13. Favor and Disgrace
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
宠辱若惊,贵大患若身。
English translation
Be startled by favor and disgrace alike; regard great trouble as seriously as you regard your own person.
Favor and humiliation both disturb the mind. Attachment to the self is what gives trouble its great weight.
Original Chinese text
何谓宠辱若惊?
English translation
What does it mean to be startled by favor and disgrace alike?
The question introduces an explanation of why both gaining favor and losing it unsettle a person.
Original Chinese text
宠为下,得之若惊,失之若惊,是谓宠辱若惊。
English translation
Favor places one in a dependent position. Receiving it brings alarm, and losing it brings alarm. This is what it means to be startled by favor and disgrace alike.
Because favor depends on another person's judgment, both its arrival and its loss produce anxiety.
Original Chinese text
何谓贵大患若身?
English translation
What does it mean to regard great trouble as seriously as one's own person?
The question turns to the link between serious trouble and one's concern with the self.
Original Chinese text
吾所以有大患者,为吾有身,及吾无身,吾有何患?
English translation
I have great trouble because I am bound up with my own person. If I were no longer centered on myself, what trouble would I have?
Having “no self” here need not mean denying the body; it points to loosening the grip of self-centered gain and loss.
Original Chinese text
故贵以身为天下,若可寄天下;爱以身为天下,若可托天下。
English translation
Therefore, one who values the world as one values oneself may be entrusted with the world; one who cares for the world as one cares for oneself may be given responsibility for it.
Public responsibility belongs with someone who treats the well-being of all as a personal concern, not as a means to private advantage.