Heaven and Earth are not kind, treating ten thousand things as grass d
虛用 · Xū Yòng
Classical Chinese Text
天地不仁，以万物为刍狗①；圣人不仁，以百姓为刍狗。 天地之间，其犹橐龠乎？虚而不屈，动而俞出。多闻数穷，不若守于中。
Translation & Meaning
Heaven and Earth are not kind, treating ten thousand things as grass dogs; sages are not kind, treating a hundred surnames like grass dogs.
Linguistic & Character Analysis
- 天 (tiān): heaven / nature / cosmos
- 地 (dì): classical character (dì)
- 不 (bù): not / un- / without
- 仁 (rén): benevolence / kindness
- 以 (yǐ): in order to / by means of
- 万 (wàn): ten thousand / myriad / all
- 物 (wù): things / phenomena / forms
- 为 (wèi): act / deem / become
- 刍 (chú): classical character (chú)
- 狗 (gǒu): classical character (gǒu)
- 圣 (shèng): sage / enlightened one
- 人 (rén): person / human
- 百 (bǎi): classical character (bǎi)
- 姓 (xìng): classical character (xìng)
- 之 (zhī): particle: of / possessive / it
- 间 (jiān): classical character (jiān)
- 其 (qí): its / their / his / her
- 犹 (yóu): classical character (yóu)
- 橐 (tuó): classical character (tuó)
- 龠 (yuè): classical character (yuè)
- 乎 (hū): classical character (hū)
- 虚 (xū): empty / clear / open
- 而 (ér): yet / and / but
- 屈 (qū): classical character (qū)
- 动 (dòng): action / motion / movement
- 俞 (yú): classical character (yú)
- 出 (chū): emerge / issue forth / originate
- 多 (duō): classical character (duō)
- 闻 (wén): classical character (wén)
- 数 (shù): classical character (shù)
- 穷 (qióng): classical character (qióng)
- 若 (ruò): classical character (ruò)
- 守 (shǒu): classical character (shǒu)
- 于 (yú): to / at / in
- 中 (zhōng): classical character (zhōng)