The Bend That Completes (Daodejing 22)
Annotated translation of ch. 22: the six reversals, embracing the One as the realm's gauge, the four self-refusals — and the oldest manuscripts' different word for it all.
Chinese text
曲则全，枉则直，洼则盈，敝则新，少则得，多则惑。是以圣人抱一为天下式。不自见，故明；不自是，故彰；不自伐，故有功；不自矜，故长。夫唯不争，故天下莫能与之争。古之所谓”曲则全”者，岂虚言哉！诚全而归之。
Pinyin
Qū zé quán, wǎng zé zhí, wā zé yíng, bì zé xīn, shǎo zé dé, duō zé huò. Shì yǐ shèngrén bào yī wéi tiānxià shì. Bù zìxiàn, gù míng; bù zìshì, gù zhāng; bù zìfá, gù yǒu gōng; bù zìjīn, gù cháng. Fū wéi bùzhēng, gù tiānxià mò néng yǔ zhī zhēng. Gǔ zhī suǒwèi “qū zé quán” zhě, qǐ xūyán zāi! Chéng quán ér guī zhī.
Literal rendering
The bent — then whole. The crooked — then straight. The hollow — then full. The worn — then new. Little — then gained. Much — then confused.
Therefore the sage embraces the One as the realm’s gauge. Not self-displaying, so clear; not self-asserting, so evident; not self-boasting, so meritorious; not self-proud, so enduring. Only through not contending can none under heaven contend with him. What the ancients called “the bent, then whole” — is that an empty saying! Truly whole, and it comes back to you.
Term-by-term notes
- Six reversals, one logic. The chapter’s engine is six pairs, each one the weak pole yielding the strong result: bend → wholeness, crooked → straight, hollow → full, worn → new, little → gain, much → confusion. The standard gloss (recorded in the Gushiwen teaching edition) reads them as the tradition’s dialectic of yielding: 委曲保全, 虚怀若谷. The wuwei concept page holds the family this belongs to — the paired reversals are non-action’s arithmetic, the same sixfold grammar ch. 45’s neighbors use.
- The manuscript variants, double-written. The Mawangdui silk texts (as documented in the collations quoted during verification) read the opening pair as 曲则金，枉则定 — “the bent, then gold; the crooked, then settled” — and the middle line as 是以圣人执一以为天下牧 (“holds the One as the realm’s shepherd”) against the received 抱一为天下式 (“embraces the One as the realm’s gauge”). The site’s double-writing discipline applies: both recorded, neither adjudicated — and the 金 reading is kept visible because its image (gold’s ductility: bending without breaking) is the chapter’s physics stated as metallurgy.
- 抱一 — embrace the One. The verb is the shouyi family’s 抱, the same embrace as ch. 10’s 抱一: the sage does not apply the reversals but holds the single thing underneath them. 天下式 — the gauge, the pattern, the instrument the realm is measured by: the chapter’s word for what the sage is once the One is embraced.
- The four 不自. Not self-displaying → clear; not self-asserting → evident; not self-boasting → meritorious; not self-proud → enduring. Four negations, four positive results — the same self-emptying grammar the xu concept page collects, here applied to reputation. Note the direction: the results are given (故), not seized.
- 诚全而归之 — truly whole, and it comes back. The chapter’s last line completes its own opening: 全 (wholeness) was the first reversal’s reward, and the closing says the wholeness returns. The ancient saying 曲则全 is ratified not as wisdom but as fact — the book’s most confident chapter-ending.
Where this passage sits
Ch. 22 is the received text’s densest statement of the yielding-logic, and the site places it between ch. 37 (the paradox of non-action) and ch. 10 (the practice of holding the One): the paradox stated, the practice named, and here the arithmetic shown — six pairs of what bending buys.
Sources
- Daodejing ch. 22, received text, verified against the Gushiwen teaching edition and full-text editions; the Mawangdui manuscript variants are recorded from the silk-text collations quoted in the verification