[DDJ Meaning] Chapter 71

[dawei]

David Hinton 2002
71
Knowing not-knowing is lofty.
Not knowing not-knowing is affliction.
A sage stays free of affliction.
Just recognize it as affliction and you're free of it.

 

Dwight Goddard 1919
71

To recognize one's ignorance of unknowable things is mental health, and to be ignorant of knowable things is sickness. 
Only by grieving over ignorance of knowable things are we in mental health. 
The wise man is wise because he understands his ignorance and is grieved over it.

 

Bradford Hatcher 2005
71

To know without knowledge is best
To not understand knowledge is affliction
Now (it is) because afflictions afflict
That there is a way to avoid affliction
Wise ones avoid disease
Because they are made ill by illness
This is the way to avoid the disease

 

Wing-Tsit Chan 1963
71 

To know that you do not know is the best. 
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease. 
Only when one recognizes this disease as a disease can one be free from the disease. 
The sage is free from the disease. 
Because he recognizes this disease to be disease, he is free from it. 

 

Gu Zhengku 1993
71

Knowing one's ignorance of certain knowledge is the best attitude;
Not knowing certain knowledge yet pretending to know is a bad attitude.
The sage is of no shortcoming,
Because he considers shortcoming as shortcoming.
He considers shortcoming as shortcoming,
Thus he has no shortcoming.

Ch'u Ta-Kao 1904
71

Not knowing that one knows is best;
Thinking that one knows when one does not know is sickness.
Only when one becomes sick of the sickness can one be free from sickness.
The sage is never sick; because he is sick of this sickness, therefore he is not sick.

Flowing Hands 1987
71
In lacking knowledge and desire, one can obtain a simple and honest heart.
The Sage is sick of dishonesty and desire, so he obtains a good and simple heart.
In lacking knowledge, I mean turn away from advancement, and obtain the knowledge of
the ways of nature.
Living in harmony with nature, one doesn't need too much knowledge. But there will always
be the intellectuals who will think they know.
Simply be at one.
 

[OldDog]

This chapter is speaking to certain mental processes as sick or diseased. But none of the above translations is quite getting to the point. That is, it is not knowledge itself that is what leads to sickness but how we regard knowledge. 

 

If we regard knowledge ... intellectual analysis and understanding ... which largely is based on making distinctions and judgements ...as the ultimate, then we are missing the understanding that comes from viewing existence as a whole. This would seem to be the sickness this chapter is pointing to.

 

The sage would seem to recognize this and, while making use of intellectual knowledge, understands that there is more to knowledge than relying in the intellectual process. Thus, the sage empties his mind and heart and returns to a grounding/understanding found in quietude.