it is by submission that both obtain what they desire.
62
Nature is profoundly worth while. It is that which is most worth while for good men, And it is the only real value for bad men.
Flattery may gain favours, and gifts may help one to advance, But bad men know how to flatter and bribe.
Therefore when leaders are installed in office, Better than he who artfully gives lavish gifts and glowing tribute, Is one who, by doing nothing but accepting his natural role as a follower, pays genuine homage.
Why have men always valued Nature? Was it not because Nature submitted humbly to the task of benefiting the good and the bad alike? Is this not the reason why it is the most worth while thing in the world?
63
Act disinterestedly - without intending that your action shall change the course of Nature. Behave indifferently - without trying to impose your own ideas upon the lives of others. Appreciate natural flavours - without adulterating natural foods with artificial flavours.
Accept the fact that what is small grows big, and what are few become many. Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.
Take care of what is difficult while it is still easy, and deal with what will become big while it is yet small; For all difficult things originate in what is easy.
The most difficult things in the world Must be accomplished through the easiest. The greatest things in the world Must be accomplished through the smallest.
Therefore the intelligent man, although never troubling himself with big things, still accomplishes the same result (by dealing with them when they are small)
He who is careless about things when they are easy will have to face them when they become difficult.
Therefore the intelligent man, although dealing with things which will become difficult, does so by attending to them while they are not difficult.
64
That which remains quiet is easy to handle. That which has not yet developed is easy to manage, That which is weak is easy to control. That which is still small is easy to direct.
Deal with little troubles before they become big. Attend to little problems before they get out of hand.
For the largest tree was once a sprout, The tallest tower started with a single brick, And the longest journey began with a first stem.
Just as he who tries to hasten what is natural, must fail in his attempt, So he who tries to retard what is natural, must fail in his attempt.
Since the intelligent man does not seek to accelerate, he does not make waste, And since he does not try to restrain, he does not fail. People are as likely to go wrong in not letting things come to their normal conclusions as they are in not letting them start in their own way.
The intelligent man has no desire to redirect and no desire for what is hard to get. He has learned to be unlearned, and returned to the way which learned men have forgoten. He lets each thing develop in its own way, without any attempt to intervene.
65
Originally people knew how to follow Nature, For they did not try to arouse in the people an interest in cunning, but let them remained unspoiled.
The shrewder people are, the harder they are to govern. Therefore to try to improve government by means of increasing cleverness in people is to endanger it. But to improve government by encouraging honesty in the people is beneficial.
The comprehend the significance of these two ways is to be profoundly intelligent.
Profound intelligence is that penetrating and pervading power To restore all things to their original harmony.
66
Rivers and seas dominate the landscape, Because, by being good at seeking the lowest places, they fill and occupy and spread over everything.
Likewise the intelligent man is superior to others, Because he admits that he is inferior, And he is a leader of others Because he is willing to be a follower.
Thus although he is actually superior to others, they do not feel depressed. And when he leads them, they do not feel that they are being forced to obey. So all are happy to give him their support.
Since he competes with no one, no one competes with him.
67
Everyone says: "Nature is great, yet Nature is simple." It is great because it is simple. If it were not simple, long ago it would have come to little.
Nature sustains itself through three precious principles, which one does well to embrace and follow. These are gentleness, frugality and humility.
When one is gentle, he has no fear of retaliation. When one is frugal, he has no fear of retaliation. When one is humble, no one challenges his leadership.
When rudeness replaces gentleness, And extravagance replaces frugality, and pride replaces humility, The one is doomed.
Since a gentle attack arouses little antagonism, And a gentle defense provokes little anger, Nature predisposes to gentleness those most suited for survival.
68
The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence.
The greatest conqueror wins without a struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating.
This is called intelligent nonaggressiveness. This is called mastery of men. This is called matching the wisdom of the highest and oldest in Nature.
69
Military maxims say: "It is easier to defend than to attack." "It is better to back away a foot than to assault to gain an inch."
This means that the best way to advance is to retreat. He who bares his flesh will appear to have no need for carrying weapons. He who does not flourish weapons appears to have nothing to defend. He who does not prepare to defend himself appears to have no enemies.
No one will attack a person unless he appears to be an enemy, For to attack one who is not an enemy is to lose a friend.
Therefore, when opposing enemies meet for open battle, he who runs away to hide is the one who wins.
70
The things I am saying are very easy to understand and very easy to practice. Yet no one in the world can comprehend them fully nor practice them perfectly.
The things I am saying did not originate with me but have their source in Nature. It is because men do not understand this source that they do not understand me. Since those who understand me are few, they are, for that reason, all the more worthy of emulation.
Therefore the intelligent man presents a poor exterior, yet carries Nature's riches embedded in his core.
71
To know how little one knows is to have genuine knowledge. Not to know how little one knows is to be deluded.
Only he who knows when he is deluded can free himself from such delusion. The intelligent man is not deluded, because he knows and accepts his ignorance, and accepts his ignorance as ignorance, and thereby has genuine knowledge.
72
Do not be irritated when people do not recognize your importance; For if you are really important, sooner or later circumstances will force them to recognize it.
Do not treat them contemptuously nor despise them; For only when you do not despise them will they not despise you.
Although the intelligent man knows his own importance, He does not require that others recognize it; and he esteems himself for what he is, But does not insist that others esteem him. He does not seek to be esteemed by others because he recognizes his self-esteem as sufficicent.
73
He whose courage expresses itself as defiance is often put to death. He whose courage manifests itself as patience to endure insult continues to live.
Of these two kinds of courage, the one is beneficial, the other harmful. Many people are puzzled as to why, of two courageous men, one is harmed and one benefited. But the intelligent man finds no difficulty with this question.
Nature itself has the patience to endure insult, yet always wins in the end. It does not explain; nevertheless all understand. It does not command; but all eventually obey. It does not hurry; yet everything is accomplished.
Nature's web is so finely woven - wide enough to catch the biggest, fine enough to catch the smallest - that not a single thing escapes.
74
It is futile to threaten people with death. If they are not afraid to die, they cannot be frightened by the death penalty; and if they are afraid to die, why should we kill them?
Only Nature knows the proper time for a man to die. To kill is to interrupt Nature's design for dying, Like a blundering apprentice judging himself to be wiser than his master.
Whenever an apprentice thinks he is smarter than his master, he is very likely to hurt himself.
75
Those who make their living by collecting taxes cause the people to starve; when the people starve, the tax collectors, having no one to tax, starve also.
Those who govern people make them discontented with being controlled; and therefore cause them to be uncontrollable.
Those who are so eager to make a better living that they risk death in doing so are the very ones most likely to die. Only the self-sufficient person who depends upon and endangers no one else in order to get his living is most sure to live.
76
At birth a man is soft and weak - yet capable of living the whole life ahead of him. At death he is hard and tough - yet unable to live for even a minute longer.
All things, whether plants of animals, while living, are soft and weak, But, when dead, are hard and tough.
Thus hardness and toughness are allied with death, While softness and weakness are interrelated with life.
This is the reason why the tougher fighters are more likely to be killed, and the harder trees more likely to be cut down.
Therefore it is better to be soft and weak than to be hard and tough.
77
Nature's way is like the bending of a bow: The top which is high is lowered while the bottom which is low is raised, And the width which is narrow is widened while the length which is long is shortened.
Nature's way is to take from those that have too much and give to those that have too little.
Man's way, on the contrary, is to take away from those who have too little to give more to those who already have too much. What kind of man is able to take away from his own more than enough and give to others who have less than enough?
Only he who embodies Nature's way within himself. Such a man gives his gift without desiring a reward, achieves benefit for others without expecting approbation, And is generous without calling attention to his generosity.
78
Nothing is weaker than water; Yet, for attacking what is hard and tough, Nothing surpasses it, nothing equals it.
The principle, that what is weak overcomes what is strong, And what is yielding conquers what is resistant, Is known to everybody. Yet few men utilize it profitably in practice.
But the intelligent man knows that: He who willingly takes the blame for disgrace to his community is considered a responsible person, And he who submissively accepts responsibility for the evils in his community naturally will be given enough authority for dealing with them. These principles, no matter how paradoxical, are sound.
79
Make agreements and then quarrelling when they are broken is never advisable. For even when a quarrel is patched up, some animosity will remain. How can this be considered good?
Therefore the intelligent man continues to carry out his side of a bargain Even though he does not demand of others that they fulfill their promises
The righteous insist on keeping agreements to the letter, And the indiscreet foolishly neglect or break their agreements;
But Nature neither keeps nor breaks contracts (because it makes none). And its ways are good for men.
80
The ideal state is a small intimate community Where all the necessities of life are present in abundance. There everyone is satisfied to live and die without looking around for greener pastures.
Even if they have cars or boats, they do not use them for travelling abroad. Even if they have police and fortifications, these are never put to use.
Business transactions are simple enough to be calculated on one's fingers rather than requiring complicated bookkeeping. The people are satisfied with their food, Contented with their clothing, Comfortable in their dwellings, And happy with their customs.
Even though neighbouring communities are within sight, And the crowing of the neighbour's cocks and barking of the neighbour's dogs are within hearing, They grow old and die without ever troubling themselves to go outside of their own communities.
81
He who is genuine is not artificial; He who is artificial is not genuine.
He who is intelligent is not quarrelsome; He who is quarrelsome is not intelligent.
He who is wise is not pretentious; He who is pretentious is not wise.
Therefore the intelligent man does not struggle to achieve for himself. The more useful he is to others, the more his needs will be cared for by those repeatedly benefited by his yielding.
Nature's way is to produce good without evil. The intelligent man's way is to accept and follow Nature rather than to oppose Nature.
English_Balfour_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
Chinese - English by
Frederic Henry Balfour, 1884
Vorwort/Foreword
IT is only after some years of hesitation that I have undertaken a new version of the Tao Tê Ching. The task has already been performed by Julien, Chalmers, Strauss, Pl?nckner, and Legge, most of whom, at any rate, are scholars of the first water. But it occurs to me梐nd with all deference I make the avowal梩hat one prime defect lies at the root of every translation that has been published hitherto; and this is, that not one seems to have been based solely and entirely on commentaries furnished by members of the Taoist school. The Confucian element enters largely into all; and here, I think, an injustice has been done to Lao Tsze. To a Confucianist, the Taoist system is in every sense of the word a heresy, and a commentator holding this opinion is surely not the best expositor. It is as a grammarian rather than as a philosopher that a member of the Ju-chia deals with the Tao Tê Ching; he gives the sense of a passage according to the syntactical construction rather than according to the genius of the philosophy itself; and in attempting to explain the text by his own canons instead of by the canons of Taoism, he mistakes the superficial and apparently obvious meaning for the hidden and esoteric interpretation. One of the greatest reproaches levelled at the Taoist system by Confucian scholars is the alleged scorn of ethical morality attributed to Lao Tsze and his followers. They have been represented as ascribing all the troubles and vices of China to the example of Yao and n, and to the doctrines respecting benevolence, rectitude, ceremonies, and music enforced by the Sages who immediately succeeded them. Lü Tsu, in his commentary, vehemently controverts this theory, and strives to prove, not only that Taoism and Confucianism are at one upon such points, but that the latter is actually based upon the former梑eing a mere carrying-out in practice, a careful systematising, as it were, of the radical doctrines of Lao Chün. The fact that I have entirely discarded all assistance from commentators of the Confucian school is my only excuse for coming forward with a new translation of this important classic. The version now presented is based solely upon the commentaries of Lü Ch憉n-yang, commonly called Lü Tsu, the well-known Taoist patriarch of the eighth century of our era; and his guidance I have followed throughout. I candidly admit that this has not been done without some effort. It was no means easy, at first, to reject what appeared to be the plain, clear, unmistakeable meaning of the text梐 meaning, too, endorsed by many eminent Chinese scholars, such as Chu Hsi, Liu Chieh-fu, Wang Pi, and Su Tsze-yu, and adopted by Legge, Julien, and Chalmers梚n favour of an interpretation at once far-fetched and obscure. But I felt that I was after all under the guidance of a disciple, and not a critic, of the Master; and although many passages which before stood out distinctly enough are now dimmed by mysticism, I cannot help thinking that we have advanced a step towards the comprehension of their true significance. There are other passages the existing translations of which, apart from questions of commentary, I believe to be entirely, and indeed palpably, wrong, and of these I now offer a new rendering with confidence. The versions of Julien and Chalmers have lain beside me, and I have constantly referred to them; but far from relying on them for assistance, each glance has shown me how wide and radical was the divergence between them and the work growing slowly but steadily under my hand.
