Therefore, this is the noblest state under heaven.
57
Govern the country by being straightforward.
Wage war by being crafty.
Win all under heaven by not meddling.
How do I know that this is so?
By what is within me.
The more restrictions there are,
the poorer are the people.
The more pointed the people's weapons,
the more disorder there is in the country.
The more ingenious and clever the people,
the more strange the contrivances that appear.
The more laws and edicts that are posted,
the more thieves and robbers that arise.
Hence an Old One has said:
I act without striving and the
people transform themselvey.
I love stillness and the
people straighten themselves.
I do not meddle and the
people prosper by themselves.
I am free from desires and the
people themselves return to the simplicily
of the Uncarved Block.
58
When the government is unseen
the people are simple and happy.
When the government is lively
the people are cunning and discontented.
On misery perches happiness.
Beneath happiness crouches misery.
Who knows when this will cease?
The straight changes into the crooked.
The good becomes the ominous.
Surely the people
have been confused for a long time.
Therefore, the True Person squares without cutting,
carves without hacking,
straightens without dislocating,
gives forth light without blinding.
59
For governing others and serving heaven
there is nothing better than moderation.
A person who is moderate returns to the path.
Returning to the path brings an abundance of Virtue.
This good store of Virtue cannot be conquered.
Virtue that cannot be conquered knows no limit.
Only a person who has lirnitiess Virtue is fit to lead.
Only the leader who possesses the Mother of the country
will long endure.
This is called making the roots go deep
by restraining the trunk.
Learn to focus your life and you will see many days.
60
Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish.
Let all under heaven be governed in accordance with the Tao,
and demons will not manifest their power.
It is not that they lack power
but rather they will not use their power
to harm the people.
They are not the only ones who have power
and do not use it to harm the people.
The True Person does not harm the people.
Whenever there is no harm done,
that power flows into the common Virtue.
61
A great country is like the low lands
where all the streams unite.
In all things under heaven
the female overcomes the male by her stillness,
and because she is still she lies below.
Hence, if the great country will take the low place
it will win over the little country.
If the little country will take the low place
it will win over the great country.
Thus, the one gets below and prospers
and the other remains below and prospers.
All that the great country wants is more people.
All that the little country wants is a place
for its people to go and to be employed.
If each is to get what it wants
it is necessary for the great country
to take the low place.
62
The Tao is to the ten thousand things
what the shrine is in the home.
It is the treasure of the virtuous
and the protection of the wrongdoer.
Good words are appreciated.
Good deeds deeds accepted as gifts.
Even the wrongdoers are not abandoned.
Hence, on the day an Emperor is installed
and appoints the three ducal ministers.
remain where you are and make an offering of the Tao.
It will be preferable to a gift ofjade discs
followed by a team of fonr horses.
Why did the ancients value the Tao?
Was it not because through it
you can find what you seek,
and because of it
you can escape what is hounding you?
Therefore, it is the most valuable thing under heaven.
63
Act without striving.
Work without interfering.
Find the flavor in what is flavorless.
Enlarge the small, increase the few.
Heal injury with goodness.
Handle the difficult while it is still easy.
Cultivate the great while it is still small.
All difficult things begin as easy things.
All great things begin as small things.
Therefore, the True Person never attempts anything great,
and accomplishes great things.
Lightly made promises inspire little faith.
Trying to make things easy results in great difficulties.
Therefore, the True Person regards everything as difficult,
and is never overcome by difficulties.
64
Peace is easily maintained while things are still at rest.
Trouble is easily handled before it starts.
What is brittle is easily broken.
What is minute is easily scattered.
Handle a problem before it appears.
Secure order before confusion begins.
A tree as big as a person's embrace begins as a tiny shoot.
A terrace nine stories high rises from a shovelful of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles begins under your feet.
A person who interferes does harm,
and those who grasp lose their hold.
Therefore, the True Person acts without striving and does no
harm,
avoids grabbing and never loses hold.
People often ruin their ventures
when they are on the verge of success.
So, be as careful at the end as at the beginning,
and your work will not be ruined.
Therefore, the True Person seeks freedom from desire,
does not value things that are hard to come by,
learns without scholarship,
brings people back to what they have passed by,
and assists the ten thousand things to find their own
natures;
all without daring to interfere.
65
The ancients who practiced the Tao
did not use it to enlighten the people,
but rather to assist them in gaining simplicity.
The reason people are difficult to govern
is because they are too clever.
Hence, a person who attempts
to govern a country by cleverness
will injure it.
Those who govern without cleverness
will be a blessing to the land.
These are the two models.
Knowing these models is called the Mystic Virtue.
The Mystic Virtue is deep and so far-reaching
that it can lead all things back
toward great harmony.
66
How did the sea
gain kingship of a hundred streams?
Because it takes the lower position.
Hence, it is king of a hundred streams.
Therefore, when True Persons are over the people
they put themselves below the people by their speech.
When they lead the people
they stand behind the people.
When True Persons are given places above the people
they do not crush the people with their weight.
When they take their place ahead of the people
they do not obstruct the people's progress.
That is why everything under heaven supports them gladly
and does not tire of them.
Because they strive with no one,
no one can ever strive with them.
67
Everyone under heaven says my Tao is great
and resembles nothing else.
It is because it is great that it seems different.
If it were like anything on earth
it would have been small from the beginning.
I have three treasures that I cherish and hald fast.
The first is gentleness,
the second is simplicity,
the third is daring not to be first
among all things under heaven.
Because of gentleness I am able to be courageous.
Because of simplicity I am able to be generous.
Because of daring not to be first
I am able to lead.
If people forsake gentleness and attempt to be courageous,
forsake simplicity and attempt to be generous,
forsake the last place and attempt to get the first place,
this is certain death.
Gentleness conquers in battle and protects in defense.
What heaven guards, it arms with the gift of gentleness.
68
A skilled warrior does not rush ahead of others
A skilled fighter does not make a show of anger.
A skilled victor does not seek revenge.
A skilled employer does not acr superior.
This is known as the virtue of not competing.
This is known as making use of the abilities of others.
This is known as being united with heaven
as it was in ancient times.
69
The master soldiers have a saying:
I dare not be the host but prefer to be the guest.
I dare not advance an inch
but prefer to retreat a foot.
This is called marching without Inoving,
rolling up a sleeve without baring an arm,
capturing a foe without a battlefront,
arming yourself without weapons.
There is no disaster greater than attacking
and finding no enemy.
Doing so will cost you your treasure.
Thus it is that when opposing forces meet,
victory will go to those
who take no delight in the situation.
70
My words are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet no one under heaven understands them
or puts them into practice.
My words have an ancestor. My actions are governed.
Because people do not understand this
they do not understand me.
Those who understand me are few.
Those who follow me should be respected.
Therefore, the True Person wears homespun clothes
and carries jade in the heart.
71
lt is well to know that you do not know.
To think you know when you do not is sickness.
When you are sick of sickness you will no longer be sick.
True Persons are not sick because they are sick of sickness;
this is the way to health.
72
When the people lack a sense of awe
disaster will descend upon them.
Do not constrict their living space.
Do not harass them in their work.
If you do not oppress them, they will not weary of you.
Therefore, True Persons know themselves
but make no show of themselves.
They know their value
but do not exalt themselves.
They prefer this within to that without.
73
A person whose courage lies in daring will meet death.
A person whose courage lies in not daring
will encounter life.
Of the two courses, either may be beneficial or harmful.
Heaven dislikes what it dislikes.
Who knows the reason why?
Even the True Person has difficulty with such a question.
The Tao of Heaven
does not strive and yet it overcomes,
does not speak and yet it gets responses,
does not beckon and yet it attracts,
is at ease and yet it follows a plan.
The net of heaven is cast wide.
Though the mesh is coarse, nothing ever slips through.
74
When the people do not fear death,
of what use is it to threaten them with death?
If the people were always afraid of death
and if those who did wrong
would always be arrested and put to death,
who would do wrong?
There is always a Lord of Execution
whose duty it is to kill.
If you try to fill that function
it is like trying to hew wood
in place of a master carpenter. You will probably injure your ownhands.
75
Why are the people starving?
Because their leaders eat up too much of the tax-grain;
that is why the people are starving.
Why are thc people difficult to govern?
Because their leaders interfere;
that is why the people are difficult to govern.
Why do the people treat death lightly.
Because their leaders are so grossly absorbed
in the pursuit of living;
that is why the people treat death lightly.
Indeed, it is wiser to ignore life altogether
than to place too high a value on it.
76
At birth you are supple and soft.
At death you are stiff and hard.
Grass and trees are pliant and tender when living,
but they are dry and brittle when dead.
Therefore, the stiff and hard are attendants of death,
the supple and soft are attendants of life.
Thus, the hard weapon will be broken.
The mighty tree will invite the axe.
Therefore, the hard and mighty belong below;
the yielding and gentle belong above.
77
The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow.
The high end is pulled down and the low end is raised up.
The excessive is dirninished
and the deficient is supplemented.
It is the way of heaven to take where there is too much
in order to give where there is not enough.
The way of people is otherwise.
They take where there is not enough
in order to increase where there is already too much.
Who will take from their own excesses
and give to all under heaven?
Only those who hold to the Tao.
Therefore, the True Person benefits yet expects no reward,
does the work and moves on.
There is no desire to be considered better than others.
78
Nothing under heaven is
softer or more yielding than water.
Yet it has no equal for attacking things
that are hard and stiff.
Nothing can withstand it.
Everyone knows that the yielding overcomes the stiff,
and the soft overcomes the hard.
Yet no one applies this knowledge.
Therefore, an Old One said:
Only a person who has accept,ed the country's dirt
is a leader worthy to offer sacrifice
at its shrines of earth and grain.
Only a person who takes llp the country's burdens
deserves to be a leader
among those who dwell under heaven.
Straightforward words seem crooked.
79
Even though a truce is made between great enemies,
some enmity is bound to remain.
How can this be beneficial?
Therefore, the True Person
undertakes the obligations of the agreerment
but makes no claim upon others.
The person who has Virtue shares with others.
The person who lacks Virtue takes fron others.
The way of heaven has no favorites;
