A Dialectical Analysis of the Tripartite Qualities of 'Dao' in the Guanzi: Intricacy, Expansion, and Solidity

Chapter 3: "Guard what is good and do not abandon it; pursue excess and your virtue will become thin. Once you know its extremity, return to the Dao and De." — Key Principles of Dao Cultivation

I. "Guard what is good and do not abandon it" (守善勿舍)

Here, "good" (善, shàn) does not refer to moral "goodness" but to a state that conforms to the Dao. Laozi, Chapter Eight, states: "The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits all things and does not contend." This "good" means skillful, or conforming to. "Guard what is good and do not abandon it" means to maintain the state that conforms to the Dao and not to give it up.

Why is "do not abandon it" particularly emphasized$29 Because the greatest obstacle in cultivating the Dao is not ignorance but knowing yet being unable to sustain it. Laozi, Chapter Seventy, states: "My words are very easy to know and very easy to practice. Yet no one in the world can know or practice them." Also, Guanzi, Xinshu Xia, states: "Everyone desires knowledge but does not seek it. What they know is 'them'; what they use to know is 'this.' If you do not cultivate 'this,' how can you know 'them'$30"—People all wish to know the principles of external things but do not cultivate their inner selves. Knowing is easy, practicing is difficult, and sustaining goodness is even more difficult.

II. "Pursue excess and your virtue will become thin" (逐淫泽薄)

"Yin" (淫) means excess or overflow. "Ze" (泽) means moisture or nourishment; here it should be understood as contamination or indulgence. "Bo" (薄) means thin or superficial. "Pursue excess and your virtue will become thin" should be understood as: expel excessive desires and distance yourself from superficial contaminations.

Another interpretation suggests "Zhuyin, Zebo" (逐淫、泽薄), meaning: pursuing lewd matters will make one's virtue thin. This is a warning—if one does not guard goodness but pursues excess, one's own virtue will become thin.

Regardless of the interpretation, the core meaning is consistent: Dao cultivators must distance themselves from excessive, superficial, and overflowing things, maintaining purity and depth within.

Laozi, Chapter Twelve, states: "The five colors blind the eye; the five sounds deafen the ear; the five flavors numb the palate; the chase and hunt madden the mind; rare treasures lead conduct astray. Therefore, the sage nourishes the belly and not the eye. So, he discards the latter and chooses the former." "Nourishing the belly and not the eye" is a vivid expression of "guarding what is good and not abandoning it; pursuing excess and your virtue will become thin"—nourish the inner self (belly), and distance yourself from the temptations of external sounds and sights (not the eye).

III. "Once you know its extremity, return to the Dao and De." (既知其极，反于道德)

These two phrases are crucial. "Ji" (极) means the ultimate, the extreme, the fundamental. "Fan" (反) means to return or revert. "Dao and De" (道德) here does not refer to the ethical morality of later ages but is a combined term for Dao and De—Dao is the ultimate ground of all things, and De is the specific manifestation of Dao within the individual (what is obtained from the Dao is called De).

"Once you know its extremity, return to the Dao and De" means: once you recognize the ultimate fundamental nature of things, you must return to the Dao and De.

The "extremity" and "return" here form an important mode of thinking—knowing the extremity and returning. This is a recurring theme in pre-Qin thought:

Laozi, Chapter Twenty-Five: "Greatness proceeds, proceeds afar, afar means returning." The operation of the Dao is "returning"—things reach their extreme and then reverse; they proceed far and then return.

I Ching, "Commentary on the Hexagram Fu" (復卦·彖傳): "They repeatedly turn their Way; after seven days they return. This is the movement of Heaven." "Fu" (復) means "return"; the movement of the Dao of Heaven is a continuous process of returning.

Guanzi, Xinshu Shang: "Empty your desires, and the Shen will come to dwell. Sweep away impurity, and the Shen will then remain." The practice of cultivating the Dao is also a process of "returning"—from external disturbances back to internal emptiness and stillness.

Therefore, "Once you know its extremity, return to the Dao and De" is both an epistemological proposition (recognizing the ultimate fundamental) and a practical proposition (returning to Dao and De cultivation). Knowing and acting are unified here.

IV. Why "Return" Instead of "Advance"$31

This is a question worth deep consideration. In the thinking of pre-Qin Daoism, cultivating the Dao is not about advancing forward or seeking externally, but about retreating backward and returning inward.

Why$32 Because the Dao is not elsewhere; it is within oneself. Guanzi, Neiye itself states: "Keep the whole mind within; it cannot be obscured or hidden." The Dao resides in the mind, requiring no external seeking, only the removal of obscurations to return to the original state.

This is entirely consistent with the idea in Laozi, Chapter Forty-Eight: "In learning, strive for more each day; in practicing the Dao, strive for less each day." Learning is continuous accumulation (seeking externally); practicing the Dao is continuous reduction (returning internally). Reduction of what$33 Reduction of desires, preconceptions, and attachments that obscure the original mind.

In Zhuangzi, The Great and Venerable Teacher (大宗師), the story of Yan Hui's "sitting and forgetting" (坐忘) is recounted: "Shedding limbs and body, divesting himself of intellect, departing from form and knowledge, becoming one with the Great Unity—this is called sitting and forgetting." Sitting and forgetting is a form of "returning"—returning from a state of form and knowledge to a state of formlessness and unknowing within the Great Unity.

From an ancient perspective, this "returning" mode of thinking likely originated from observing the operations of Heaven and Earth: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; the moon waxes and wanes; the seasons cycle through spring, summer, autumn, and winter; all things grow and store—the operations of Heaven and Earth are a continuous cycle, a continuous return. Ancient peoples thus understood that human cultivation should emulate Heaven and Earth, continuously returning to the original, natural state.