The Good Traveller Leaves No Track
The Text
善行，无辙迹；善言，无瑕谪；善数，不用筹策；善闭，无关楗而不可开；善结，无绳约而不可解。是以圣人常善救人，故无弃人；常善救物，故无弃物。是谓袭明。故善人者，不善人之师；不善人者，善人之资。不贵其师，不爱其资，虽智大迷，是谓要妙。
A good traveller leaves no track; a good speaker makes no flaw; a good reckoner needs no tally. A well-shut door needs no bolt, yet cannot be opened; a well-tied knot needs no rope, yet cannot be loosed. So the wise are good at saving people — no one is discarded; good at saving things — nothing is thrown away. This is called following the light. The good are teachers of the not-good; the not-good are the material of the good. One who does not honour the teacher, one who does not love the material — clever, and utterly lost. This is the essential secret.
Reading it
Five skills, all defined by the absence of artefacts. Mastery here means the work leaves no scars on the material or the person. The last lines bind teacher and student together — discard either, and the cleverness itself becomes the trap.
五种本领，都以「不留痕」为定义。高手意味着工作不在材料与人身上留疤。末几行把师与资捆在一起——丢掉任何一个，聪明本身就成了陷阱。
Help someone this week in a way that leaves their dignity intact. That is the track not left.
这周用一种不伤人体面的方式帮一个人。那就是没留的辙迹。