| roots | pinyin, English |
| 疒丙 | chúang illness, bîng third | Also in the origin is purported to be a pictograph of a sick person lying in bed, or of a spreading fire of disease. |
| pain(ful) | W1, FE, LG, CM, DL |
| sorrow and pain | JL |
| inductive to pain | WW |
| harm(ful) | C1, RH, RP, DC |
| illness | EC |
| affliction | DH |
| bane | L1 |
| worse | WO, AW, WC |
| sear | PC |
| evil | LY |
| drearier | VM |
| hurts | AL |
| scourge | AH |
| calamity | PI |
| trouble | JS |
C1 also translates as harm: 'hài 害', 'gùi¹ 劌 [stab]' 'shäng 傷 [hurt]', 'zéi 賊 [curse]', and in the idiomatic expression 'The weapons nowhere to jab their blades' (50:19). DC also translates 'hài 害' and 'shäng 傷' as 'harm', and 'wú göng 無功 [without merit]' (24:05) as 'harms his credibility' and uses it in 50:19. PC's choice in part is to create rime.
'pain' is an interesting choice. It is a basic concept for life and I find no other word for it in the DDJ. It just does not seem to fit in Chapter 71, and only JL tries it there, in vacillation. And I find 'inductive to pain' (WW), in its needless bloat, inductive to pain.
The only translator consistent between this and Chapter 71 is DH with 'affliction', which I find awkward. 'scourge' (AW), 'evil' (LY), 'bane' (L1), and 'calamity' (PI) prove too dramatic to be sustained in Chapter 71. 'worse' has two faults: being hopelessly vague and supplying a questionable intensifier, as discussed for Chapter 44 (q.v.).
| sickness | PC, W1b, FE, EC, LGa, CMa, WWb, JSb |
| mental sickness | W1a |
| sick-minded | LY |
| sick enough to be confined to bed | WWa |
| affliction | RP, DH, AHd |
| disease | JLa, AHc, PIa, AW, WCa, DCa |
| suffering from a disease | AHa |
| suffering | WO |
| illness | JSd |
| pain | JLb |
| difficulty | L1 |
| defects | C1, VM |
| flaw | RH, DLa |
| fault | AL, DLb |
| terrible result | JSa |
| renunciation | JSe |
There is no great difference between 'illness' and 'sickness', except that 'ill of illness' does not carry the weight of 'sick of sickness'; no one attempts it here. 'disease' is similar, but has no means of contrast ('diseased by disease' makes no sense) or negation, requiring the 'free of disease' discussed below. 'suffering from a disease' (AH) is just bloat, and 'suffering' alone (WO) too much of a nod to alternative religions to Daoism. 'difficulty', 'defect' , 'flaw', and 'fault' seem woefully inadequate and skewed. LY's 'sick-minded' and WC's similar 'mental sickness' are editorial, and needlessly so, since one can always interpret every component of the DDJ on both the individual and universal level. WW's usual etymology-bloat proves unsustainable again.
| [bù bìng¹] | [不病] |
| health | W1c |
| cure | LGb, CMb |
| well | LGc |
| free of disease | AHb, PIb, WCb, DCb |
| free | JSf |
| disappear | JSc |
| perfect place | JSg |
Treating a compound negative as a single positive word is always an interesting proposition. I generally think it is a bad choice. First, it loses the component of sound in the original which may be integral to rhythm, and rhythm colours meaning. Second, it creates another layer of translational risk, two questionable word choices instead of one: Is our concept of 'sickness' what was in mind of the original authors' 'bing'? and would they consider our 'health' their 'bu bing'? Stick to the rule: keep it simple. JS goes for the gold with seven variations here. Even more problematic is the phrase 'free of disease', as an idiomatic imposition of 'free of' on 'not', because it has a connotation of past influence. This needs, though, to be addressed in the larger context of the chapter (q.v.).