Tao Te Ching, Ch 79

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

 Chapter 79

After settling a great enmity between two persons,

there must be remaining resentment.

Do good to a person who has done you an injury, *

how can this be considered perfect?

Therefore, the sage takes the left-hand tally**

but does not demand any payment from the people.

The man of virtue takes charge of the tally.

The man of no virtue takes charge of taxation.

The Truth of Heaven shows no favouritism.

It is forever on the side of good people.

 

*This verse in Italic is placed in Chapter 63, while many commentators suggest that this verse should be placed here for making the meaning in this Chapter much clearer. Our review will follow the revised version including this inserted verse.

 **the left-hand tally: the half part of the contract held by the creditor, as a proof of the debt. In ancient China, the proof of the debt was carved on a piece of wood or bamboo which then was divided into the left half and the right half. The creditor would keep the left half of the proof, while the debtor would keep the right half.

 

 

 

Review

 

In this Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us how to deal with the enmity between two persons. In the previous Chapter, Lao Tzu tells us not to take the retaliated action by ourselves though we have been wronged. The reason is by doing so we will easily hurt ourselves as we are not the experts doing the retaliated action:

 

“There is a regular executioner whose charge is to kill.

To kill on behalf of the executioner is what is described

as chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter.

To chop wood on behalf of the master carpenter,

there are none who can escape hurting their own hands instead.”

(Chapter 74)

 

Then who is the “regular executioner” that we can trust to uphold the righteousness among people without faults? We human cannot avoid making mistakes but the Heavenly Truth, Tao, does not have any mistake. It is the Heavenly Truth acting as the regular executioner to reward our deeds. This is the law of karma which calculates and rewards our action accurately. This law of karma is the law of cause and effect. Our every action in thought, in speech and in the body is a cause for the future reward, i.e., the effect. Karma in Sanskrit means “action” or “work”. All our work acts like a seed which will sprout and grow. This law of karma is the core teaching in Hinduism. We should do good work for having good returns while bad return will come if we do wrong and bad. It is an accumulated effect like a chain tying us tightly.

 

Who does this calculation? In the Quran, Allah says He does this accounting work the best. In the Tao Te Ching, Allah is the Heavenly Truth doing this accounting work for everyone:

 

“The Truth of Heaven excels in overcoming though it does not contend,

in responding though it does not speak,

in attracting though it does not summon,

in planning though it appears slack.”

(Chapter 73)

 

The same as in the Quran, the Heavenly Truth will not make any mistakes, any addition or omission in this rewarding system:

 

“The net of Heaven is cast wide.

Though it is loose, yet nothing ever slips through.” 

(Chapter 73)

If the Heavenly Truth can do the rewarding work with perfection, then how can we settle the enmity between two persons? Some teaching tells us that we should do goodness to the person who has injured us, but Lao Tzu questions about it:

 

“After settling a great enmity between two persons,

there must be remaining resentment.

Do good to a person who has done you an injury,

how can this be considered perfect?”

 

This similar question was asked also in “Analects”, the narration of the words of Confucius when dealing with different people. A person asked Confucius to comment about the teaching to tell people to do benevolence to the one who injured us. Confucius asked the person how to reward to those who do benefit to us:

 

 “How can we do benevolence to both those who do harm to us and those who do benefit to us? Can we treat them the same? Is it fair to do so?”

 

 The person was in doubt. Then Confucius says that we should do righteousness to the one who injured us but should do benevolence to the one who did benefit to us. In this way, we can treat people fairly.

         Although Lao Tzu does not give us the answer here as the same as Confucius tells us, they are very close to each other. Both think that doing benevolence to the one who injured us may lead to some defects like unfairness among people. The “remaining resentment” is resulted due to the unfair treatment among people. Therefore, Lao Tzu says:

 

“After settling a great enmity between two persons,

there must be remaining resentment.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us the question further that if we cannot do any rightful action to the one who injured us, then what should we do? There is no doubt that we should forgive people, but it does not mean that we should endure unrighteousness and harmful deeds as something righteousness and beneficial. To forgive is our attitude to eliminate hatred to people but it does not mean that we accept the wrongdoing, returning the good deeds and the bad deeds as the same. This is the point questioned by both Confucius and Lao Tzu. To eliminate remaining resentment, we should uphold the righteousness among people without faults. Who can do so? It is only the Heavenly Truth can do.

 

We should hand over our burden to the Heavenly Truth to do righteousness for us. Here Lao Tzu tells us about two types of people, the sages and the ordinary people, how they treat their debt. First, Lao Tzu tells us how the sages act:

 

“Therefore, the sage takes the left-hand tally

but does not demand any payment from the people.”

 

The left-hand tally was a piece of certified wood or bamboo noting the debt. The creditor could demand the debtor to return the money. In the traditional Chinese society, this left-hand tally was held usually in gentle way to allow the debtor with difficulty to delay the payment. Unlike taxation in the ancient Chinese society, the creditor with the left-hand tally would not use violence to enforce the payment. The taxation system was much more severe. The tax collectors would use violence to oppress people to give the tax required by the emperors. Those who failed to give the required amount of tax would be punished and imprisoned for doing hard work; therefore, Lao Tzu tells us that we should follow the man of virtue rather than the man of no virtue:

 

“The man of virtue takes charge of the tally.

The man of no virtue takes charge of taxation.”

 

We should act like the man of virtue to forgive and let the Heavenly Truth do the rightful action if we cannot get the return from the debtor. We should treat our debt as taking charge of the tally. Let the Heavenly Truth do the work undone. We should not act like the man of no virtue treating people as taking charge of taxation. We may harm ourselves or other people by enforcing our demand to people. Then more grievance and resentment among people may result which is opposite to the way the Truth acts. The Heavenly Truth can do the best because:

 

“The Truth of Heaven shows no favouritism.

It is forever on the side of good people.”

 

We human may easily have special favour to some people, and neglect some people, hence corruption may happen easily, however, there is no corruption in the Heavenly Truth. “It is forever on the side of good people”. What we need is to do good deeds. We do not need to fear to be treated unfairly by the Heavenly Truth, the best and the final judge. We must have this faith as strong conviction in our life; then we can release and hand over our burden to the Heavenly Truth with ease.