📖 Overview
This darkly humorous chapter argues that the very tools of civilization — locks, seals, wisdom, virtue — are what enable crime and corruption. A thief who breaks into your trunk uses your own lock to secure his stolen goods. A corrupt official uses the language of virtue to justify his plunder.
The chapter's most famous line: "The sage is the inventor of thieves and robbers." By creating the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, the sages gave people something to compete over and a language to disguise their competition. Before the sages, there were no thieves — because there was nothing worth stealing.
🏮 Famous Stories & Parables
🏮 The Sage Invents Thieves
A thief breaks into your house. He uses your own ropes to bind the trunk, your own locks to secure the stolen goods. Zhuangzi asks: would you call this thief 'wise'? The great thief Tian Chengzi stole not just goods but an entire state — and he used the sages' own teachings of virtue and propriety to legitimize his theft.