What is minute is easy to scatter.
Deal with a thing before it exists;
Handle disorder before it occurs.
A tree of a full span's girth
Springs from a tiny sprout
A nine-storey tower
Rises from a clod of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from where your feet are.
Whoever acts spoils,
Whoever grasps loses.
The sage does nothing;
Therefore he spoils nothing.
He grasps nothing;
Therefore he loses nothing.
People often spoil things at the point of success:
Take it easy at the finish as well as the start;
Then nothing will be spoiled
Therefore the sage
Desires to be desireless,
Does not prize rare goods,
Learns to unlearn his learning,
Returns the people to what they have lost,
Helps all things find their nature,
But dares not do.
65
The ancients well versed in Tao
Did not enlighten the people
But kept them simple minded.
Why are the people hard to govern?
Because they are too clever.
Clever government is a curse,
Non-clever government a blessing.
To know these two things
Is to follow the ancient pattern,
And to know the ancient pattern
Is original virtue.
Original virtue is far-reaching and deep.
It leads all things to return
Back to the original harmony.
66
Rivers and seas become the kings of the valleys
Because they lie lower:
That is why they become kings.
Hence the sage,
Wishing to be higher than the people,
Keeps his speech lower;
Wishing to lead the people,
Puts himself behind them.
For the sage
Stays above the people,
But they don't feel weight;
Stays in front,
But they don't feel hurt.
Thus, beneath-heaven
Gladly upholds him
And does not weary of him.
Because he does not compete,
Nobody beneath heaven can compete with him.
67
All beneath heaven say
My Tao seems like folly.
But it is great
Because it seems like folly.
Were it not like folly,
Long indeed would it have been petty.
I have three treasures,
Held close and guarded.
The first is love.
The second is simplicity.
The third is not-daring to be first beneath heaven.
Whoever is loving can be brave;
Whoever is simple can be generous;
Whoever is not-daring to be first beneath heaven
Can be a vessel of excellence.
But to be brave without being loving,
Generous without being simple,
Foremost without being hindmost,
That is to perish!
For love cannot fight without winning.
Cannot defend without strengthening.
When heaven helps,
It protects by loving.
68
A good soldier is not violent;
A good fighter has no wrath.
The best way to win over an enemy
Is not to contend with him.
The best way to use a man
Is to work under him.
Call this not-competing in virtue.
Call this using human strengths.
Call this mating with heaven as of old.
69
The strategists have a saying:
I dare not be a host,
But rather a guest;
Dare not advance an inch,
But rather retreat a foot.
This is called
Marching by not-marching,
Capturing by not-baring arms,
Charging by not attacking,
Seizing by not-bearing arms.
There is no evil heavier
Than to make light of an enemy.
To make light of an enemy
Is to lose what we value.
Thus when armies clash
The one that grieves wins.
70
My words are very easy to know,
Very easy to follow.
But beneath-heaven can't know them.
My words have an ancestor;
My deeds have a lord.
People don't know hum,
So they don't know me.
The fewer who know me,
The more honored I am.
The sage wears coarse clothing,
Inside himself hides jade.
71
To know and to be unknowing is best;
Not to know and to be knowing is sickness.
Only by being sick of our sickness
Are we not sick.
The sage is not sick.
He is sick of sickness
And therefore not sick.
72
When people don't fear force,
Greater force is on the way.
Don't meddle with their homes
Or weary them at their work.
Only when they are not wearied
Will they not weary you.
Therefore,
The sage knows himself,
But makes no show of himself.
Loves himself,
But does not exalt himself.
He rejects the outward,
Accepts the inward.
73
The brave in daring dies;
The brave in not-daring lives.
Of these two,
One helps, the other hurts.
Heaven may hate,
But who knows why?
This question stumps the sage.
It is the Tao of heaven
To conquer without competing,
To answer without speaking,
To attract without summoning,
To get results without hastening.
Vast is heaven's net and wide-meshed,
Yet nothing slips through.
74
When people don't mind death,
Why threaten them with death?
If, afraid of death, they were still unruly,
Who would dare seize and kill them?
The great executioner kills those who kill.
To take his place is like
Handling the hatchet for a master carpenter.
Whoever handles the hatchet for a master carpenter
Usually gets his hands cut.
75
When people are starving,
Their rulers are taxing them heavily.
That is why they are starving.
When people are hard to govern,
Their rulers are something-doing.
That is why they are hard to govern.
When people make light of death,
Their rulers make much of life.
That is why they make light of death.
Not interfering with life
Is better than glamorizing life.
76
A man lives soft and weak,
Dies hard and stiff.
The grass, the trees, the then thousand things
Live soft and supple,
Die brittle and dry.
Hence
The hard and stiff
Are followers of death;
The soft and weak
Are followers of life.
For
When armies are stiff, they will lose;
When trees are stiff, they will fall.
The stiff and mighty will be cast down;
The soft and weak will be lifted up.
77
Heaven's Tao is like a stretched bow:
The top goes down and the bottom goes up. What has much is shortened;
What has little is increased.
Heaven's Tao takes from those with much
And gives to those with little.
Man's way is not so:
It takes from those with little
And gives to those with much.
Who uses muchness
To serve beneath heaven?
Only he who has Tao!
Therefore the sage
Does but does not claim,
Completes his work but takes no credit.
He does not want his merit seen.
78
Nothing beneath heaven
Is softer and weaker than water.
Nothing is better
To attack the hard and strong,
And nothing can take its place.
The weak overcome the strong;
The soft overcome the hard.
There is no one beneath heaven who doesn't know this,
And no one who practices it.
Therefore the sage says:
To bear the dirt of the country
Is to be master of the grain-shrines.
To bear the sins of the country
Is to be the lord of beneath-heaven.
Indeed, straight words seem crooked!
79
When great ill-will is reconciled,
There remains ill-will.
How shall it be made good?
By the sage holding the left-hand tally
And laying no guilt on others.
If you have virtue, you do what you should.
If you have no virtue, you levy claims.
The Tao of heaven plays no favorites,
But it always succors the good.
80
Oh for a small country with few people!
There may be contrivances
In ten-fold or hundred-fold abundance,
But the people don't use them.
Let the people mind death
And not move away.
Tough there are boats and carriages,
There is no occasion to ride them.
Though there are weapons and arms,
There is no occasion to show them.
Let the people again knot cords.
Let them enjoy their food,
Take pleasure in their clothes,
Find contentment in their houses,
And delight in their tasks.
Another country may be so near
That each hears the noise
Of the other's cocks and dogs,
But until the end of their days,
The two people never mingle.
81
True words are not nice;
Nice words are not true.
A good man does not argue;
An arguer is not good.
The wise are not learned;
The learned are not wise.
The sage does not hoard.
The more he does for others,
The more he has himself.
The more he gives,
The more he gets.
The way of Heaven is
To benefit but not to harm.
The way of the sage is
To work but not compete.
English_McCarroll_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
Chinese - English by
Tolbert McCarroll, 1982
1
The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The name is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Send your desires away and you will see the mystery.
Be filled with desire
and you will see only the manifestation.
As these two come forth they differ in name.
Yet at their source they are the same.
This source is called a mystery.
Darkness within darkness,
the gateway to all mystery.
2
All under heaven see beauty as beauty
only because they also see ugliness.
All announce that good is good
only because they also denounce what is bad.
Therefore, something and nothing give birth to one another
Difficult and easy complete one another.
Long and short fashion one another.
High and low arise from one another.
Notes and tones harmonize with one another.
Front and back follow one another.
Thus, the True Person acts without striving
and teaches without words.
Deny nothing to the ten thousand things.
Nourish them without claiming authority,
Benefit them without demanding gratitude,
Do the work, then move on.
And, the fruits of your labor will last forever.
3
Not exalting the talented prevents rivalry.
Not valuing goods that are hard to obtain
prevents stealing.
Not displaying desirable things
prevents confusion of the heart.
Therefore, the True Person governs by
emptying the heart of desire
and filling the belly with food,
weakening ambitions
and strengthening bones.
If the people are simple and free from desire,
then the clever ones never dare to interfere.
Practice action without striving
and all will be in order.
4
The Tao is like an empty bowl,
yet it may be used
without ever needing to be filled.
It is the deep and unfathomable source
of the ten thousand things.
Blunt the sharpness.
Untie the knot.
Soften the glare.
Settle with the dust.
It is hidden deep yet ever present.
I do not know whose child it is.
It existed before the common ancestor.
5
Heaven and earth are not moved
by offerings of straw-dogs.
The Trne Person is not moved
by offerings of straw-dogs.
The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows.
It is empty and yet never exhausted.
The more it works the more comes out.
Many words lead to exhaustion.
Better to hold fast to your center.
6
The valley spirit never dies.
It is the unknown first mother,
whose gate is the root
from which grew heaven and earth.
It is dimly seen, yet always present.
Draw from it all you wish;
it will never run dry.
7
Heaven and earth last forever.
The reason why heaven and earth last forever
is that they do not live for themselves.
Hence, they last forever.
Therefore, the True Person
leaves self behind
and thus is found in front,
is not guarded and thus is preserved,
is self-free and thus is able
to find fulfillment.
8
The highest good is like water.
For water benefits the ten thousand things without striving.
It settles in places that people avoid
and so is like the Tao.
In choosing your horne look to the land.
In preparing your heart go deep.
In associating with others value gentleness.
In speaking exhibit good faith.
In governing pruvide good order.
In the conduct of business be competent.
In action be timely.
Then there is no strife, nothing goes amiss.
9
Better to stop in time than to fill to the brim.
Hone a blade to the sharpest point,
and it will soon be blunt.
Fill your house with gold and jade,
and no one can protect it.
Be prideful about wealth and position,
and you bring disasters upon yourself.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.
10
While carrying your active life on your head
can you embrace the quiet spirit in your arms,
and not let go?
While being fully focused on vour vital breath
can you make it soft like that of a newborn babe?
While cleaning your inner mirror
can you leave it without blemish?
While loving the people and ruling the country
can you dispense with cleverness?
While opening and closing the gates of heaven
can you be like a mother bird?
While penetrating the four quarters with your insight
can you remain simple?
Help the people live!
Nourish the people!
Help them live yet lay no claim to them.
Benefit them yet seek no gratitude.
Guide thern yet do not control them.
This is called the hidden Virtue.
11
