`
6. 吾亦善之 `clause`
7. 德善 `phrase` `ambiguous`
8. 信者 `clause` `ambiguous`
9. 吾信之 `clause`
10. 不信者 `clause` `ambiguous`
11. 吾亦信之 `clause`
12. 德信 `phrase` `ambiguous`
13. 聖人在天下 `sentence`
14. 歙歙為天下渾其心 `clause` `ambiguous`
15. 百姓皆注其耳目 `clause`
16. 聖人皆孩之 `clause` `ambiguous`

Segmentation Notes

Segmentation is driven mainly by the repeated 者 category pattern (善者/不善者/信者/不信者), the parallel agent-verb-object clauses (吾善之/吾亦善之/吾信之/吾亦信之), and the major predicate shift at 聖人在天下. The condensed predicates 德善 and 德信 are flagged as ambiguous because classical syntax here allows multiple scope readings in the absence of overt particles. The final three clauses after 聖人在天下 are treated as a causal/effect chain anchored by 為 and supported by 皆 distribution; however, the exact grammatical role of 歙歙 and the verb-value of 孩 within '聖人皆孩之' can be interpreted in more than one way.

Tone & Style

The tone is aphoristic, serene, and quietly radical. It begins with an abstract statement of the sage's inner disposition, moves into morally challenging parallel maxims about goodness and trust, then turns more imagistic and politically encompassing in the description of the sage's presence in the world. The ending is gentle but authoritative, closing on a paternal image of care.

The style is classic Daodejing prose: concise, rhythmic, gnomic, and semantically dense. It relies on parallelism, ellipsis, and syntactic compression rather than explicit argumentation. The register is elevated but spare, aiming for suggestive force rather than discursive explanation.

None

Terminology

常

fixed

心

mind

百姓

the people

善

good

德

Virtue

信

trust

歙

harmonizing

渾

unify

孩

treat as children

Terminography Notes

Registered terms for this chunk prioritize (i) Taoist governance psychology and ethical vector (以百姓心為心; 善之/信之; 德善/德信), and (ii) the distinctive unifying-care imagery (歙歙、渾其心、皆孩之). Capitalize 德 as “Virtue” to mark it as a technical Taoist term, and use “fixed” for 常 in 「無常心」 to avoid drift to generic “constant.”