Translation: Both receiving favor and suffering disgrace cause one alarm and unease; one regards great trouble as seriously as one regards one's own body.
Analysis: The most widely accepted interpretation. The entire sentence proposes two theses: first, that both favor and disgrace unsettle the mind; second, that the reason people dread great calamity is because they are attached to their own selves. The common thrust of these two propositions is that clinging to the "self" is the root of all fear.
Similar views: Wang Bi's commentary: "宠必有辱，荣必有患，惊辱等，荣患同也" — "Where there is favor, there must be disgrace; where there is glory, there must be trouble. Being alarmed and being disgraced are equivalent; glory and trouble are the same."
Translation: Both glory and abasement make one tremble; one fears great calamity as though it were descending upon one's own body.
Analysis: Heshang Gong's distinctive gloss. He reads "贵" as "fear" and "若" as "reaching/arriving." The meaning is: people fear great calamity befalling themselves, and so they are perpetually alarmed and anxious. This interpretation places greater emphasis on the psychological dread of misfortune.
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary: "贵，畏也。若，至也。谓大患至身，故皆惊" — "'贵' means 'to fear'; '若' means 'to reach.' It says that when great calamity reaches the body, all become alarmed."
Translation: Both receiving favor and suffering disgrace cause one alarm; one regards great anxiety as being as significant as the "self."
Analysis: This reading interprets "身" (body) as "ego-attachment." The reason both favor and disgrace cause alarm is rooted in one's attachment to the self. Great trouble is equated with "身" — having a "self" gives rise to anxiety; without attachment to the "self," there would be nothing to be anxious about. This understanding is close to the Buddhist concept of breaking attachment to the self.
Similar views: This echoes the subsequent line "及吾无身，吾有何患" ("If I had no self, what trouble would I have?").
Translation: What does "favor and disgrace are alike alarming" mean? Being favored is itself a lowly condition — gaining it causes alarm, and losing it also causes alarm. This is what is called "favor and disgrace are alike alarming."
Analysis: The most widely accepted and most profound interpretation. The three characters "宠为下" (favor is lowly) are stunningly provocative — being favored is not glorious but debasing! For to receive favor means that your worth depends on what another bestows; you are no longer an autonomous individual. Both gaining and losing bring alarm precisely because one's fate hangs in another's hands.
Similar views: Wang Bi's commentary implicitly supports this sense: "得宠辱荣患若惊，则不足以乱天下" — "One who treats favor, disgrace, glory, and calamity with equal alarm is not one who would bring disorder to the realm."
Translation: What does "favor and disgrace are alike alarming" mean? Being favored is an ignoble thing — gaining it causes panic, and losing it also causes panic. This is what is called "favor and disgrace are alike alarming."
Analysis: A further elaboration: being favored means the loss of personal independence. A person who needs another's favor is, in essence, a dependent rather than an independent being. Thus "favor" and "disgrace" are, at a deeper level, equivalent — both are states of non-autonomy.
Similar views: This is consistent with the thought of "not contending" (不争) in Chapter 81.
Translation: What does "favor and disgrace are alike alarming" mean? Both favor and disgrace are lowly — gaining (favor) brings alarm, and losing (favor, thereby incurring disgrace) also brings alarm. This is what is called "favor and disgrace are alike alarming."
Analysis: Some commentators read "宠辱为下" as a connected phrase, meaning that both favor and disgrace are lowly. This punctuation holds that not only is disgrace debasing, but favor is equally so — because both are external evaluations that compromise personal independence. Heshang Gong's commentary "辱为下贱" represents yet another parsing: "辱为下" (only disgrace is lowly).
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary, which parses it as "辱为下": "辱为下贱" — "Disgrace is lowly and base."
Translation: What does "value great trouble as you value your own body" mean? The reason I have great trouble is that I have this body; if I had no body, what trouble would I have?
Analysis: A straightforward reading. Having a body means being subject to hunger, cold, illness, death, and all manner of afflictions. From the perspective of the body, all troubles stem from the fragility and finitude of the flesh. This interpretation leans toward a plain, existential reflection on the human condition.
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary: "有身忧者，勤劳念其饥寒，触情从欲，则遇祸患也" — "One who has a body of worries toils and frets over hunger and cold; following emotions and indulging desires, one encounters calamity."
Translation: What does "value great trouble as you value the self" mean? The reason I have great trouble is that I cling to self-awareness; if I could forget the self, what trouble would I have?
Analysis: Wang Bi's ontological reading. "身" (body) refers not merely to the physical body, but to attachment to the "self." All troubles — glory and disgrace, gain and loss — arise because there is an "I" that calculates and compares. "无身" (no body/self) does not mean physical death, but rather forgetting the self and returning to nature. "及吾无身" means "归之自然也" — "returning to the natural."
Similar views: Wang Bi's commentary: "由有其身也" — "It is because one has a self." "归之自然也" — "Returning to the natural."
Translation: What does "fear great trouble descending upon the body" mean? The reason I have great trouble is that I have a body driven by selfish desires; if I had no selfish desires, what trouble would I have?
Analysis: Heshang Gong's cultivation-oriented reading. Having a body means having desires; having desires means having troubles. The key to cultivating the Tao (道) lies in eliminating desires — once selfish desires are eradicated, troubles naturally recede. This interpretation is consistent with Heshang Gong's commentary: "触情从欲，则遇祸患" — "Following emotions and indulging desires leads to calamity."
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary: "使吾无有身体，得道自然，轻举升云，出入无间，与道通神，当有何患" — "If I had no body, having attained the Tao (道) and merged with nature, ascending lightly into the clouds, passing in and out without obstruction, communing with the Tao in spirit — what trouble would I have?"
Translation: What does "regard great trouble as seriously as the self" mean? The reason I have great trouble is precisely because I possess this thing called "the self"; once I transcend the self, what trouble could I possibly have?
Analysis: A modern philosophical reading. "大患若身" (great trouble is like the body/self) reveals a profound insight: the greatest calamity is not external disaster, but the very existence of the "I." Self-consciousness is both the precondition for apprehending the world and the root of all suffering. Transcending the self (rather than annihilating the physical body) is the only way to be truly free of trouble.
Similar views: This resonates with Zhuangzi's idea of "至人无己" — "The Perfect Man has no self."
Translation: Therefore, one who treasures his own body as he treasures the realm may be entrusted with the realm.
Analysis: The most widely accepted interpretation. A person who truly treasures his own life will not recklessly pursue power and glory, and therefore will not use the realm to satisfy private desires. Such a person alone is worthy of governing the realm — because he will not squander it.
Similar views: Wang Bi's commentary: "无以易其身，故曰贵也。如此乃可以托天下也" — "Nothing can be exchanged for his body — hence he is said to 'value' it. Only such a man may be entrusted with the realm."
Translation: Therefore, one who values his own body and governs the realm with this self-serving attitude may only have the realm temporarily entrusted to him.
Analysis: Heshang Gong's distinctive reading. Here "贵以身为天下" is read pejoratively — if a person only values his own body and governs with a self-interested motive, he is fit only for a temporary "lodging" of authority, not for permanent entrustment. This interpretation sets up a pejorative/laudatory contrast with the following sentence about "爱以身为天下" (loving the body for the sake of the realm).
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary: "言人君贵其身而贱人，欲为天下主者，则可寄立，不可以久也" — "This says that a ruler who values himself but looks down on others, desiring to be master of the realm, may be set up temporarily but cannot endure."
Translation: Therefore, one who governs the realm with the same caution with which he treasures his own body may be entrusted with the realm.
Analysis: This reading emphasizes the positive meaning of "valuing the body." A person who treasures his own body and reputation will act with prudence and refrain from rash action; governing the realm with this attitude brings peace to all under heaven. Here "贵身" (valuing the body) is understood as cautiousness and self-respect, not as selfishness.
Similar views: This echoes Chapter 26: "奈何万乘之主，而以身轻天下" — "How can the lord of ten thousand chariots take his own person lightly before the realm?"
Translation: One who cares for the realm as he cares for his own body may have the realm entrusted to him.
Analysis: The most widely accepted interpretation. A person who truly cherishes his own life will not abuse power, wage reckless wars, or indulge in extravagance. He treats all the people under heaven with the same care with which he treats himself — he does not harm, squander, or slight them. Such a person is the true guardian of the realm.
Similar views: Wang Bi's commentary: "无物可以损其身，故曰爱也。不以宠辱荣患损易其身，然后乃可以天下付之也" — "Nothing can diminish his person — hence he is said to 'love' it. One who does not allow favor, disgrace, glory, or trouble to diminish or alter his person may then have the realm entrusted to him."
Translation: One who is sparing of his own body — unwilling to risk it for personal gain — and governs the realm thus may have the realm entrusted to him.
Analysis: This takes "爱" in its archaic sense of "sparing, reluctant to part with." A person unwilling to put himself at risk in exchange for fame and profit will likewise not gamble with the realm. "Loving the body" here is not selfishness but non-covetousness — because he covets nothing, he will not treat the realm as private property to be traded for advantage.
Similar views: This is akin to the dialectical reasoning in Chapter 75: "无以生为者，是贤于贵生" — "One who does not make too much of living is wiser than one who overvalues life."
Translation: If a ruler can care for his own person — not for private gain, but in order to serve as father and mother to the people — and govern the realm with this attitude, the realm may be permanently entrusted to him.
Analysis: Heshang Gong's theory of rulership. "Loving the body" is not self-indulgence — because a ruler who cherishes his own person will not harm the people or indulge in extravagance in pursuit of private desires, and he treats all under heaven with a parental heart. This builds progressively on "valuing the body" — valuing the body is a passive form of self-preservation, while loving the body is an active form of altruism.
Similar views: Heshang Gong's commentary: "言人君能爱其身，非为己也，乃欲为万民之父母" — "This says that a ruler who can care for his own person does so not for himself, but because he wishes to be father and mother to all the people."
This chapter contains 16 interpretation combinations.
[Core Divergences]
Chapter 13 is one of the core chapters of Laozi's political philosophy, posing a profound paradox: the person truly worthy of governing the realm is precisely the one who does not make the realm an object of desire. The chapter unfolds in three layers: (1) It states the propositions — favor and disgrace alike cause alarm, and all such alarm originates in having a self; (2) It analyzes deeply — the startling claim that "favor is a lowly thing" reveals that the essence of being favored is the loss of independence; "having a body means having trouble" traces all affliction back to attachment to the self; (3) It derives the conclusion — only one who can transcend favor and disgrace, gain and loss, and who does not govern the realm for private advantage, is worthy of bearing the heavy responsibility of governing. The divergence between Wang Bi and Heshang Gong centers on two points: Wang Bi understands "无身" (no body/self) as a spiritual transcendence, a "return to the natural" (归之自然), while Heshang Gong takes it as the concrete cultivation practice of attaining the Tao and ascending as an immortal; regarding the final two sentences, Heshang Gong innovatively sets "贵" and "爱" in pejorative/laudatory contrast, while Wang Bi treats them as synonymous parallelism. Modern readers may discern in this chapter a profound philosophy of power: the best rulers are those who have not been alienated by power — because they value the self more than they value power, they are, paradoxically, the ones least likely to abuse it.