Heaven Is Long-Enduring (Daodejing 7)
Annotated translation of ch. 7: heaven and earth last because they do not live for themselves; the sage puts himself last and stands first — the chapter that states the book's inversion in its purest form: the selfless completes the self.
Chinese text
天长地久。天地所以能长且久者，以其不自生，故能长生。是以圣人后其身而身先，外其身而身存。非以其无私邪？故能成其私。
Pinyin
Tiān cháng dì jiǔ. Tiāndì suǒyǐ néng cháng qiě jiǔ zhě, yǐ qí bù zì shēng, gù néng cháng shēng. Shì yǐ shèngrén hòu qí shēn ér shēn xiān, wài qí shēn ér shēn cún. Fēi yǐ qí wúsī yé? Gù néng chéng qí sī.
Literal rendering
Heaven is long, earth enduring. The reason heaven and earth can be long and enduring is that they do not give life to themselves — so they can give long life. Therefore the sage puts his person behind, and his person comes first; puts his person outside, and his person is preserved. Is it not because he has no self-interest? So he completes his self-interest.
Term-by-term notes
- The example is not a metaphor. 不自生 — “does not give life to itself”: heaven and earth persist precisely because they are not in the business of their own persistence. The chapter opens with the book’s ziran claim in its most austere form: what lasts is what is not trying to last. The ch. 2 pairs — being and non-being rising together — are here applied to time: selfless and lasting are the same motion.
- The two reversals. 后其身而身先 (put the person behind — it comes first), 外其身而身存 (put the person outside — it is preserved): the chapter’s double inversion, each verb answered by its opposite. The cadence is the book’s signature — the site holds the same turn in ch. 22 (bent, then whole) and ch. 8 (does not contend, so no fault) — and this chapter is its purest single verse: the self abandoned is the self kept.
- The paradox formula, stated honestly. 非以其无私邪？故能成其私 — the chapter ends on the word 私 (private interest) and claims that selflessness completes it. The commentary tradition splits here, and the site registers the split: the political reading (the ruler who yields stands first — the Taiwan Education Ministry’s gloss, tied to the book’s later chapter 66) and the mystical reading (forget the self entirely — Jiao Hong’s Laozi yi, quoted in the same source, connecting to ch. 13’s 吾所以有大患者，为吾有身: the self is the great trouble). The site’s own line: read the chapter as the ethics of non-claiming — the practice-layer reading the progress question applies — rather than as a technique for getting by giving up, which would make the last line a con.
- The three-teachings note, registered. The traditional commentators (Wang Huai, in the same dictionary entry) read the chapter beside the Confucian 毋意毋必毋固毋我 and the Buddhist breaking of self-attachment — the cross-tradition reading the site holds at arm’s length per its borrowing discipline: the commentators’ convergence is their own; the chapter itself is the Daoist document.
- The variants, registered. The Mawangdui silk texts read 退其身 (steps back) for received 后其身 (places behind), and 不以其无私与 for 非以其无私邪 — printed in the verification sources; the reversals are unaffected.
Sources
- Daodejing ch. 7, received text, verified against four independent reproductions that agree (the Daodejing.org chapter page with glosses; the Vocus bilingual edition, which also prints the Mawangdui silk-text variants; the Taiwan Education Ministry dictionary entry for 外身身存, quoting the chapter with the traditional commentary tradition; and the Zhihu silk-text edition with full gloss)
- The registered variants: received 后其身 against the silk texts' 退其身; received 非以其无私邪 against the silk texts' 不以其无私与 — both noted in the verification sources, meaning unaffected
- The Taiwan Education Ministry entry's traditional reading, quoting Jiao Hong's Laozi yi: Laozi regards the self not as treasure but as the great trouble, so that forgetting the self ends the troubles that arise from it; and Wang Huai's Laozi tanyi, comparing the chapter to the Confucian no-presupposition four and the Buddhist breaking of self-attachment — the three-teachings reading, registered as the commentators' own