Notes

1 慧智 Huì zhì is perhaps an idiom. Shizhen lists it as such but in reverse order: 智慧 zhì huì, meaning wisdom and intelligence. Some translators (e.g. Gibbs) translate this as cleverness, giving a negative spin to it: mere cleverness as opposed to true wisdom. I believe Lao Tsu is not attacking superficial cleverness here, but rather what conventional thinkers like Confucius consider to be real wisdom. Not for the old boy is the cheap shot -- he goes to the root.

Thanks to Miles Zarathustra for bringing this point to my attention.