True indeed are the sayings:
揈numerate the parts of a carriage,
And you still have not explained what a carriage is,?br> And They did not want themselves to tinkle like jade-bells,
While others resounded like stone chimes?
40
In Tao the only motion is returning;
The only useful quality, weakness.
For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,
Being itself is the product of Not-being.
41
When the man of highest capacities hears Tao
He does his best to put it into practice.
When the man of middling capacity hears Tao
He is in two minds about it.
When the man of low capacity hears Tao
He laughs loudly at it.
If he did not laugh, it would not be worth the name of Tao.
Therefore the proverb has it:
揟he way out into the light often looks dark,
The way that goes ahead often looks as if it went back.?br> The way that is least hilly often looks as if it went up and down,
The 損ower?that is really loftiest looks like an abyss,
What is sheerest white looks blurred.
The 損ower?that is most sufficing looks inadequate,
The 損ower?that stands firmest looks flimsy.
What is in its natural, pure state looks faded;
The largest square has no corners,
The greatest vessel takes the longest to finish,
Great music has the faintest notes,
The Great From is without shape.
For Tao is hidden and nameless.
Yet Tao alone supports all things and brings them to fulfillment.
42
Tao gave birth to the One;
The One gave birth successively to two things,
Three things, up to ten thousand.
These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade
Without having the sun on their bellies,
And it is on this blending of the breaths that their harmony depends.
To be orphaned, needy, ill-provided is what men most hate;
Yet princes and dukes style themselves so.
Truly, 搕hings are often increased by seeking to diminish them
And diminished by seeking to increase them.?br> The maxims that others use in their teaching I too will use in mine.
Show me a man of violence that came to a good end,
And I will take him for my teacher.
43
What is of all things most yielding
Can overwhelm that which is of all things most hard.
Being substanceless it can enter even where is no space;
That is how I know the value of action that is actionless.
But that there can be teaching without words,
Value in action that is actionless,
Few indeed can understand.
44
Fame or one's own self, which matters to one most?
One's own self or things bought, which should count most?
In the getting or the losing, which is worse?
Hence he who grudges expense pays dearest in the end;
He who has hoarded most will suffer the heaviest loss.
Be content with what you have and are, and no one can despoil you;
Who stops in time nothing can harm.
He is forever safe and secure.
45
What is most perfect seems to have something missing;
Yet its use is unimpaired.
What is most full seems empty;
Yet its use will never fail.
What is most straight seems crooked;
The greatest skill seems like clumsiness,
The greatest eloquence like stuttering.
Movement overcomes cold;
But staying still overcomes heat.
So he by his limpid calm
Puts right everything under heaven.
46
When there is Tao in the empire
The galloping steeds are turned back to fertilize the ground by their droppings.
When there is not Tao in the empire
War horses will be reared even on the sacred mounds below the city walls.
(No lure is greater than to possess what others want,)
No disaster greater than not to be content with what one has,
No presage of evil greater than men should be wanting to get more.
Truly:
揌e who has once known the contentment that comes simply through being content,
Will never again be otherwise than contented?
47
Without leaving his door
He knows everything under heaven.
Without looking out of his window
He knows all the ways of heaven.
For the further one travels
The less one knows.
Therefore the Sage arrives without going,
Sees all without looking,
Does nothing, yet achieves everything.
48
Learning consists in adding to one's stock day by day;
The practice of Tao consists in 搒ubtracting day by day,
Subtracting and yet again subtracting
Till one has reached inactivity.
But by this very inactivity
Everything can be activated.?br> Those who of old won the adherence of all who live under heaven
All did so not interfering.
Had they interfered,
They would never have won this adherence.
49
The Sage has no heart of his own;
He uses the heart of the people as his heart.
Of the good man I approve,
But of the bad I also approve,
And thus he gets goodness.
The truthful man I believe, but the liar I also believe,
And thus he gets truthfulness.
The Sage, in the dealings with the world, seems like one dazed with fright;
For the world's sake be dulls his wits.
The Hundred Families all the time strain their eyes and ears,
The Sage all the time sees and hears no more than an infant sees and hears.
50
He who aims at life achieves death.
If the 揷ompanions of life?are thirteen,
So likewise are the 揷ompanions of death?thirteen.
How is it that the 揹eath-stops?in man's life
And activity are also thirteen?
It is because men feed life too grossly.
It is said that he who has a true hold on life,
When he walks on land does not meet tigers or wild buffaloes;
In battle he is not touched by weapons of war.
Indeed,
A buffalo that attacked him would find nothing for its horns to butt,
A tiger would find nothing for its claws to tear,
A weapon would find no place for its point to enter in.
And why?
Because such men have no 揹eath-spot?in them.
51
Tao gave them birth;
The 損ower?of Tao reared them,
Shaped them according to their kinds,
Perfected them, giving to each its strength.
Therefore
Of the ten thousand things there is not one that does not worship Tao
And do homage to its 損ower?
No mandate ever went forth that accorded to Tao the right to be worshipped,
Nor to its 損ower?the right to be worshipped,
Nor to its 損ower?the right to receive homage.
It was always and of itself so.
Therefore as Tao bore them and the 損ower?of Tao reared them,
Made them grow, fostered them,
Harboured them,
Brewed for them,
So you must rear them, but not lay claim to them,
Control them, but never lean upon them,
Be chief among them, but not manage them.
This is called the mysterious power.?br>
52
That which was the beginning of all things under heaven
We may speak of as the 搈other?of all things.
He who apprehends the mother
Thereby knows the sons.
And he who has known the sons,
Will hold all the tighter to the mother,
And to the end of his days suffer no harm;
揃lock the passages, t the doors,
And till the end your strength shall not fail.
Open up the passages, increase your doings,
And till your last day no help shall come to you.?br> As good sight means seeing what is very small
So strength means holding on to what is weak.
He who having used the outer-light can return to the innerlight
Is thereby preserved from all harm.
This is called resorting to the always-so.
53
He who has the least scrap of sense,
Once he has got started on the great highway has nothing to fear
So long as he avoids turnings.
For great highways are safe and easy.
But men love by-paths.
So long as Court is in order
They are content to let their fields run to weed
And their granaries stand empty.
They wear patterns and embroideries,
Carry sharp swords, glut themselves with drink and food,
Have more possessions than they can use.
These are the riotous ways of brigandage; they are not the Highway.
54
What Tao plants cannot be plucked,
What Tao clasps, cannot slip.
By its virtue alone can one generation after another carry on the ancestrial sacrifice.
Apply it to yourself and by its power you will be freed from dross.
Apply it to your household and your household shall thereby have abundance.
Apply it to the village, and the village will be made secure.
Apply it to the kingdom, and the kingdom shall thereby be made to flourish.
Apply it to an empire, and the empire shall thereby be extended.
Therefore just as through oneself one may contemplate Oneself,
So through the household one may contemplate the Household,
And through the village, one may contemplate the Village,
And through the kingdom, one may contemplate the Kingdom,
And through the empire, one may contemplate the Empire.
How do I know that the empire is so?
By this.
55
The impunity of things fraught with the 損ower?br> May be likened to that of an infant.
Poisonous insects do not sting it,
Nor fierce beasts seize it,
Nor clawing birds maul it,
Its bones are soft, its sinews weak; but its grip is strong.
Not yet to have known the union of male and female,
But to be completely formed,
Means that the vital force is at its height;
To be able to scream all day without getting hoarse
Means that the harmony is at its perfection.
To understand such harmony is to understand the always so.
To understand the always-so is to be illumined.
But to fill life to the brim is to invite omens.
If the heart makes calls upon the life-breath, rigidity follows.
Whatever has a time of vigour also has a time of decay.
Such things are against Tao,
And whatever is against Tao is soon destroyed.
56
Those who know do not speak;
Those who speak do not know.
Black the passages,
t the doors,
Let all sharpness be blunted,
All tangles untied,
All glare tempered.
All dust smoothed.
This is called the mysterious leveling.
He who has achieved it cannot either be drawn into friendship or repelled,
Cannot be benefited, cannot be harmed,
Cannot either be raised or humbled,
And for that very reason is highest of all creatures under heaven.
57
揔ingdoms can only be governed if rules are kept;
Battles can only be won if rules are broken.?br> But the adherence of all under heaven can only be won by letting-alone.
How do I know that it is so?
By this.
The more prohibitions there are, the more ritual avoidances,
The poorer the people will be.
The more 搒harp weapons?there are,
The more benighted will the whole land grow.
The more cunning craftsmen there are,
The more pernicious contrivances will be invented.
The more laws are promulgated,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.
Therefore a sage has said:
So long as I 揹o nothing?the people will of themselves be transformed.
So long as I love quietude, the people will of themselves go straight.
So long as I act only by inactivity the people will of themselves become prosperous.
So long as I have no wants
The people will of themselves return to the 搒tate of the Uncarved Block?
58
When the ruler looks repressed the people will be happy and satisfied;
When the rule looks lively and self-assured the people will be carping and discontented.
揑t is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, upon good fortune that bad fortune rests.?br> But though few know it, there is a bourn where there is neither right nor wrong;
In a realm where every straight is doubled by a crooked,
And every good by an ill, surely mankind has gone long enough astray?
Therefore the Sage
Squares without cutting,
Shapes the corners without iopping,
Straightens without stretching,
Gives forth light without shining.
59
You cannot rule men nor serve heaven unless you have laid up a store;
This 搇aying up a store?means quickly absorbing,
And 搎uickly absorbing?means doubling one's garnered 損ower?
Double your garnered power and it acquires a strength that nothing can overcome.
If there is nothing it cannot overcome, it know no bounds,
And only what knows no bounds is huge enough to keep a whole kingdom in its grasp.
But only he who having the kingdom goes to the Mother can keep it long.
This is called the art of making the roots strike deep by fencing the trunk,
Of making life long by fixed staring.
60
Ruling a large kingdom is indeed like cooking small fish.
They who by Tao all that is under heaven
Did not let an evil spirit within them display its powers.
Nay, it was not only that the evil spirit did not display its powers;
Neither was the Sage's good spirit used to the hurt of other men.
Nor was it only that his good spirit was not used to harm other men,
The Sage himself was thus saved from harm.
And so, each being saved from harm,
Their 損owers?could converge towards a common end.
61
A large kingdom must be like the low ground towards which all streams flows down.
It must be a point towards which all things under heaven converge.
Its part must be that of the female in its dealings with all things under heaven.
The female by quiescence conquers the male; by quiescence gets underneath.
If a large kingdom can in the same way succeed in getting underneath a small kingdom
Then it will win the adherence of the small kingdom;
And it is because small kingdoms are by nature in this way underneath large kingdoms
That they win the adherence of large kingdoms.
The one must get underneath in order to do it;
The other is underneath and therefore does it.
(What large countries really need is more inhabitants;
And what small countries need is some place
Where their surplus inhabitants can go and get employment.)
