In Chapter 33 of the Tao Te Ching there is a line:
“He who knows he has enough is rich.”
The Tao Te Ching is a classical Chinese text – the foundational text of Toaism – and attributed to the sage Laozi (or Lau Tzu in its most familiar anglicised form). Thought to have been collected in it’s complete form around the second century BC, the earliest recorded parts of the Tao date back as far as the fourth century BC.
Written in ancient Chinese, there have been many translations into English (although curiously the first was not until as recent as 1868). Direct translation is not straightforward, and different scholars have used different vocabulary to attempt to translate meanings for which we have no direct English words.
The line cited above is from the most popular translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English in 1972.
Other translations of this line include:
“He who knows contentment is rich.”
“He who is satisfied with his lot is rich.”
“Those who know sufficiency are rich.”
“Those who know they have enough are truly wealthy.”
“He who is temperate is rich.”
Although meaning slightly different things, these all follow a similar theme. And whichever translation you prefer, what is clear is that for well over two millennia the wisest have known that the key to wealth, in it’s broadest sense, is not about gold, jewels or numbers in a bank account. The key to wealth is the understanding of what constitutes enough.
The starting point is to establish what “wealth” truly means. Today we use the term to describe someone’s financial worth. Yet is that truly an appropriate definition? And is there a set figure, past which a person is wealthy and up to that point is not?
Of course not. Nobody would try and argue that having, say, £1 million makes a person wealthy, and a person who has only £900,000 is not. It all depends on the circumstances of each individual.
The point is that wealth is subjective. And the sages knew that long before we came along with our digital banking apps (an instantly visible scorecard to some people). They linked wealth to contentment, sufficiency and knowing what is enough. They use the concept of wealth in the sense of a “richness of life” – the pleasure of satisfaction or contentment. Of not needing to strive for more.
Money for money’s sake is not wealth or riches. It is simply a measure of financial ‘worth’. But money is worthless if it is not used to fulfil some purpose or need or desire. Those wise men and women of antiquity knew this. They understood that money was not the end, but simply the means by which we satiate our desires, and that until we achieve a state of satisfaction – or accept what we have as enough – we will always need more. And if we are not content then we cannot be considered wealthy.
What the wisest have been trying to tell us all along is that being wealthy or rich is not an external measure. It is not about how much. It is purely an internal state of being within each of us. When we realise that then we can start on the path of building true wealth.