道德经 第八章

上善若水

水善
利万物而不争
处众人之所恶
故几于道

居善地
心善渊
与善仁
言善信
正善治
事善能
动善时

夫唯不争
故无尤


[译]

The highest good is like water

Water is good.
It benefits the world but it does not contend.
It flows where many consider bad.
Therefore it is similar to the Tao.

Residence is good because it is well-located.
Heart is good because it is bottomless.
Relationship is good because it is charitable.
Talk is good because it is trustworthy.
Regulation is good because it is uniform.
Work is good because it is well-done.
Change is good because it is timely.

Therefore, the less you contend, the less you err.

[注]

This chapter tells us one can learn to be good just by watching how water flows. In biology we learned that water makes life. Water benefits every living organism on the Earth but water never asks for any returns.

I studied rivers to be a hydraulic engineer. I have learned that water flowing in the rivers has many characteristics like human beings. Hydraulic engineers classify rivers into the up-streams, the mid-streams, and the down-streams. It is just like human beings are called young, middle-aged, and senior. Young men are similar to the up-streams while the senior people are similar to the down-streams.

In the up-streams, the river flow tries to carry as much as there are sediments. The river flow can move very large stones. The sediment sizes are very large. There are gravels and pebbles in the up-stream river bed.

In the mid-streams, the river flow is mild. It no longer carries any large gravels or pebbles. It only carries sands or silts. When it feels tired, it downloads some sediment along the river bed. When it feels strong, it uploads the sediment and carries it downstream.

In the downstream, the river flow is very tired. It moves very slowly. It can now only carry very fine sediment such as silt or clay. As soon as it reaches the ocean, the water flow feels it has finished its journey and dumps its sediment load in the river mouth.

I feel that the human beings are doing the same things as the river flow. As a young man, he is trying to load up as much as he can. When he reaches middle-age, he feels the load of responsibility. But as much as he can carry, he always maximizes his loads to carry the family responsibilities. However, when he reaches retirement age, he often feels that his responsibility is finished. He is no longer ambitious just like the tired downstream river.

My grandfather told me that human beings were descendents of fish. Maybe that is why we are still behaving like rivers.