15
The ancient master workers of the Way
Had vision to perceive the subtlest force.
Too deep they were to recognize,
And since they can抰 be recognized,
One can but strain to picture them:
Wary, as if wading a winter river;
Watchful, as if threatened from all sides;
Stately and restrained, like a guest;
Smooth and even, like melting ice;
Impassive, even as the spacious sea;
Unfettered, like a restless windstorm;
Rough and solid, like an unwrought bole;
Compact and dense, like something unrefined;
Wide and open-stretching, like a vale.
If sullied they kept calm and stayed pure;
If secure they moves with care and stayed alive. But who can do so now?
Those who embrace the Way do not grow too great;
And thus survive and overcome defeat.
16
By reaching utmost receptivity
And keeping steadfast stability,
I, as myriads come forth in profusion,
Contemplate their circulation.
All multiply in fruitful growth,
Then bend homeward to their root.
This going home call equilibrium;
Equilibrium, returning life;
Returning life, call natural order;
To know this order, inner vision.
Not to know it is delusion.
Delusion will produce misfortune.
Knowing order means acceptance;
Acceptance, magnanimity;
Magnanimity, totality;
Totality, accord with Heaven;
Accord with heaven, with the Way;
With the Way, long-lasting life;
The self submerged will not miscarry.
17
The best of ancient kings were in their kingdoms hardly known;
Next the patriarchs, loved and widely praised.
Next again those the people feared.
Last come those whose abuse they endured,
Who unworthy of trust were met with distrust.
What care the ancients took with every word.
Of tasks fulfilled and works of merit done
The hundred families all declared,
揟his was no one抯 doing but our own.?br>
18
And when the olden way of rule declined,
The words for love and serve came in.
Next came knowledge and keen thought,
Advent of lying, sham, and fraud.
When kinsmen lost their kind concord,
They honoured child- and parent-love.
In dark disorder ruling houses
Turned to loyal devoted vassals.
19
Refuse the wise, dismiss the intellects,
The folk will reap a hundredfold;
Refuse kin-kindness, dismiss due service,
The folk again will love as child and parent;
Refuse craft-skill, reject all gain,
No thief no robber will be found ?br> These three as text do not suffice.
Commandments must be put in practice:
Plain appearance, humble habits,
Owning little, craving less.
Reject the teaching of the young
And thereby suffer no distress.
20
How distant from condemn consent?
Disgust, delight, how different?
He whom others fear,
He too has to fear.
All is beyond reach and never-ending.
High in sprits seems the crowd,
Like celebrants at a sacrifice,
Or viewers on the spring-rite stand.
I alone, adrift with no signs of hope,
Deserted and without appeal,
Am simple as a newborn before it smiles,
Dejected like someone without a home.
The crowd seems sunny an inspired;
I am sullen and low,
And my heart without guile.
The crowd, so busy and eager;
I, drawn into myself;
Impassive, even as the spacious sea; unfettered, like a restless wind.
The crowd has more than it needs;
I am left untended.
The crowd has its ways and its means;
I am set in my ways and despised.
Alone and apart from all others,
I honour the life-giving mother.
21
Boundless virtue all-accepting
Attends the Way, the Way alone.
Assuming form, the Way reveals
Shapes half-seen and then half-hid.
In dark half-lit, a likening;
In light half-dark, forms visible;
Hidden within, the germ of life;
The germ of life, no thing more real:
It contains a thing to trust.
From present time to ancient day
These names have never been forgotten;
Through them we can scrutinize
The myriad millions?genesis.
How do we know of their formation?
Through the virtue of the Way.
22
Bend to not break.
Wrong leads to right,
Depletion to expansion,
Ruin to revival,
Deprivation to acquisition.
Thus the wise hold fast to oneness,
Their measure for this world below;
They make no display and thus shed light,
Put forward no claim and thus set patterns,
Do not advance and thus succeed,
Do not assert and thus preside.
By their refusal to contend
The world cannot with them contend.
Those ancient words 揃end to not break?br> Have pith and point
Truly those unbroken credit them.
揝pare speech and let things be.?br>
23
The whirlwind抯 spent before the morning ends;
The storm will pass before the day is done.
Who made them, wind and storm? Heaven and earth.
If heaven itself cannot storm for long,
What matter, then, the storms of man?
But those who attend and serve the Way
Correspond to the Way;
Those who attend and serve the power
Correspond to the power;
Those who decline and attend and serve them
Correspond to their decline.
Those who correspond to the Way
The Way will favour;
And those who correspond to its decline
The Way will decline to favour.
揟hose unworthy of trust are met with distrust.?br>
24
How long can you stand up on your toes?
How far walk with stretching stride?
Self-display does not illumine;
Self-justifying sets no pattern;
Self-advancement won抰 succeed;
Self-assertion cannot lead.
In terms of Dao, as has been said,
揕ike food discarded, excess actions
Provoke repugnance.?br> Dao-keepers will indeed avoid them.
25
Manifesting material in form unshaped,
Born before heaven and earth themselves,
Unseen, unheard, above, apart,
Standing alone ever true to itself,
Swinging in cycles that never fail,
Mother of heaven and earth, it seems,
But I know not how to give it names.
Pressed, I shall dub it the moving Way,
Or call it by name the all-supreme,
All-supreme and passing-beyond,
Passing beyond and reaching-far,
Reaching-far and reverting-back.
Indeed the Way is all-supreme,
And heaven too, and earth, and man ?br> The four things in this world supreme,
And among them one is man,
Who is bound to follow the rule of earth,
And earth must follow heaven抯 rule,
And heaven the rule of the Way itself;
And the moving Way is following
The self-momentum of all becoming.
26
As weight anchors lightness
And calm governs impulse,
The wise leader, all day on the march,
Stays by his stockage train
Within his guarded cordon,
Safely positioned, beyond harm抯 reach.
Could the lord of ten thousand wagons of war
Risk his own self for the sake of the world?
Let such lightness lose him his anchoring base?
Such impulse his rule?
27
Expert marching leaves no trails;
Expert wording has no flaws;
Expert reckoning needs no tallies.
Well-sealed doors have no crossbar
Yet cannot be opened.
Well-tied knots employ no cord,
Yet cannot be loosened.
Accordingly, the wise know how to salvage men
And make sure none go to waste;
They know how to salvage things
And make sure none go to waste;
This is called far-reaching insight.
The expert learns from the expert,
And draws lessons from the unfit.
Not to value the teacher,
Not to hold dear his subjects
Is misguided in even the most learned.
This is called the crucial secret.
28
Acknowledge the male,
But retain the female:
Be a drain-way for the world below the sky.
As a drain-way for the world below the sky,
Your constant power will never depart,
Will lead back home to infancy.
Acknowledge the white
But remember the black:
Be a measure for the world below the sky.
As a measure for the world below the sky,
Your constant power will never decline,
Will lead you back home to before duality.
Acknowledge honours,
But remember humility;
Be a valley for the world below the sky.
As a valley for the world below the sky,
Your constant power will suffice,
Will lead back home to stark simplicity.
揂s simplicity disintegrated useful things were forged?
These were the words that wise men went by
When serving as officers and elders,
For fine cutters never harm the stone.
29
Whoever mean to take this realm and rule it ?br> I see them failing to attain that end.
For this realm below, a sacred vessel,
Never may be subject to such rule.
They ruin it who try,
Lose it who hold on.
All living things of form
Now move ahead, now trail behind;
Now breathe hot, now cold;
Now wax strong, now fade;
Now are safely set, but soon will fall.
And so the wise stay far from
All extremes, all surfeit, all grandeur.
30
Those who guide their leaders by the Way
Will not urge war to dominate the world,
For such a course is bound to haunt its taker.
Fields where armies camp grow thorns and weeds,
And plague and famine follow every war.
When the fruits of victory desist;
Never seek to break a beaten foe,
And flaunt no prowess with the victory,
Assert no strength, show no pride;
Be a visitor against your will,
A victor who will not dominate.
揃eware old age in pride of manly might?
This warns you work not against the Way.
揥ork against the Way, die before your day.?br>
31
Weapons of war are omens of doom,
To be loathed by every living thing
And nned by those who keep the Way.
Presiding at court the leader honours the left.
Resorting to war he honours the right.
But weapons are never the leader抯 choice.
Weapons of war are omens of doom,
Not to be used unless compelled.
Above all, with mind and heart unstirred,
To arms give no glory:
For to glory in arms
Is to sing and rejoice in the slaughter of men.
And singers in praise of the slaughter of men
Shall not in this world gain their ends.
Thus the left is for deeds that are blessed,
The right is for deeds that bring death.
To the left the minor commander,
To the right the chief general:
Placed for the rites to honour the dead.
When the slaughter is great,
Let the leader come forth to keen for the slain;
The victory won,
To perform solemn rites in mourning the day.
32
The Way continues on unnamed.
Though in its unhewn rawness low and humble,
None in the realm can force it to serve.
When lords and kings to this Way keep,
Ten thousand things as honoured guests attend.
When heaven and earth cojoined and shed sky-mead,
Uncommanded the people shared it fairly.
But the advent of rule brought names;
And names meant mastering restraint.
To master restraint ensures survival.
The Ways presence in the realm of men,
As valley streams join rivers, then the ocean.
33
Knowledge knows others
But wisdom the self.
Power conquers others
But strength the self.
To know contentment is wealth,
To act with strength resolve.
Long as those who do not lose their place may last,
Timeless those who die but perish not.
34
The Way moves like the turning tide,
Leftward, rightward, lending its aid.
Ten thousand on the Way depend;
By it they live; the Way, never shirking,
Attain success, fulfills its tasks,
Without its ever being named.
Under its mantle all beings thrive;
But ruling them not, not desiring aught,
The Way wins the name of humble and low.
All beings bend to that home of no known master,
And thus the Way wins the name supreme.
And so may the wise achieve this themselves:
To n self-supremacy all of their days
Is the way they achieve things supreme.
35
Maintain all semblance of the Way supreme
And all the world will follow your royal lead
And do so without harm to each other,
Thus sharing in peace and calm and plenty.
The sounds of music and the banquet scene
May tempt the passing traveler to pause;
The truths we utter here are bland and plain:
Look, but there is nothing for the eye;
Listen, there is nothing for the ear;
But use them and they never fail to serve.
36
To what you mean to draw in, first give slack
And make strong what you would weaken;
Raise up whom you would remove,
And provide when you mean to deprive.
That is to do the unseen, unseen.
For over the hard and the strong
The soft and the weak shall prevail.
Like fish down deep that cannot be lured,
Hold craft of policy far from view.
37
The Dao in constant circum-motion,
Pursuing no end leaves nothing not dome ?br> Let lords and kings to this conform
And all shall turn to them in trust.
Should then desires assert themselves,
We shall humble them with stark no-naming ?br> Yes, humble them with the starkness of no-naming,
And thus there shall be no desire;
And out of the repose of no-desire,
The world on its own will come to order.
38
High virtue by obliging not
Acquires moral force.
Low virtue obliges always
And thus lacks moral force.
High virtue neither strives
Nor acts for its own ends.
Low virtue does not strive
But acts for its own ends.
High kindness does strive
But not for its own ends.
High service also strives
And does so for its ends.
High ritual not only strives
But, compliance failing, stops at nothing
