Laozi · Daodejing · 第三十八章
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Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
上德不德，是以有德
The highest virtue does not assert itself as virtue; for this reason it has virtue.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
63 Han characters · 21 distinct forms · 10 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
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上德不德，
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Investigate 8 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 為 × 9 德 × 8 以 × 6 而 × 6 之 × 6 上 × 5. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
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What does 是以 connect?
Compare the editorial answer
The first statement about not enacting or asserting 德 to the resulting claim of having 德.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 上德不德，是以有德
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Each connection states its purpose. Comparisons are editorial learning aids; shared wording alone does not prove influence.
Different contextual senses德 as an administrative handle and as virtueHanfeizi 7 explicitly defines 德 through rewards. Laozi 38 uses repeated 德 in a paradox about superior virtue. Displaying these together makes the need for passage-specific senses visible; the graph alone cannot choose an English gloss.
Explicit textual citationA quotation and its interpretive settingHanfeizi introduces this wording with 故曰; the same wording appears in the pinned Laozi 38. That explicit framing supports a textual connection. Read the surrounding commentary to see what Hanfeizi makes of it; the match does not establish the whole history or direction of transmission of these witnesses.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
韓非子 · 解老第二十是以有德無德，不德則有德。故曰：「上德不德，是以有德。」
韓非子 · 解老第二十上德無為虛，則德盛；德盛之謂上德。故曰：「上德無為而無不為也。」
韓非子 · 解老第二十而無以為能已也，非求其報也。故曰：「上仁為之而無以為也。」
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Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Keep different negatives apart未之有也論語 · Keep different negatives apart不患人之不己知論語 · Keep different negatives apart回也不愚論語 · Keep different negatives apart君子不器Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 老子 · Laozi · Daodejing
- Attribution
- Traditionally attributed to Laozi; composition and textual history are debated.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR5c0057 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR5c0057_038.txt, lines 14–26. LAO 38.1; tr. D.C. Lau 19i2: 57; here tr. Karlgren 1975
- Version
8f585085ff4ef2580eeb0f4376a763a62bcc7a95- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: d7cb28db7b9a0ffa47c8f5fa7e496d967879162ea19b40fa291d7d581030e34e. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.