the other,
by remaining low.
What a great country wants
is simply
to accept more people;
and what a small country wants
is simply
to serve its protector.
Each gets what it wants.
But it benefits
a great country
to lower itself.
62
The Tao ( the Laws of the Universe )
is the hidden Source
of all things.
A treasure
to the honest,
it is a protection
to the confused.
A good word
will find its own location.
A good deed
may be used as a gift to another.
A person
missing the right path
Is no reason
they should be thrown away.
At the official times of empowerment,
Let others offer their discs of jade, following it up with cars and boats;
It is better for you to offer
the Tao ( the Laws of the Universe )
without moving your feet!
Why did the people of the past prize
the Tao ( the Laws of the Universe )?
It is because
by the virtue (the power) of it,
he who looks finds,
And the guilty are forgiven.
That is why
it is such a treasure
to the world.
63
Do the Effortlessness.
Try for the effortless.
Enjoy the joyless.
Raise high the low.
Multiply the few.
Return hurt with kindness.
Stop troubles in the beginning.
Plant the great with the small.
Difficult things of the world.
Can only be tackled when they are easy.
Big things of the world
Can only be completed by paying attention to their small beginnings.
The Complete Thinker never has to struggle with the big things,
But they alone are capable of completing them!
They who promises lightly must be lacking in faith.
They who thinks everything easy
will end by finding difficulty.
The Complete Thinker,
who regards everything as difficult,
Meets with no difficulties in the end.
64
What is not moving is easy to hold.
What shows no predictions is easily made not to happen.
What is delicate is easily smashed.
What is small is easily widely separated and lost.
Do things before they have become visible. ( Plan ahead.)
Help peace and order before confusion and disorder have set in. ( Punish
the destructive without delay.)
A tree as big as a man's embrace starts from a tiny sprout. (Big things
start small.)
A tower nine stories high begins with a heap of earth.
A journey of three thousand miles starts from where your feet stand.
They who trouble over anything spoils it.
They who hold anything loses it.
The Complete Thinker troubles over nothing and then spoils nothing.
Tries to hold nothing and then loses nothing.
In handling business, people often spoil it just at the point of success.
With carefulness in the beginning and
patience at the end,
nothing will be spoiled.
The Complete Thinker
wants to be want-less.
Sets no value on rare goods.
Learns to relearn learning.
And convinces the people to return from where they have passed.
They only helps all creatures to find their own nature,
but does not try to lead them by the nose.
65
In the old days,
those who were good at the practice of Tao ( the Laws of the Universe )
did not try to teach the people,
but to keep them in the state of simple life.
Why are the people hard to govern?
Because they are too tricky!
They who govern their state
with trickiness is its wrongdoer;
They who govern their state without resorting to trickiness is its
protector.
To know these principles is to have a rule and a measure.
To keep the rule and the measure constantly in your mind
is what we call
Virtue (Power) that is hidden!
It leads all things to return,
till they come back to the Great Balance!
66
How does the sea become the King of all streams?
Because it lies lower than they!
That is why it is the king of all streams.
The Complete Thinker rules over the people by lowering themself in speech;
Leads the people by putting themself behind.
When a Complete Thinker stands above the people,
They do not feel the heaviness of weight;
When they stands in front of the people,
the people do not feel hurt.
All the world is glad to push them forward
without getting tired of them.
Because they compete with nobody,
Nobody can ever compete with them.
67
All the world says that
my Tao ( the Laws of the Universe ) is great,
but seems strange, like nothing on earth.
But it is just because my Tao ( the Laws of the Universe ) is great thatit
is like nothing on earth!
If it were like anything on earth,
how small it would have been from the very beginning!
I have Three Treasures,
Which I hold fast and watch over closely.
The first is Mercy.
The second is Frugality.
The third is Daring to Be Not First in the World.
Because I am merciful,
I can be brave.
Because I am frugal,
I can be generous.
Because I dare not to be first,
I can lead.
If a person wants to be brave
without first being merciful,
generous without first being frugal,
a leader without first wishing to follow,
they are only asking for destruction!
Mercy alone
can help you win a war.
Mercy alone
can help you defend your state.
Heaven will come
to the rescue of the merciful,
and protect them with its Mercy.
68
A good soldier
is never the first to fight;
A good fighter
is never angry.
The best way
of beating an enemy
Is to win them over
by not disagreeing with them.
The best way
of employing a person
Is to serve under them.
This is called
the virtue (power) of non-striving!
This is called
using the abilities of people!
This is called
being wedded to Heaven like in the past!
69
The planners of fights
have a saying:
I do not want to receive guests,
but I would like to be a guest;
I do not want to go forward an inch,
but I would like to go back a foot.
This is called marching without moving,
Rolling up one's sleeves without baring one's arms,
Capturing the enemy without facing them,
Holding a weapon that is invisible.
There is no greater disaster
than to under-estimate
the strength of your enemy.
For to under-estimate the strength
of your enemy
is to lose your treasure.
When disagreeing armies
meet in battle,
victory belongs to
the sorrowing side.
70
My words
are very easy
to understand,
and very easy
to practice:
But the civilization today
cannot understand them,
nor practice them
My words have an Ancestor.
My deeds have a Lord.
The people
have no knowledge
of this.
They
have no knowledge
of me.
The fewer persons
know me,
The greater they are
that follow me.
The Complete Thinker
looks like the common man,
While keeping
the Laws of the Universe
and the Power of their application
in his heart.
71
To understand
that our knowledge
is not complete,
This
is a great
understanding.
To think
about our innocence
as knowledge,
This
is mental sickness.
Only when
we are sick
of our sickness
Shall we cease
to be sick.
The Complete Thinker
is not sick,
being sick of sickness;
This
is the secret
of health.
72
When people
no longer fear
your power,
It is a sign
that a greater power
is coming.
Interfere not lightly
with a persons house,
(Do not intrude on their privacy.)
Do not make heavy taxes upon their work.
Only when you stop tiring them,
Will they stop being tired of you.
The Complete Thinker
knows self,
But makes
no show of self;
Loves self,
But does not
lift self
above others.
They prefer
what is within
to what
is without.
73
The man who is brave
and takes unneeded chances
will be killed;
The man who is brave
and does not take unneeded chances will survive.
Of these two kinds of bravery,
one proves harmful,
while the other is helpful.
Some things
are hated by the Laws of the Universe,
But who knows the reason?
Even the Complete Thinker
does not understand
such a question.
It is the Universal Law,
to win without effort.
It is the Universal Law
to get answers without speaking.
It is the Universal Law
To get the people to come
without calling them.
It is the Universal Law
To act agreeing to plans without hurry.
Powerful, beyond knowing are the Laws of the Universe:
Visible only by its results
and yet
Only the formless
can create new results.
74
When the people
are no longer afraid
of death,
Why scare them
with the spirit
of death?
If you
could make the people
always afraid
of death,
And they still
break the law,
Then you
might arrest
and execute them,
And who
would dare
break the law?
Is not
the Great Executioner
always there to kill?
To do
the killing
for the Great Executioner
Is to chop wood
for a master carpenter,
And you would be lucky indeed
if you
did not
hurt your own hand!
75
Why are
the people starving?
Because those above them
are taxing them too much.
That is why
they are starving.
Why are
the people hard to manage?
Because those above them
are troublesome and selfish.
That is why
they are hard to manage.
Why do
the people make jokes about death?
Because those above them
make too much of life.
That is why
they make jokes about death.
The people
have nothing to live on!
They know better
than to value such a life!
76
When a person is living
they are soft and easy to bend.
When they are dead,
they become hard and stiff.
When a plant is living,
it is soft and tender.
When it is dead,
it becomes withered and dry.
The hard and stiff
belongs to the company
of the dead:
The soft and easy to bend
belongs to the company
of the living.
A mighty army
can to fall
by its own weight,
Just as dry wood
is ready
for the ax.
The mighty
and great
will be put low;
The humble
and weak
will be raised high.
77
Maybe
the Laws of the Universe (Tao)
may be compared
to the
stretching
of a bow!
The upper part is depressed,
while the lower is raised.
If the bow-string is too long,
it is cut short:
if too short,
it is added to.
The Laws of the Universe (Tao)
makes smaller
the more-than-enough
to supply
the less than enough.
The way of people
is different:
it takes
from the poor
to give
the rich.
Who except
a person of the Tao ( the Laws of the Universe ) can put
their never ending riches
to the service of the world?
The Complete Thinker
does work
without setting any store by it,
accomplishes tasks
without dwelling upon them.
They do not want their merits to be seen.
78
Nothing in the world
is softer and weaker
than water;
But,
for attacking
the hard and strong,
there is nothing like it!
For nothing
can take its place.
That the weak
overcomes the strong,
and the soft
overcomes the hard,
This is something
known by all,
but practiced
by none.
The Complete Thinker says:
To receive
the dirt of a country
is to be
the lord of its soil-shrines.
to hold up under
the disasters of a country
is to be
the prince of the world.
( To be strong in the face of discrace and disaster, is to be truly Noble.)
Indeed,
the Truth
sound like its opposite!
79
When a great wound
is healed,
There will still
remain a scar.
Can this be
a desirable thing?
The Complete Thinker,
holding the left-hand tally
( the count of things to come),
Performs
their part
of the agreement,
But puts
no demands
on others.
The virtuous (powerful)
do their work;
The virtue-less (powerless)
knows only to put
taxes on the people.
The Laws of the Universe (Tao)
have no private feelings,
But
always agrees
with the constructive.
80
Ah, for a small country
with a small population
! Though there are
very handy mechanical inventions,
the people
have no use for them.
Let them notice death
and not go to far away places.
Ships and tanks,
and weapons of war,
there may still be,
but there are no occasions
for using or displaying them.
Let the people go back to sending messages by knotting cords.
(Let nothing be urgent)
See to it that they are
happy with their food,
pleased with their clothing,
satisfied with their houses,
and use the simple ways of living.
Though there may be
another country so close
that they are in sight of each other
