330 cards across 8 wisdom traditions
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What does 道可道非常道 mean? Tao Te Ching Chapter 1 opens with the radical claim that ultimate reality cannot be captured in l...
When the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness arises. Tao Te Ching Chapter 2 on the origin of duality — 有无相生 (being an...
上善若水 (the highest goodness is like water). Tao Te Ching Chapter 8 on yielding power: water takes the shape of whatever h...
道法自然 — the Tao follows what is of itself (ziran). Tao Te Ching Chapter 25 traces the chain: people follow earth, earth f...
Wu wei (无为) explained: effortless action that moves with the grain of reality. Tao Te Ching Chapter 37 on how the sage g...
道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物 — the Tao gives birth to one, one to two, two to three, three to all things. Tao Te Ching Chapter 42 on...
Zhuangzi's opening parable: the Kun fish transforms into the Peng bird, a creature so vast it fills the sky. A story abo...
Zhuangzi's 'piping of heaven' (天籁) — the sound that is not a sound, the resonance that arises when wind meets hollow. Th...
Zhuangzi's parable of Cook Ding (庖丁解牛): the butcher whose knife never dulls after nineteen years. Perfect skill looks li...
得鱼忘荃 — 'The fish trap is for catching fish; once you catch the fish, forget the trap.' Zhuangzi on the purpose of words:...
学而时习之 — Confucius opens the Analects with joy: to learn and to practice what you have learned. The first of three questi...
Review the old and understand the new — then you can be a teacher.
Learning without thinking leads to confusion. Thinking without learning leads to danger.
To know what you know, and to know what you do not know — that is knowledge.
The one who knows it is not equal to the one who loves it. The one who loves it is not equal to the one who takes joy in...
When three people walk together, there is always one who can be my teacher. I select their good qualities and follow the...
Every day I examine myself on three points: In planning for others, have I been fully committed? In dealings with friend...
When you see a worthy person, think of becoming equal to them. When you see an unworthy person, examine yourself within.
The noble person is open-hearted and at ease. The small person is always anxious and troubled.
What passes is like this — never stopping, day or night.
Be strict with yourself and gentle in blaming others — then you will keep resentment far away.
The noble person seeks it within themselves. The small person seeks it in others.
Virtue is never alone. It always has neighbors.
If you wish to stand firm, help others stand firm. If you wish to advance, help others advance.
己所不欲，勿施于人 — the Confucian golden rule. Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself. The most universal eth...
When it comes to humaneness, do not yield even to your teacher.
The old — give them peace. Friends — give them trust. The young — give them care.
The noble person understands things in terms of rightness. The small person understands things in terms of profit.
Wealth and rank gained without rightness — to me they are like floating clouds.
The noble person is ashamed when their words exceed their actions.
To make a mistake and not correct it — that is the real mistake.
To hear something on the road and repeat it on the road — this is the abandonment of virtue.
The noble person's mistakes are like eclipses of the sun and moon. When they err, everyone sees it. When they correct it...
If the ruler is upright, things get done without orders. If the ruler is not upright, even orders are not obeyed.
If you desire speed, you will not arrive. If you fixate on small gains, great things will not be accomplished.
If a craftsman wishes to do good work, they must first sharpen their tools.
A person without distant foresight will certainly have nearby worries.
The noble person helps others complete what is good in them. They do not help others complete what is bad in them.
Three kinds of friends are helpful. Three kinds are harmful. The upright friend, the understanding friend, the well-info...
The noble person harmonizes without being the same. The small person is the same without harmonizing.
I do not blame heaven. I do not blame others. I study what is below and reach what is above.
By nature, people are close to one another. By habit, they grow far apart.
If the noble person lacks gravity, they will have no authority. Their learning will not be firm.
The scholar cannot but be broad-minded and resolute, for the burden is heavy and the road is long.
The noble person guards against three things. In youth, when the blood and energy are unsettled, guard against desire. I...
To eat one's fill all day and apply the mind to nothing — this is difficult indeed.
Without knowing destiny, one cannot be a noble person.
It is people who can broaden the Way. It is not the Way that broadens people.
Only when the year grows cold do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to wither.
The wise are not confused. The humane are not anxious. The courageous are not afraid.
朝闻道，夕死可矣 — 'If I hear the Way in the morning, I can die in the evening.' Confucius's most intense statement on the ultim...
I do not enlighten those who are not struggling. I do not prompt those who are not on the verge of speaking. If I show o...
Learn broadly, hold firmly to your purpose, ask earnestly, reflect on what is near at hand.
The noble person does not promote someone on the basis of their words alone, nor discard words because of the person who...
知己知彼，百戰不殆 — 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.' Sun Tzu on the fou...
Sun Tzu on military intelligence: know the enemy general's character to understand the organization they lead. The five ...
不战而屈人之兵 — 'Subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest excellence.' Sun Tzu's ultimate strategic principle: the bes...
乾卦 (Qian) — The Creative, Hexagram 1 of the I Ching (易经). Six unbroken lines of pure yang energy: the primal power of th...
The Receptive brings sublime success. Those who lead lose the way; following, they find guidance.
The Abyss repeated. If you are sincere, you have success in your heart, and whatever you do succeeds.
The Arousing brings success. Shock comes — oh, oh! Laughing words — ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, but...
Keeping Still. Keeping the back still so that one no longer feels the body. Going into the courtyard and not seeing one'...
The Gentle. Success through what is small. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers one to see the great per...
The Joyous. Success. Perseverance furthers.
立春 (Li Chun) — Spring Begins, the first of the 24 solar terms. The east wind arrives, ice begins to thaw, hibernating in...
Rain water arrives. The frozen earth receives moisture, and the rivers begin to flow again.
The insects are startled awake. Spring thunder rolls, and the hibernating creatures stir from the earth.
The spring equinox divides day and night equally. The sun stands directly above the equator.
Pure and bright. The sky is clear, and the earth is luminous with new growth.
Grain rain falls. The rain nourishes the hundred grains, and the seedlings stand firm in the fields.
The beginning of summer is established. The warmth deepens, and all living things flourish.
The grain begins to fill. The summer crops swell but are not yet ripe.
The grain forms awns. The wheat is ready for harvest, and the rice must be planted.
夏至 (Xiazhi) — the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The peak of yang energy — yet at this very moment, yin i...
Minor heat arrives. The warmth intensifies, but the worst is yet to come.
Major heat arrives. The sun scorches the earth, and all living things seek shelter from the blaze.
The beginning of autumn is established. The wind shifts, and the leaves begin their slow descent.
The heat withdraws. The summer's intensity fades, and the cool begins its slow return.
White dew forms. The night air cools enough to condense, and the morning grass glistens.
The autumn equinox divides day and night equally. From this moment, darkness begins to outlast the light.
Cold dew forms. The temperature drops, and the morning moisture carries the bite of approaching winter.
Frost descends. The ground whitens with the first freeze, and autumn gives way to winter.
The beginning of winter is established. The waters begin to freeze, and the earth hardens.
Minor snow falls. The first flakes descend, light and scattered, not yet heavy enough to blanket the ground.
Major snow arrives. The flakes fall thick and heavy, and the land is covered in white.
Winter reaches its extreme. The sun is at its lowest, and the night is at its longest.
Minor cold arrives. The chill intensifies, but the deepest freeze is yet to come.
Major cold arrives. The freeze reaches its depth, but spring waits on the other side.
九尾狐 — the nine-tailed fox from the Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经). A creature of ambivalence: dangerous yet protect...
Yinglong dwelt at the southernmost pole. It slew Chiyou and Kuafu, and then could not ascend again. Therefore the lands ...
There is a bird here whose form is like a chicken, patterned in five colors. Its name is Fenghuang. The pattern on its h...
The Kunlun Mound — this is truly the capital of the Celestial Emperor below. The god Luwu administers it. This god has t...
There are ten deities. They are called the intestines of Nuwa. They transformed into gods and dwell in the wilds of Ligu...
Her form is like a human, but she has a leopard's tail and tiger's teeth. She is good at roaring. Her hair is unkempt an...
Kuafu raced the sun, chasing it into the sunset. Thirsty, he drank the Yellow River and the Wei River, but they were not...
Xingtian contended with the Emperor for divine power. The Emperor cut off his head and buried it at Mount Changyang. Xin...
There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.
What is not good for the hive cannot be good for the bee.
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us.
The mind can turn any impediment into its own material. What once blocked the way becomes the work; what stood in the wa...
Order your life as if you were ready at any moment for the signal to depart from it.
If it is not fitting, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.