When palaces are kept up
Fields are left to weeds
And granaries empty.
Wearing fine clothes,
Bearing sharp swords,
Glutting with food and drink,
Hoarding wealth and possessions -
These are the ways of theft
And deviation from Tao.
54
Go by Love
Love does not think of love
For this reason is it strong;
It does not act,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
Desire is intent upon love
For this reason is it weak;
It always acts,
Yet gets nothing done.
Nurture love in the Self, and love will be genuine;
Nurture love in the family, and love will be abundant;
Nurture love in the community, and love will multiply;
Nurture love in the culture, and love will flourish;
Nurture love in the World, and love will be ubiquitous.
Therefore:
Judge a person by their love;
Judge a family by its love;
Judge a community by its love;
Judge a culture by its love;
Judge the World by its love.
How can I know the love of the World?
By judging my Self.
55
Love and Nature
Who is filled with love is like a newborn.
Wasps will not sting him;
Tigers will not eat him;
Hawks will not tear out his eyes.
His bones are soft, yet his sinews are supple,
So his grip is strong;
He has no wife, yet his manhood is healthy,
So his vigour is unspoiled;
He sings all day yet his voice remains sweet
So his harmony is perfect.
To approach Nature is to know harmony;
To acheive Nature is to be enlightened;
But to surpass Nature invites calamity
For emotion will burst the lungs
And exhaustion will age the heart;
The light that burns twice as bright
Burns half as long.
56
Impartiality.
He who knows does not speak;
He who speaks does not know.
Reserve your judgments and words;
Dull your wit and simplify your purpose;
Be humble as earth and a part of Nature.
In this way
Friendship and enmity,
Profit and loss,
Honour and disgrace,
Will not affect you.
The impartial Self is of most benefit to the World.
57
Government
A nation is best governed by innocence;
A war is best waged by treachery;
The World is best controlled by inaction;
Why?
Because:
The more property and taxes there are,
The more poverty prevails;
The more guns and knives there are,
The more chaos prevails;
The more arts and sciences there are,
The more deceit prevails;
The more rules and regulations there are,
The more theft prevails.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action, and the people become civilized;
I wage no war, and the people become just;
I transact no business, and the people become wealthy;
I have no desire, and the people become innocent.
58
Be Forgiving
When government is lazy and blunt
The people are kind and honest;
When government is efficient and severe
The people are discontented and deceitful.
Misery may yield happiness;
Happiness may conceal misery.
Who can say which will be for the best?
Nothing is straightforward.
Honesty is ever corrupted;
Kindness is ever seduced;
Men have been like this for a long time.
So the sage is firm but not cutting,
Pointed but not piercing,
Straight but not inflexible,
Brilliant but not blinding.
59
Restraint
Manage a great nation
As you would cook a delicate fish.
When directing men to a purpose
The sage is restrained;
Restraint allows time to prepare and strengthen,
To build loving relationships;
With sufficient strength and love all resistance is overcome;
When all resistance is overcome one's purpose is acheived.
Who can acheive his purpose is able to direct men
And his influence upon them long endures.
Deeply rooted and firmly established,
His vision lives on even after death.
60
Emotions
Because the sage follows Tao his emotions do no harm;
It is not that they lose their power
But that they do not hurt others;
Because they do not hurt others
He does not hurt others:
Because his emotions do no harm,
All his relations with people are loving.
61
International Relations
A nation acts as a hierarchy, a community, and a woman.
A woman seduces a man by being cool,
Being cool is a means of submission.
If a large country submits to a small country
It will seduce the small country;
If a small country submits to a large country
It will seduce the large country;
The large will submit in order to control
And the small will submit in order to prosper.
Therefore:
It is in the interests of a large country to give shelter,
And in the interests of a small country to give service;
If both would acheive their purposes,
Both must submit.
62
Sin
Tao is the source of all things,
The treasure of the saint,
And the refuge of the sinner.
Fine words win honour
And fine actions win respect,
But if a man sins, do not abandon him;
And if a man gains power, do not bribe him;
Just be calm and show accordance with Tao.
Why is Tao the treasure of the saint?
Because it absolves all sin.
Why is Tao the refuge of the sinner?
Because it is easily found when sought.
It is the most valuable gift.
63
Confront Difficulty
Practise no-action;
Attend to do-nothing;
Taste the flavorless,
Examine the small,
Multiply the few,
Return love for hate.
Deal with difficulty while it is yet easy;
Deal with the great while it is yet small;
The difficult develops naturally from the easy
And the great from the small;
So the sage, by dealing with the small
Acheives the great.
He who finds it easy to promise finds it hard to deliver;
He who takes things lightly makes things hard;
The sage confronts difficulty, and so has none.
64
Care at the Beginning / Care at the End
64a. Care at the Beginning
What lies still is easy to grasp;
What is far off is easy to anticipate;
What is cold is easy to shatter;
What is small is easy to disperse.
Yet,
A tree broader than a man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
A dam taller than a river can overflow is based on a clod of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles begins at the spot under one's feet.
Therefore deal with things before they happen;
Create order before there is confusion.
64b. Care at the End
He who acts, spoils;
He who grasps, loses.
People often fail on the verge of success;
Take care at the end as at the beginning,
So that you may avoid failure.
The sage desires no desire,
Values no valuable,
Knows no knowledge,
But gives people what they can not find
And helps all things accord with Nature
Without interfering.
65
History
The saints did not want to make people wise,
But to make them ignorant;
For it is difficult to lead people who know too much.
To lead a nation by imparting knowledge to its people
Destroys the nation.
To lead a nation by decreasing the knowledge of its people
Strengthens the nation.
Understanding these two paths is understanding history;
Understanding history gives clarity of vision
By which one may see through deceit.
66
Lead by Following
How does the river carve out the valley?
By flowing beneath it.
Thereby the river is master of the valley.
In order to master people
One must speak as their servant;
So when the sage is elevated to power
People do not feel oppressed.
In order to lead people
One must follow them;
So when the sage restrains people
They do not feel hindered.
Thus the popularity of the sage does not fail,
He does not seem superior, so no one will usurp him.
67
Three Treasures
It may seem that my teaching means nothing;
It describes the infinite, so of course it means nothing;
If it meant something it would long since have been refuted.
Yet I have three treasures which I follow and commend to you:
The first is love,
By which one finds courage.
The second is restraint,
By which one finds strength.
The third is not contending,
By which one finds influence.
Those who are fearless, but without love,
Strong, but without restraint,
Or influential, yet contentious,
Are doomed.
Only love conquers all and is defeated by none.
It is Nature's finest tool and sharpest weapon.
68
Using Men
A good soldier does not use violence;
A good fighter does not use anger;
A good conqueror does not use attack;
A good ruler does not use authority;
Not contending is the best way to use men.
69
Ambush
There is a saying among soldiers:
It is easier to lose a yard than take an inch.
In this way one may deploy troops without marshalling them,
Reveal weapons without exposing them,
Assault the foe without charging them,
Apply force without aggression.
Conversely there is no disaster like underestimating your enemy;
For false confidence will lose you your most valued assets.
When two equally matched forces meet
The general who conserves life will win.
70
Individuality
My words are easy to understand
And my actions are easy to perform
Yet no man can understand or perform them.
My words have logic; my actions have meaning;
Yet these cannot be known and I cannot be known.
We are each unique; no man understands another.
Though the sage wears coarse clothes, his heart is jade.
71
Sickness
Who knows what he knows is healthy;
Who ignores what he ignores is sick;
Who grows sick of sickness recovers;
The sage is never sick, always sick of sickness.
72
Diplomacy
When people do not fear, they are easily conquered.
Praise their goods and children
And they will not dislike yours.
Know your advantage,
But do not tell it to them;
Love your home,
But do not let them know;
Reject what is yours
And accept what is theirs.
73
Fate
Who is brave and bold may die;
Who is brave and subtle may live.
Which course best serves one's purpose?
Fate favours some and destroys others.
The sage does not know why.
Fate does not contend, yet all things are conquered by it;
It does not ask, yet all things answer to it;
It does not call, yet all things come to it;
It does not plan, yet all things are determined by it.
Fate's hands are vast, its fingers spread wide,
Yet none slip through its grasp.
74
Tyranny
People do not fear death, so do not threaten them with death.
If people feared death, and you executed all who did not love you
There would be no one left but you and the executioner.
You would then have to kill him.
You would then have to cut off your own hands.
75
Extremis
If rulers take too much grain
People rapidly starve;
If rulers take too much freedom
People easily rebel;
If rulers take too much happiness.
People gladly die.
By not interfering the sage improves the people's lives.
76
Flexibility
A newborn is soft and tender,
A crone, hard and stiff.
Plants and animals, in life, are supple and juicy;
In death, brittle and dry.
So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,
And hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.
Just as a sapless tree will split and decay
So an inflexible force will meet defeat;
The hard and mighty lie beneath the ground
While the tender and weak dance on the breeze above.
77
Balance
Is the movement of Nature not unlike drawing a bow?
What is higher descends and what is lower ascends;
What is longer shortens and what is shorter lengthens;
Nature's way decreases those who have more than they need
And increases those who need more than they have.
It is not so with Man.
Man decreases those who need more than they have
And increases those who have more than they need.
The sage works regardless of personal reward or recognition;
To benefit the World is to benefit the Self.
78
Accept Responsibility
Nothing in the World is as yielding as water;
Nor can anything better overcome the hardened.
Just as the yielding overcomes the hardened,
The weak may overcome the strong;
Yet they do not.
The sage says:
"Who accepts responsibility for his people rules the country;
Who accepts responsibility for the World rules the World",
But his words are not understood.
79
Reconciliation
When conflict is reconciled, some hatred remains;
How can this be put right?
The sage accepts less than is due
And does not blame or punish;
For love seeks agreement
Where justice seeks payment.
The saints said: "Nature is impartial;
Therefore it serves those who serve all."
80
Utopia
Imagine that there is a small country with few people;
Who have a hundred times more than they need;
Who love life and do not wander far;
Who own ships but do no foreign trade;
Who own weapons but do not threaten war;
Who are literate but keep no histories;
Who cook well, dress beautifully, dwell safely
And delight in their own culture,
But live within cock crow of their neighbours.
People in such a place would never leave.
81
The Sage
Truth is not rhetorical;
Therefore rhetoric is not true;
Lovers do not contend;
Therefore competitors do not love;
The enlightened need no knowledge;
