The article examines the habitus-based model developed by Daniel Simeoni(1998) as a social ecology of translation, by drawing on Robinson(1991), to which Simeoni too alludes, but also on the ecological tendencies of ancient Daoist and Confucian thought. It reads Simeoni on 'the act of translating … as the main locus precipitating mental, bodily, social and cultural forces'in terms of Laozi(51) on 勢 'propensity,'and Simeoni on the somatics of translation in terms of Mengzi(6A15) 心之官則思'the heart's organ thinks.'