Laozi — "Yield and overcome; Bend and be straight; Empty and be full; Wear out and be new…"
Yield and overcome; Bend and be straight; Empty and be full; Wear out and be new; Have little and gain; Have much and be confused.
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More from Laozi
"He who is attached to things will suffer much."
"The empire is a sacred vessel and cannot be acted on. He who acts on it harms it; he who grasps it loses it."
"The more you know, the less you understand."
"The great square has no corners. The great vessel takes a long time to complete. The great sound is faint. The great image has no form."
"The whole world knows that the good is good, and this is how evil arises. The whole world knows that the beautiful is beautiful, and this is how ugliness arises."
About Laozi (c. 6th century BCE (semi-legendary))
Reputed founder of Taoism and author of the Tao Te Ching, whose wu wei (effortless action) shaped East Asian philosophy. Closely associated with Zhuangzi (later Taoist who extended Laozi's framework). For an intellectual contrast, see Confucius, near-contemporary Chinese sage of social ritual and duty — Confucius systematized social order through ritual and hierarchy; Laozi argued that all such systems were the disease, not the cure — the two founding poles of Chinese moral philosophy.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This saying argues that the surest path to strength, fullness, and renewal runs through their opposites. Giving ground wins arguments, flexibility keeps you upright, emptying your cup lets it refill, and letting something wear out opens space for what's new. Owning little leaves room to gain, while piling up possessions and opinions only clouds judgment. Counterintuitive moves beat forceful ones.
Relevance to Laozi
Laozi, traditionally credited as founder of Taoism and author of the Tao Te Ching, is said to have worked as an archivist in the Zhou court before withdrawing from public life in disgust at its corruption. The paradoxes here match his core teachings on wu wei (effortless action) and the power of the soft over the hard, and his own choice to abandon status rather than accumulate it mirrors the line about having little.
The era
Laozi is placed in the late Zhou dynasty, around the 6th century BCE, as centralized authority crumbled into the warring states that would define the next centuries. Rival rulers hired strategists, legalists, and Confucians offering rigid hierarchies, laws, and rituals to restore order through force. Taoism emerged as the counter-voice, arguing that yielding with nature outperformed grasping ambition in a collapsing age addicted to conquest.
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