Great Perfection Seems Deficient
The Text
大成若缺，其用不弊。大盈若冲，其用不穷。大直若屈，大巧若拙，大辩若讷。静胜躁，寒胜热。清静为天下正。
Great perfection seems deficient — its use is never exhausted. Great fullness seems empty — its use is never used up. Great straightness seems bent; great skill seems clumsy; great eloquence seems inarticulate. Restlessness defeats cold; stillness defeats heat. Clear and still, one sets the world right.
Reading it
Every great quality carries a visible flaw, and the flaw is how you tell it from the counterfeit — a perfection with no deficiency is packaging. The last two lines are climate control for rooms and courts alike: motion warms, stillness cools, and the one who can hold still governs the temperature.
每一种大品质都带着可见的缺，而这缺正是分辨真伪的标记——毫无缺陷的完美是包装。末两句是给房间与朝堂的温控：动生热，静生凉，能持静者掌握室温。
Find the deficiency in your best work. Verify it is the real kind — the kind that lets the thing keep working.
找出你最好作品里的那个缺。确认它是真缺——那种让作品持续运转的缺。