The state is crafty and cunning.
Disaster is that on which good fortune depends.
Good fortune is that in which disaster is concealed.
Who knows where it will end?
For there is no [fixed] "correct".
The correct turns into the "deviant".
And good turns into evil.
People's state of confusion
Has certainly existed for a long time.
Therefore be square but do not cut,
Be sharp but do not stab,
Be straightforward but not unrestrained,
Be bright but do not dazzle.
59
Restraint
For ordering humanity and serving Heaven,
Nothing is so good as being sparing.
For only if you are sparing can you,
Therefore, early submit to The Way.
Early submission - This is called
To repeatedly accumulate Virtue
If you repeatedly accumulate Virtue,
Then there is nothing you cannot overcome.
When there is nothing you cannot overcome,
No one knows where it will end,
You can possess the state.
And when you possess the mother of the state,
You can last a very long time.
This is called having deep roots
and a firm base.
It is the Way of long life and long-lasting vision.
60
Emotions
Ruling a large state is like cooking a small fish.
When you use the Way to govern the world,
Evil spirits will not have godlike power,
It is that their power will not harm men.
But it is not only that their powers will not harm men,
The sage also, will not harm them.
Since these two do not do not harm others,
Therfore their Virtues intermingle and returns to them.
61
International relations
A large state is like the lower part of a river.
It is the female of the world.
It is the meeting point of the world.
The female constantly overcomes
The male with tranquility.
Because she is tranquil,
Therefore she is fittinly underneath.
The large state - if it is below the small state,
Then it takes over the small state.
The small state - if it is below the large state,
Then it is taken over by the large state.
Therefore some by being low take over,
And some by being low are teken over.
Therefore a large state merely desires
To unite and rear others;
While the small state desires
To enter and te serve others.
If both get what they want,
Then the large state should
Fittingly be underneath.
62
Sin
The Way is that toward which all things flow.
It is the treasure of the good man,
And that which protect the bad.
Beautiful words can be bought and sold;
Honored deeds can be presented to others as gifts;
Even with things that people regard as no good -
Will they be rejected?
Therefore when the Son of Heaven
is being enthroned or the Three Ministers installed,
Though you might salute them with gifts of jade
Preceded by teams of four horses,
That is not so good as siiting still and offering this.
That is the reason why he ancients
valued this - what was it?
Did they not say,
Those who seek with this, will attain,And thodse who commit offenses with this, will escape?
Therefore, it is the most valued thing in the world.
63
Work
Act without acting.
Serve without corncern for affairs.
Find flavor in what has no flavor.
Regard the small as large, and the few as many.
And repay resentment with kindness.
Plan for the difficult while it is easy;
Act on the large when it is minute.
The most difficult things in the world
Begin as things that are easy.
The most difficult things in the world
Arise from the minute.
Therefore the sage, to the end,
Does not strive to do the great.
Those who too lightly agree,
Will necessarily be trusted by few;
And those who regard many things as easy,
Will necessarily end up with many difficulties.
Therefore, the Sage always regards things as difficult,
And as a result, in the end he has no difficulty.
64
Care at the beginning - Care at the end
What is at rest is easy to hold;
What has not yet given a sign, is easy to plan for;
The brittle is easily shattered;
The minute is easily scattered.
Act on it before it comes into being;
Order it before it turns into chaos.
A tree so big as a man's embrace
Starts out as the tiniest shoot;
A terrace of nine stories high
Rises up from a basket of dirt.
A high place of a hundred or thousand feet high
starts under your feet.
Those who act on it ruin it;
Those who hold on to it lose it.
Therefore the Sage does not act,
And as a result, he does not ruin things,
He does not hold on to things,
And as a result, he does not lose things.
In people's handling of affairs,
They always ruin things
When they are right at the point of completion.
Therefore we say, If you are as careful at the end
As you were at the beginning, you will have no failures.
Therefore the Sage seeks freedom from desire
And does not value goods that are hard to obtain.
He learns not to learn
And returns to what the masses pass by.
He could help the ten thousand things
To find their own nature,
Yet he dare not do it.
65
History
Those who practiced Tao in antiquity,
Did not use it to enlighten the people,
Rather they used it, to make them dumb.
Now the reason why people are difficult,
Is because their knowledge.
As a result, to use knowlwedge to rule the state
Is thievery of the state.
To use ignorance to rule the state
Is kindness to the state.
One who constantly understands these two,
Also understands the principle.
To constantly understand the principle -
This is called Profound Virtue.
Profound Virtue is deep, is far-reaching,
And together with things it returns.
Thus we arrive at the Great Accord.
66
Lead by following
The reason why rivrs and oceans are able
to be the kings of the hundred valleys is
that they are good at being below them.
For this reason they are able to be the kings
of the hundred valleys.
Therefore in the Sage's desire to be above the people,
He must in his speach be below them.
if he would lead them, he must follow behind.
And in his desire to be at the front of the people
He must in his person be behind them;
Thus he dwells above,
Yet the people do not regard him as heavy;
And he dwells in front,
Yet the people do not regard him as posing a threat.
The whole world delights in his praise
and never tires of him.
It is not because he is not contentious,
That as a result, no one in the world
can content with him.
67
Three treasures
The whole world says, I am the Great;
Great and unlike everyone else.
But it is precisely because I am unlike everyone else,
That I am therefore able to be the Great.
Were I like everyone else,
For a long time now I would have seemed
insignificant and small.
I hold and keep three treasures;
Hold on to them and treasure them.
The first is compassion;
the second is frugality;
The third is not presuming to be
At the forefront of the world.
Now. it is because I am compassionate
that I therefore can be courageous;
And, it is because I am frugal
that I therefore can be generous;
And it is because I do not presume
To be at the forefront of the world,
That I therefore can be the head
of those with complete talent.
Now, if you abandon this compassion,
and yet try to be courageous,
And if you abandon this frugality,
And yet try to be generous;
And if you abandon this staying behind
And yet try to be first.
Then you will die
If with compasssion you attack, you will win;
If you defend, then you will stand firm.
When Heaven is about to establish him,
It is as though he surrounds him
with the protective wall of compassion.
68
Using men
Therefore, one who is good at being a warrior,
Does not make a show of his might;
One who is a good in battle does not get angry;
One who is good at defeating the enemy
Does not engage him.
And one who is goed at using men
Places himself below them.
This is called the Virtue of not competing;
This is called the ability to deal with people.
This is called matching Heaven.
It is the high point of the past.
69
Ambush
Those who use weapons have a saying which goes:
"I do not presume to act like the host
but instead play the part of the guest;
I do not advance and inch
but would rather retreat a foot".
This is called moving forward
without appearing to move -
Rolling up one's sleeves
without showing one's arms -
Grasping firmly, without holding a weapon -
And enticing to fight when there is no opponent.
Of disasters, there is no greater catastrophe
Than thinking you have no rival.
To think you have no rival,
Is to come close to losing my treasures.
Therefore when weapons are raised,
and opponents are fairly well matched,
Then is the one who feels grief that will win.
70
Individuality
My words are easy to understand
and easy to put in practice,
Yet no one in the world do understand them,
And no one put them into practice.
Now, my words have an ancestor.
And my deeds have a lord.
And it is simply because [people]
have no understanding [of them],
That they therefore do not understand me.
But when those who understand me are few;
Then I am of great value.
Therefore the sage wears coarse woolen cloth
But inside it, he holds on to jade.
71
Sickness
To know that you do not know is best.
Not to know that you do not know is a sickness.
Therefore the Sage is not sick.
The sage is not sick because he is sick of sickness.
Therefore, he is not sick.
72
Diplomacy
When the people do not respect those in power,
Then what they greatly fear, is about to arrive.
Do not narrow the size of the places in which they live;
Do not oppress them in their means of livelihood.
It is simply because you do not oppress them,
That they therefore will not be fed up.
Therefore the sage knows himself
but does not show himself;
He cherishes himself but does not value himself.
For this reason he lets go of that and chooses this.
73
Fate
If you are brave in being daring, You will be killed.
If you are brave in not being daring, you will preserve life.
With these two things, in one case there is profit,
In the other there is harm.
The things that Heaven hates - Who knows why?
The Tao of Heaven is not to fight
And yet to be good at winning -
Not to speak, and yet to respond with skills -
Not to summon it, yet to let it come on its own -
To be at ease and yet to plan with care.
the Even age is unsure of this.
Heaven's net casts wide.
Though its meshes are course,
nothing slips through.
74
Tyranny
If the people were constant in their behaviour
and yet did not fear to die,
How could you use execution to threaten them?
If you brought it about that the people
were constant in their behaviour
en moreover feared to die,
And we took those who behaved in abnormal ways
and killed them -
Who would dare act in this way?
If the people are constant and moreover necessarily fear to die,
Then we constantly have one in charge of executions.
Now killing people in place of the one in charge of executions,
This is like cutting wood in place of the master carpenter.
And of those who cut wood in the place of the master carpenter, only few do not hurt their hands.
75
Extremis
The reason why people starve,
Is because they take so much in tax-grain.
Therefore the people are starving.
The reason why the common people cannot be ruled,
Is because their superiors have their reasons for acting.
Therefore they cannot be ruled.
The reason why people take death lightly,
Is because they so avidly seek after life.
Therefore the people take death lightly.
Only those who do not act for the purpose of living -
Only those are superior to those who value life.
76
Flexability
When people are born, they are supple and soft;
When they die, they end up stretched and stiff;
When the ten thousand things, grasses and trees are alive,
They are supple and pliant;
When they are death they are withered and dried out.
Therefore we say that the firm and rigid
are the companions of death,
While the supple, the soft, the weak and the delicate
are the companions of life.
If a soldier is rigid, he will not win;
If a tree is rigid, it will come to its end.
Rigidity and power occupy the inferior position;
Suppleness, softness, weakness and delicateness
77
Balance
The Tao of Heaven is like the bending of a bow.
The high it presses down, and the low it raises up.
To those with a surplus, it takes away;
To those without enough, it adds on.
Therefore the way of Heaven
is to reduce the excessive
and increase the insufficient;
The way of Man -
Is to reduce the insufficient
and offer more to the excessive.
Now, who is able to have a surplus
And use it to offer to Heaven?
Clearly it is only the one who possesses Tao.
Therefore the Sage -
Takes action, but do not possess them;
Accomplishes his tasks - but does not dwell on them.
Like this, is his desire
Not to make a display of his worthyness.
78
Accept responsability
