
“An empty room grows bright; good fortune rests in stillness” comes from the “In the World of Men” chapter of Zhuangzi. In the dialogue about “fasting the mind”, Confucius first says that the Way gathers in emptiness, then uses an empty room receiving light as an image: when fixed views, reputation and clever self-assertion do not crowd the mind, clarity can appear. “Rests in stillness” describes the place where auspiciousness can dwell.
This is not a household maxim promising luck if a room is tidied. A restrained modern reading is to leave room for what we do not yet know when meeting a person or situation. Emptiness is not the absence of judgement; it is refusing to let an existing judgement close experience too soon.
https://ctext.org/zhuangzi/man-in-the-world-associated-with/zhs
https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/莊子/人間世
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