To hold and to fill to overflowingThis is very practical advice at the beginning. When filling a cup with water, it is better to stop before it overflows rather than waste the water. Sharpening a knife to a razor's keenness means that it will fail soon, especially if you use that knife for tasks like butchering. Bones and gristle will fold the thin edge over, and those burrs are hard to work out.
Is not as good as to stop in time.
Sharpen a sword-edge to its very sharpest,
And the (edge) will not last long.
When gold and jade fill your hall,
You will not be able to keep them.
To be be proud with honor and wealth
Is to cause one's own downfall.
Withdraw as soon as your work is done.
Such is Heaven's Way.
The second set is for the sage, though we all take its meaning. If you build something magnificent, then others will want it. I suppose it could also mean that if you went for extravagance, eventually even you could not afford it, but that's a harder one to wrap my head around. It doesn't make it less true, but I don't think it is what Lao Tzu is aiming for. If that gold and jade can be taken, if your power can wane, than your pride in yourself and these things can also be taken or can wane. So do your work and then withdraw.
The translator Chan makes an interesting note in the margins: "Note that one should withdraw only after his work is done. The Taoist way of life is not that of a hermit" I couldn't agree more. He also points out that Mencius even makes reference in Mencius 2A:2 "to withdraw quickly from office when it was proper to do so" to leaving when the work is done. I think this is interesting because chapter 5 is such a strong rebuke of Confucianism.
The ending seems odd, because Heaven is eternal, but we will address this more in chapter 23. That is one of my favorite chapters in the entire book, and I look forward to sharing it.
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