Chapter 71
The Disease of Knowing
知不知，上；
不知知，病。
夫唯病病，是以不病。
圣人不病，以其病病。
夫唯病病，是以不病。
James Legge · 1891 · Public domain
1. To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease.
2. It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.