16
Seek to attain to absolute emptiness;
Maintain a state of perfect stillness.
See how all things come into being,
And see how they return!
They come to flower and fullness
And then go back to the roots whence they came.
To go home to the root is to achieve perfect stillness.
Thus, in attaining stillness, do they fulfil their destiny;
And thus, in turning back, they join the Never-changing.
To be aware of the Never-changing is to be enlightened.
Not to know the Never-changing is to stumble blindly into miseries.
He who knows the Never-changing embraces all;
Embracing all, shall he not accept all impartially?
To be impartial is an attribute of kingship,
And kingship is of Heaven.
He who is of Heaven can attain to the Tao.
He who is of the Tao endures forever,
And though his body decay, he never dies.
17
The greatest of kings rules, and his subjects are hardly aware of his existence.
The less great is loved and praised by his subjects.
The still less great is feared by his subjects.
The still less great is despised by his subjects.
For truly, where faith is not given, confidence is not inspired.
How guarded, and how sparing, is the greatest of kings in giving utterance to his precious words!
When his task is accomplished and all his undertakings crowned with success,
The people, scarcely aware that they are ruled at all,
Say: All this happens according to nature.
18
When the Great Tao is abandoned, then patronage, condescension and righteousness make their appearance;
When knowledge and learning appear, then hypocrites and pretenders make their appearance also;
I tis when closest blood relations are at strife with one noth that we have talk of dutiful children and devoted parents;
It is not until the country is racked with strife and disorder that they patriots spring up.
But in the Tao is balance;
And when the Tao is abandoned, what conflicts!
19
Give up holiness, cast away cleverness,
And the people will be ahundredfold better off;
Give up duty to your neighbour, cast away morality,\And the people will return to neighbourliness and family-
feeling1
Give up atsitic cleverness, cast away profit -making,
And there will be no more thieves and robbers.
But if in following thesethree precepts the people are not satisfied:
Take care that they are given things to hold on to -
Let them be shown Simplicity;
Let them hold fast to Purity.
Thus will self-seking diminish,
Thus will desirelessness be attained.
20
Give up accumulating knowledge, and you will free yourself from many cares.
After all, what is the diference between "Yes" and Yes, indeed"?
Can it be compared with the difference between Good and Evil?
"What others fear one may not with impunity disregard," people say.
What a dark wilderness divides them from me!
I see men smiling and gay, as if the were taking part in a great festival,
Or mounting a tower to celebrate the coming of Spring.
While I alone am quiet, making no sign,
Like a baby not yet old enough to smile,
Or a tired traveller who has no home to turn to.
The common people live in plenty;
It is only I who seem emptied of everything.
Truly, my heart seems to be theheart of a fool,
So bewildered am I!
The people about me are bright, so bright:
Only I seem to be dull and cast down.
The people about me are so eager and so knowing:
Only I am sad, so sad.
I am restless as the waves of the sea;
I am unmoored, drifting, as one attached to nothing.
All other people have something they are able to do:
Only I am unpractical, like a good-for-nothing.
I alone an unlike other men,
For I hold it of worth to seek nourishment from the all-sustaining Mother.
21
The greatest virtue is but a manifestatio of the Tao.
The Tao itself is intangible, invisible, ungraspable.
Intangible, invisible, ungraspable,
Yet pregnant of things.
Dark, unfathomable,
Yet holding seed.
This seed is truth,
And in this truth is faith.
From immemorial time till now
Its nameless name and nature have not changed.
From it proceed all manifested things.
And how do I know that such is the origin of all manifested things?
How else than through the Tao?
22
"If in humility you adapt yourself, you will remain complete."
If bent, you will become straight again;
If emptied, you willbecome full again;
If worn, you will be renewed.
He who has little may receive;
He who has much may be embarrassed.
Thus it is that the Sage embraces the One Tao and is an example for the world.
He does not seek to shine: therefore he is illumined.
He does not rpide himself on being rihgt: therefore his rightness speaks for itself.
He does not sing his own praises: therefore he succeeds.
He does not boast of what he achieves: therefore his work endures.
He contends with none: therefore no one in the world contends with him.
Thus, the Ancients' saying, "If in humility you adapt yourself you will remain complete," was no empty precept.
For he alone attains completion who, yielding, returns home to the Tao.
23
To be moderate in talk is according to nature.
A hurricane does not blow all morning;
A rain-storm does not last all day.
What is it that makes the wind to blow, the rain to pour down?
Heaven-and-Earth!
Is such actions as these of Heaven-and-Earth do not go on forever,
How much less should the actions of men!
Therefore: He who acts with the Tao is identified with the Tao;
He who acts in Virtue is identified with Virtue;
He who fails through abandoning Virtue is identified with failure.
Conform to the Tao, and the Tao will receive you gladly;
Identify yourself with Virtue, and Virtue will receive you gladly;
Identify yourself with failure, and failure will receive you gladly.
And truly, if your faith is not strong enough, you will not meet with faith.
24
"If you stand on tiptoe you will not stand firm.
With legs astride, you will not go forward."
Make a display of yourself and you will not shine;
If you assert yourself you wil not therefore be distinguished.
If you vaunt yourself you will not acquire merit.
If you glorify yourself you will not excel.
Such excesses, viewed from the Tao,
Are like excess in eating or unmannerly behaviour,
Which everywhere arouse distaste.
The man of Tao gives them short shrift.
25
Before Heaen and Earth came into existence
There was That which though formless was complete.
Silent! Still! Unfathomable!
It stands alone, unchanging!
All-pervading, inexhaustible!
One may think of it as the Mother of the Universe.
What its real name is I do not know:
If I name it, I call it the Tao.
If I classify it, I call it Supreme.
Supreme means ever in flow;
Ever in flow means going far away;
Going far away means returning to the source.
Therefore we may say:
The Tao is supreme;
Heaven too is supreme;
The Earth is supreme.
A ruler of men may also be supreme.
There are four things that are supreme, and a ruler of men is one of them.
Man follows the standards of the Earth;
The Earth follows the standards of Heaven;
Heaven follows the standards of the Tao.
The Tao follows its own standard.
26
At the root of lightness must be weightiness;
The master of activity is stillness.
Therefore a nobleman, though he travelled all day long,
would not allow himself to be separated from the waggon
bearing his luggage.
And however splendid were the sights surrounding him,
He would rest content in quiet solitude.
How much less should a king, with his myriad chariots,
Allow himself to be lightly swayed?
Through light behaviour he would lose his roots;
Through restlessness he would lose control.
27
The perfect traveller leaves no tracks behind him;
The perfect speaker leaves no cause for error;
The perfect reckoner has no need of counters;
The perfect watchman has no need of bolts or bars,
Yet none can open the door;
The perfect binder has no need of cords or twine,
Yet none can unfasten after him.
Thus it is with the Sage:
He is always the perfect saviour of men;
By him is no man rejected.
He is always the perfect saviour of creatures;
By him is no creature rejected.
His method is called the Twofold Enlightenment.
He makes the perfect man the instructor of the imperfect;
The imperfect man is the ,aterial used by the perfect.
He who does not esteem his instructor,
He who does not love his material,
Is, nonwithstanding all his learning, deluded.
In this resides the fundamental secret.
28
He who while recognizing his manhood
Yet holds also to his womanhood,
Becomes a channel for all the world.
Bieng a channel for all the world,
Everlasting virtue will never leave him:
He goes back to the state of childhood.
He who knows the light that shines within him,
Yet veils himself in darkness,
Becomes a standard for the world.
Being a standard for the world,
Everlasting virtue cleaves to him:
He returns to the Never-shanging.
He who, knowing honour, yet dwells in humility
Becomes a valley for all the world.
Being a vlaley for all the world,
Everlasting virtue will abide in him:
He returns to Wholeness.
This Wholeness when broken may produce many useful instruments;
But used by the Sage, it becomes the minister of ministers.
And truly, the Greatest Ruler interferes the least.
29
Those who attempt to seize all under Heaven by force do not, in my experience, succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel and cannot be so handled.
Those who handle it, spoil it;
Those who grasp it, lose it.
For consider:
There are creatures who go ahead and others who follow after;
There are those who blow hot, and others who blow cold;
Some who feel strong when others fel weak;
Some who mount the wagon, while others fall off.
Therefore the Sage avoids the excesive, the extravagant, the grandiose.
30
He who relied on the Tao to aid a ruler of men
Would not sek to conquer with weapons.
The man of Tao holds back from such instruments of recoiling violence.
For where armies have camped there spring up thistles and thorns;
And in the wake of marching armies follow years of drought.
Having achieved his aim, the good commander stops;
He does not venture to follow up his advantages with greater force.
He achieves his aim, but does not plume himself.
He achieves his aim, but is not boastful.
He achieves his aim but is not proud of what he has done.
He achieves his aim by means which could not be avoided.
He achieves his aim wihtout violence.
For it is when creatures reach the climax of their strength that they start to grow old;
Thus violence runs counter to the Tao,
And what runs counter to the Tao is soon spent.
31
Weapons, however handsome, are none the less implements of evit portent, distrusted by all.
The man of Tao keeps them at a distance.
The man of breding, at home and at peace, esteems the left-hand place the place of honour.
But in war-time, when arms are used, things are reversed, and the right-hand becomes the place of honour.
Weapons are of il-omen, avoided by the wise man, who resorts to them only if he must.
To him, quiet and peace are his chief delight.
He takes no delight in conquest.
To delight in conquest is to delight in slaughter.
He who delights in slaughter cannot hope to work his will in the world.
32
The Never-changing Tao has no name.
It may appear, so simple is it, of small account,
Yet the whole world would not venture to subdue it.
If kings and princes were possessed of it,
Homage would be gladly paid to them by all the people in the world.
Heaven-and-Earth would sweeten them with the gentle dew.
The people, unconstrained by commands, would live in harmony.
That which functions, however, is named.
When naming starts, see that you know where to stop.
If you know where to stop, danger cannot touch you.
As the brooks and the streams flow into and become the rivers and seas,
So everything in the world flows into and is made one with the Tao.
33
To know others is to be clever;
To know oneself is to be enlightened.
He who conquers others has strength,
But he who conquers himself has strength and courage indeed.
To know when one has enough is to be rich.
He who pursues a course with energy may attain his goal;
But to remain in one's proper place is to endure;
And he who dies yet does no cease to be
Achieves the blessing of true longevity.
34
The great Tao flows in all directions:
To left, to right, at the same time.
To it all things owe their existence, for it rejects none.
Throught it all things are brought to perfection, but it lays no claim to them.
It clothes and nourishes them, but does not claim mastery over them.
Because it at no time makes demands on them, we may class it with the humble;
Because all things return home to it - and still it does not play the master - we may name it Supreme.
Thus it is with the Sage;
He never prides himself on greatness;
Therefore he achieves greatness.
35
Hold fast to the Great Idea, the Formless Form that is the Tao, and all men will come to you.
In you they will see no danger and meet no harm.
In you they will find stillness, safety, and peace.
Pleasant music and the smell of savoury dishes cause passing strangers pasing by to linger.
But how pure, how lacking in savour, are the utterances of the Tao!
Look for the Tao, and you see nothing!
