How to Read “If the water of the Canglang is clear, I can wash my hat strings in it”
Sōrō no mizu kiyomaba motte waga ei o arau beshi
Meaning of “If the water of the Canglang is clear, I can wash my hat strings in it”
This proverb means that when society is clean and just, you should act with integrity and maintain high moral standards yourself.
Washing your hat strings symbolizes straightening yourself up and correcting your behavior.
The saying teaches the importance of acting nobly when you’re in a good environment or positive atmosphere.
You shouldn’t take advantage of society’s cleanliness. Instead, you should maintain and improve that cleanliness by being pure and righteous yourself.
Today, we understand this as a lesson that when organizations or society function well, each person should act honestly to preserve that good state.
Precisely because times are good, you shouldn’t let your guard down. Rather, you should discipline yourself and maintain a clean attitude.
This approach helps sustain that positive condition.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb likely comes from the “Song of Canglang” that appears in the ancient Chinese text “Mencius,” specifically in the Lilou chapter.
Canglang is the name of a river in China. The most accepted theory is that a song praising its clear waters became the source of this saying.
The song’s content goes: “If the water of Canglang is clear, I can wash my hat strings. If the water of Canglang is muddy, I’ll wash my feet.”
Hat strings were braided cords attached to ceremonial hats. They were precious items worn by people of high status.
The careful handling of washing them only in clear water carries important meaning.
Mencius quoted this song while teaching that people should choose their actions according to whether society is clean or corrupt.
However, in Japan, mainly the first part became established as an independent proverb.
It came to be used with the meaning “when society is clean, you should behave with integrity.”
In ancient China, water’s clarity or muddiness was widely used as an expression symbolizing good and evil in society.
This metaphorical expression was transmitted to Japan. It was often quoted when explaining the mindset of samurai or the attitude of rulers.
Interesting Facts
The “hat strings” that appear in this proverb were braided cords that nobles in ancient China and Japan attached to their ceremonial hats.
They were important decorations that indicated status and position.
The act of washing precious hat strings contrasts with washing easily soiled feet. It expresses the highest respect and care.
The complete form including the second half of the “Song of Canglang”—”If the water of Canglang is muddy, I can wash my feet in it”—teaches a more complex life strategy.
It explains changing your behavior according to society’s condition.
However, in Japan, only the first part came to be used independently. This emphasized a more active and positive meaning.
Usage Examples
- Now that politics is being conducted cleanly, we public servants must straighten ourselves up with the spirit of “If the water of the Canglang is clear, I can wash my hat strings in it”
- Because our company’s performance is good and the atmosphere is open now, each person should work honestly with the mindset of “If the water of the Canglang is clear, I can wash my hat strings in it”
Universal Wisdom
The deep wisdom this proverb shows lies in its essential understanding that humans are easily influenced by their environment.
In good times and good environments, people tend to relax and become complacent.
But our ancestors saw through the fact that precisely such good conditions are the most dangerous.
Good environments don’t continue naturally. They are maintained by each person’s effort and sincerity.
If you take advantage of society’s cleanliness and try to take it easy alone, that cleanliness will eventually be lost.
Conversely, the attitude of trying to be clean and righteous yourself during good times sustains and further improves that goodness.
Humans have the psychology of “if everyone crosses on a red light, it’s not scary.”
But they can also have the positive attitude of “if everyone obeys a green light, it’s safe.”
This proverb teaches the importance of the latter.
Don’t take good conditions for granted. Respect the efforts of those who built them up. Fulfill your responsibility as one of them.
This attitude is the universal wisdom that creates a sustainable society.
When AI Hears This
If left to nature, water’s clarity will always move toward muddiness.
Drop one drop of ink into a glass of water, and over time it spreads throughout. It never returns to transparent water.
This is the second law of thermodynamics—the iron rule of the universe that “disorder naturally increases.”
What’s interesting about this proverb is that human choice becomes a one-way relationship: “observe the environment’s entropy state and decide your action.”
Whether water is clear or muddy is already a determined state. We cannot change it.
But we can choose our own action—whether to wash hat strings or feet.
In other words, the structure is that against the irreversible change of a large system (environment), only a small system (yourself) can intentionally maintain order.
There’s an important insight here. Washing hat strings in clear water is an act of using the environment’s low-entropy state (ordered state) to gain cleanliness—order—for yourself.
It’s the same principle as organisms obtaining energy from food to maintain life. You take in external order to preserve your own order.
Washing only feet in muddy water is a defensive strategy to avoid being caught up in disorder when the environment is in a high-entropy state.
In other words, this proverb shows a thermodynamic survival strategy. In an irreversibly changing environment, maintaining local order requires selective interaction.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches us today is the importance of humility—not taking good environments for granted—and the sense of responsibility to maintain them.
The workplace atmosphere is good. The local community is peaceful. The family is harmonious.
When you’re in such blessed situations, how do you behave?
Good conditions are the result of someone’s effort to create and maintain them.
If you take advantage of that and slack off alone, that goodness will eventually be lost.
Conversely, if you try to act sincerely precisely because you’re in a good environment, that goodness becomes even stronger.
Specifically: actively offer constructive opinions because the workplace is open.
Cooperate in crime prevention activities because the area is safe.
Don’t forget words of gratitude because family relationships are good.
Such small considerations become the power to sustain good conditions.
Recognize the goodness of your current environment. Improve yourself to respond to it.
That attitude leads to your own growth and positively influences those around you.
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