《道德经》第二章
天下皆知美之为美，斯恶已；皆知善之为善，斯不善已。故有无相生，难易相成，长短相形，高下相倾，音声相和，前后相随。是以圣人处无为之事，行不言之教，万物作焉而不辞，生而不有，为而不恃，功成而弗居。夫唯弗居，是以不去。
《Tao-Te Ching》Chapter 2
It is because every one under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty，that the idea of ugliness exists. And equally if every one recognized virtue as virtue，this would merely create fresh conceptions of wickedness. For truly‘Being and Not-being grow out of one another；Difficult and easy complete one another. Long and short test one another；High and low determine one another. Pitch and mode give harmony to one another. Front and back give sequence to one another’。Therefore the Sage relies on actionless activity，Carries on wordless teaching，But the myriad creatures are worked upon by him；he does not disown them. He rears them，but does not lay claim to them，Controls them，but does not lean upon them，Achieves his aim，but does not call attention to what he does；And for the very reason that he does not call attention to what he does He is not ejected from fruition of what he has done. Because‘action’can only make one thing high at the expense of making something else low，etc. Literally，‘does not place（i.e.classify）himself as a victor’。cf. MenciusⅡ，Ⅰ；
【易解】
天下人都知道美之所以为美，于是就有了令人嫌恶的丑；都知道善之所以为善，于是就有了反面的不善。所以，"有"与"无"相互突显，"难"与"易"相互促成，"长"与"短"相互显现，"高"与"下"相依而存，"音"与"声"相互陪衬，"前"与"后"相互照应——这些"名"相反而相成，迁延不居而不独立自足。因此，圣人从事于无所成名的事务，施行无须仗名立言的劝教，坦荡迎候万物的涌现与流变而不抵触畏避，生养了一切并不拘系自有，做成了什么并不执为仗恃，成就了事业并不矜居功名。就是因为他不矜居功名，所以他不会消逝。
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