宠辱若惊，贵大患若身。何谓宠辱若惊？宠为下，得之若惊，失之若惊，是谓宠辱若惊。何谓贵大患若身？吾所以有大患者，为吾有身，及吾无身，吾有何患？故贵以身为天下，若可寄天下；爱以身为天下，若可托天下。
Favor and disgrace are things that startle;
High rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble.
What is meant by saying favor and disgrace are things that startle?
Favor when it is bestowed on a subject serves to startle as much aswhen it is withdrawn.
This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace are thingsthat startle.
What is meant by saying that high rank is, like one's body, a sourceof great trouble?
The reason I have great trouble is that I have a body.
When I no longer have a body, what trouble have I?
Hence he who values his body more than dominion over the empire canbe entrusted with the empire.
He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be giventhe custody of the empire.
Favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness; high rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.”
What does it mean to say that favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness? It means that when a rule's subjects get it they turn distraught, when they lose it they turn distraught. That is what is meant to by saying favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness. What does it mean to say that high rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt? The only reason that we suffer hurt is that we have bodies; if we had no bodies, how could we suffer?
Therefore we may accept the saying: “He who in dealing with the empire regards his high rank as through it were his body is the best person to be entrusted with rules; he who in dealing with the empire loves his subjects as one should love one's body is the best person to whom one commit the empire.”
Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind). Disgrace is being in a low position (after the enjoyment of favour). The getting that (favour) leads to the apprehension (of losing it), and the losing it leads to the fear of (still greater calamity) - this is what is meant by saying that favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared. And what is meant by saying that honour and great calamity are to be (similarly) regarded as personal conditions? What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body (which I call myself); if I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me? Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honouring it as he honours his own person, may be employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it.