Reduce Desires, Attend to the Inner Not the Outer, Insatiable Longing of
the Eyes,
Avoid Racing and Hunting, Excesses Offend the Senses,
檢欲
"The five colors combined the human eye will blind;
The five notes in one sound the human ear confound;
The five tastes when they blend the human mouth offend.
Racing and hunting will human hearts turn mad,
Treasures high-prized make human conduct bad.
The holy man attends to the inner and not to the outer.
He abandons the latter and chooses the former."
- Translated by D. T. Suzuki
and Paul Carus, 1913,
Chapter 12
"Color's five hues from the eyes their sight will take;
Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make;
The flavors five deprive the mouth of taste;
The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste
Make mad the mind;
And objects rare and strange,
Sought for,
Men's conduct will to evil change.
Therefore the sage seeks to satisfy the craving of the belly,
and not the insatiable longing of the eyes.
He puts from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former."
- Translated by
James Legge, 1891,
Chapter 12
By Hu Xuzehi
Annotated translation by Victor Mair 
By Ha Poong Kim
By Hans-Georg Moeller 
By Roger T. Ames and David T. Hall
By Wes Burgess
By Arthur Waley
"The five colours blind the eyes of man.
The five musical notes deafen the ears of man.
The five flavours dull the taste of man.
Violent running and hunting disturb the emotions of man.
Greed for rare objects is hurtful to the actions of man.
That is why the self-controlled man occupies himself with the unseen, he
does not occupy himself with the things visible, he puts away the
latter and seeks the former."
- Translated by
Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 12
Translation and elucidation by Hua Ching Ni
Translated by Brian Walker
Translated by Arthur Waley
Translated by Lionel and and Herbert Giles
By Eva Wong
"The five colors
make a man's eyes blind;
Horseracing and hunting
make a man's mind go mad;
Goods that are hard to obtain
make a man's progress falter;
The five flavors
make a man's palate dull;
The five tones
make a man's ears deaf.
For these reasons,
In ruling, the sage
attends to the stomach, not to the eye.
Therefore,
He rejects the one and adopts the other."
- Translated by
Victor H. Mair, 1990, Chapter 12
By Alexander Simkins
By Derek Lin
By Ming-Dao Deng.
By Benjamin Hoff.
By Ming-Dao Deng
Translated by Thomas Cleary
"The fives colours
confuse the eye,
The fives sounds dull the ear,
The five tastes spoil the palate.
Excess of hunting and chasing
Makes minds go mad.
Products that are hard to get
Impede their owner's movements.
Therefore the Sage
Considers the belly not the eye.
Truly, “he rejects that but takes this”."
- Translated by
Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 12
Translated by Eva Wong 
Translated by Philip Ivahoe
By James Miller
Translated by Stephen Bokencamp
By Alexander and Annellen Simpkins
Translated by Thomas Cleary
By Livia Kohn
"An excess of light blinds the human eye; an excess of
noise ruins the ear; an excess of condiments deadens the taste.
The effect of too much horse racing and hunting is bad, and the lure of hidden
treasure tempts one to do evil.
Therefore the wise man attends to the inner significance of things and does not
concern himself with outward appearances.
Therefore he ignores matter and seeks the spirit."
- Translated by
Dwight Goddard and Henri Borel, 1919, Chapter 12
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
Translated by Livia Kohn
Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way
"Light will blind a man, sound will make him deaf, taste
will ruin his palate, the chase will make him wild, and precious things will
tempt him.
Therefore the wise man provides for the soul and not for the senses.
He ignores the one and takes the other with both hands."
- Translated by Walter Gorn-Old, 1904, Chapter 12
Walking the Way: 81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching
The Tao of Zen
Tao Te Ching: Zen Teachings on the Taoist Classic
Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and
Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China
"The five colors
blind our eyes.
The five notes
deafen our ears.
The five flavors
dull our taste.
Racing, chasing, hunting,
drives people crazy.
Trying to get rich
ties people in knots.
So the wise soul
watches with the inner
not with the outward eye,
letting that go,
keeping this."
- Translation by
Ursula K. Le Guin, 2009, Chapter 12
Next Chapter of the Tao Te Ching #13
Previous Chapter of the Tao Te Ching #11
Chapter and Thematic Index to the Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Commentary, Interpretations, Research Tools, Resources
Chapter 12
Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition
By Jonathan Star. Translation, commentary and research tools. New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Penguin, 2001. Concordance, tables, appendices, 349 pages. A
new rendition of the Tao Te Ching is provided, then a verbatim translation with
extensive notes. Detailed tables for each verse provide line number, all
the Chinese characters, Wade-Giles romanization, and a list of meanings for
each character. An excellent reference tool!
Yellow Bridge
Dao De Jing Comparison Table, Chapter 12 Provides side by side comparisons of translations of the Tao Te
Ching by James Legge,
D. T. Suzuki, and Dwight Goddard. Chinese characters for each paragraph in
the Chapter are on the left; place your cursor over the Chinese characters to
see the Pinyin romanization of the Chinese character and a list of meanings.
The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching & Hua Hu Ching
Tao Te Ching Commentaries - Google Search
Translators'
Index, Tao Te Ching Translators Sorted Alphabetically by Translator, Links
to Books and Online Versions
Tao Te Ching: A
Bibliography and Index of Translations on the Web
Chapter 12 in the
Rambling
Taoist Commentaries by Trey Smith. The
Rambling Taoists are Trey Smith and Scott Bradley.
By Hu Xuzehi. Seven Star Communications, 2006, 240 pages.
The Philosophy of the Daodejing
Valley Spirit, Gu Shen,
Concept, Chapter 6
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
The largest collection of very nicely formatted complete versions of the Tao
Te Ching. The
collection includes 209 complete versions in 27 languages,
plus 28 Chinese versions. There are 112 English language
versions of the
Tao Te Ching available at this website. A variety of search methods and comparision methods are provided, as well a a detailed
index.
Offline on May 11, 2013.
Tao Te Ching
English Translations from Terebess Asia Online.
Over 30 translations.
Lao-tzu's Taoteching
Reading Lao Tzu: A Companion to the Tao Te Ching with a New Translation
Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation
Thematic Index to the
81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu: Te-Tao Ching - A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui
Texts (Classics of Ancient China)
Gushen Grove Notebooks for the Tao Te Ching
Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Grove, Gushen Grove Notebooks, Red Bluff, California
This webpage was last modified or updated on May
11, 2013.
This webpage was first distributed online on February 7, 2011.
Brief Biography of Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.
Valley Spirit Grove, Red Bluff, California
Ripening Peaches: Daoist Studies and Practices
One Old Druid's Final Journey: Notebooks of the Librarian of Gushen Grove
The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) circa 500 BCE
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