Tao Te Ching Chapter 70: Easy to Know — 吾言甚易知 Explained

Easy to Know, Hard to Practice

Chapter 70 is a personal cry from Laozi — a moment of vulnerability after sixty-nine chapters of teaching. He tells us that his words are easy to understand and easy to practice, yet no one understands them and no one practices them. This is not a complaint about the obtuseness of his audience. It is a diagnosis of the human condition: we prefer complexity to simplicity. We assume that wisdom must be difficult, that truth must be obscure, that the deepest insights require specialized knowledge.

Laozi insists on the opposite. The Tao is not hidden. The Way is not secret. The teaching is simple: be humble, be content, do not force, act in harmony with nature. A child can understand this. But precisely because it is so simple, we overlook it. We scroll past it looking for something more impressive. We assume we already know it and therefore do not need to practice it.

"My words are very easy to know and very easy to practice. Yet no one in the world can know them and no one can practice them. Words have an ancestor. Deeds have a master. Only those who do not know — this is why I am not known."— Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 70

Coarse Cloth and Jade

The closing image of Chapter 70 is one of the most memorable in the Tao Te Ching: "The sage wears coarse cloth but holds the jade." The coarse cloth is the ordinary, humble exterior — the sage does not look like a sage. There is no halo, no special robe, no impressive bearing. The sage looks like anyone else — perhaps more ordinary, more unremarkable than most.

But within the coarse cloth is jade — the precious inner quality that cannot be seen from the outside. The jade is the sage's alignment with the Tao, their integrity, their wisdom. It is not displayed because it does not need to be displayed. The sage does not walk around radiating wisdom or demanding recognition. They simply are what they are, and those with eyes to see will recognize them — not by their appearance but by their presence.

Knowing the Sage

Laozi says: "Only those who do not know — this is why I am not known." This paradoxical statement can be read in two ways. First, it is the people who do not know — who are not clever, not sophisticated, not educated in the ways of the world — who are most likely to understand the sage's teaching. They have not been conditioned to look for complexity and therefore can receive simplicity directly.

Second, the sage is not known because the sage does not seek to be known. The sage is like the jade wrapped in coarse cloth — the value is there, but it is not advertised. Those who have eyes to see will recognize the sage, but the sage does not make it easy for those who are looking only at the surface. The sage hides in plain sight, testing our depth of perception.

Modern Application

The Complexity Trap

In modern life, we are surrounded by complexity — complex diets, complex productivity systems, complex investment strategies, complex self-help programs. The assumption is that better results require more sophisticated approaches. Chapter 70 challenges this assumption at its root. The most important truths are simple. A healthy life requires eating well, moving, sleeping, and connecting with others. A meaningful life requires kindness, purpose, and presence. We know this. We just do not practice it.

Inner Substance

The image of coarse cloth and jade speaks to the modern crisis of authenticity. Social media rewards appearance over substance, branding over being. Everyone is curating a persona, polishing their exterior. The sage reminds us that the jade is what matters — and the jade is hidden. True worth does not need to be displayed. In fact, displaying it diminishes it. The most impressive people are often the ones who do not try to impress.

Knowing vs. Knowing About

Chapter 70 distinguishes between knowing about the Tao (intellectual understanding) and knowing the Tao (direct, embodied knowing). The world is full of people who can talk about Daoist philosophy but cannot practice it. The sage's words are easy to know about — anyone can read them. But to know them in the sense of living them — that is rare. The gap between understanding and practice is the gap the sage laments.

The Simplicity of the Way

Chapter 70 is a meditation on the tragedy of human sophistication. We have made the world so complicated that we can no longer see the simple truth. The Tao Te Ching is not a difficult book. Its teachings — when stripped of accumulated commentary and interpretation — are strikingly simple. Be like water. Do not force. Be content with what you have. These are not intellectual propositions. They are invitations to a different way of being.

Laozi's complaint is not that people are stupid. It is that people are too clever. They know too much about the wrong things. They have accumulated so much knowledge about the world that they have lost touch with the simple wisdom that a child possesses naturally. The sage wears coarse cloth and holds the jade. The question Chapter 70 leaves us with: are we looking at the cloth or the jade?

Oriens has mapped 71 philosophical concepts across 330 wisdom cards and 868 conceptual relationships

Sources & Further Reading

• Confucius. The Analects. Translated by D.C. Lau. Penguin Classics, 1979.
• Mencius. Mencius. Translated by D.C. Lau. Penguin Classics, 2004.
• Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 1963.

Related Guides