Thus each gets what it needs.
That is why I say the large kingdom must 揼et underneath?
62
Tao in the Universe is like the south-west corner in the house.
It is the treasure of the good man,
The support of the bad.
There is a traffic in speakers of fine words;
Persons of grave demeanour are accepted as gifts;
Even the bad let slip no opportunity to acquire them.
Therefore on the day of an Emperor's enthronement
Or at the installation of the three officers of State
Rather than send a team of four horses, preceded by a disc of jade,
Better were it, as can be done without moving from one's seat,
To send this Tao.
For what did the ancients say of this Tao,
How did they prize it?
Did they not say of those that have it
揚ursuing, they shall catch; pursued, they shall escape br> They thought it, indeed, most precious of all things under heaven.
63
It acts without action, does without doing,
Finds flavour in what is flavourless,
Can make the small great and the few many,
揜equites injuries with good deeds,
Deals with the hard while it is still easy,
With the great while it is still small.?br> In the governance of empire everything difficult
Must be dealt with while it is still easy,
Everything great must be dealt with while it is still small.
Therefore the Sage never has to deal with the great;
And so achieves greatness.
But again 揕ight assent inspires little confidence
And 'many easies' means many a hard.?br> Therefore the Sage knows too how to make the easy difficult,
And by doing so avoid all difficulties!
64
揥hat stays still is easy to hold;
Before there has been an omen it is easy to lay plans.
What is tender is easily torn,
What is minute is easy to scatter.?br> Deal with things in their state of not-yet-being,
Put them in order before they have got into confusion.
For 搕he tree big as a man's embrace began as a tiny sprout,
The tower nine storeys high began with a heap of earth,
The journey of a thousand leagues began with what was under the feet?
He who acts, harms; he who grabs, lets slip.
Therefore the Sage does not act, and so does not harm;
Does not grab, and so does not let slip.
Whereas the people of the world, at their tasks,
Constantly spoil things when within an ace of completing them.
揌eed the end no less than the beginning,?br> And your work will not be spoiled.
Therefore the Sage wants only things that are unwanted,
Sets no store by products difficult to get,
And so teaches things untaught,
Turning all men back to the things they have left behind,
That the ten thousand creatures may be restored to their Self-so.
This he does; but dare not act.
65
In the days of old those who practiced Tao with success did not,
By means of it,
Enlighten the people, but on the contrary sought to make them ignorant.
The more knowledge people have, the harder they are to rule.
Those who seek to rule by giving knowledge
Are like bandits preying on the land.
Those who rule without giving knowledge
Bring a stock of good fortune to the land.
To have understood the difference between these who things
Is to have a test and standard
To be always able to apply this test and standard
Is called the mysterious 損ower? so deep-penetrating,
So far-reaching,
That can follow things back ?br> All the way back to the Great Concordance.
66
How did the great rivers and seas get their kingship
Over the hundred lesser streams?
Through the merit of being lower than they;
That was how they got their kingship.
Therefore the Sage
In order to be above the people
Must speak as though he were lower than the people.
In order to guide them
He must put himself behind them.
Only thus can the Sage be on top and the people not be crushed by his weight.
Only thus can he guide, and the people not be led into harm
Indeed in this way everything under heaven will into harm be pushed by him
And will not find his guidance irk-some.
This he does by not striving;
And because he does not strive, none can contend with him.
67
Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly.
But it is just because it is great, that it seems like folly.
As for things that do not seem like folly ?well,
There can be no question about their smallness!
Here are my three treasures.
Guard and keep them!
The first is pity;
The second, frugality;
The third, refusal to be 揻oremost of all things under heaven.?br> For only he that pities is truly able to be brave;
Only he that is frugal is able to be profuse.
Only he that refuse to be foremost of all things
Is truly able to become chief of all Ministers.
At present your bravery is not based on pity,
Nor your profusion on frugality,
Nor your vanguard on your rear; and this is death.
But pity cannot fight without conquering or guard without.
But pity cannot fight without conquering or guard without saving.
Heaven arms with pity those whom it would not see destroyed.
68
The best charioteers do not rush ahead;
The best fighters do not make displays of wrath.
The greatest conqueror wins without joining issue;
The best user of men acts as though he were their inferior.
This is called the power that comes of not contending,
Is called the capacity to use men,
The secret of being mated to heaven, to what was of old.
69
The strategists have the sayings:
揥hen you doubt your ability to meet the enemy's attack,
Take the offensive yourself?br> And 揑f you doubt your ability to advance an inch, then retreat a foot?
This latter is what we call to march without moving,
To roll the sleeve, but present no bare arm,
The hand that seems to hold, yet had no weapon in it,
A host that can confront, yet presents no battle-front.
Now the greatest of all calamities is to attack and find no enemy.
I can have no enemy only at the price of losing my treasure.
Therefore when armies are raised
And issues joined it is he who does not delight in war that wins.
70
My words are very easy to understand
And very easy to put into practice.
Yet no one under heaven understands them;
No one puts them into practice.
But my words have an ancestry, my deeds have a lord;
And it is precisely because men do not understand this
That they are unable to understand me.
Few then understand me, but it is upon this very fact my value depends.
It is indeed in this sense that 搕he Sage wears hair-cloth on top,
But carries jade under neath his dress.?br>
71
揟o know when one does not know is best.
To think one knows when one does not know is a dire disease.
Only he who recognizes this disease as a disease
Can cure himself of the disease.
The Sage's way of curing disease
Also consists in making people recognize their diseases as diseases
And thus ceasing to be diseased.
72
Never mind if the people are not intimidated by your authority.
A Mightier Authority will deal with them in the end.
Do not narrow their dwelling or harass their lives;
And for the very reason that you do not harass them,
They will cease to turn from you.
Therefore the Sage knows himself but does not show himself.
Knows his own value, but does not put himself on high.
Truly, he rejects that but takes this?
73
He whose braveness lies in daring, slays.
He whose braveness lies in not daring , gives life.
Of these two, either may be profitable or unprofitable.
But 揌eaven hates what it hates;
None can know the reason why?
Wherefore the Sage, too, disallows it.
For it is the way of Heaven not to strive but none the less to conquer,
Not to speak, but none the less to get an answer,
Not to beckon; yet things come to it of themselves.
Heaven is like one who says little, yet none the less has laid his plans.
Heaven's net is wide;
Coarse are the meshes, yet nothing slips through.
74
The people are not frightened of death.
What then is the use of trying to intimidate them with the death-penalty?
And even supposing people were generally frightened of death
And did not regard it as an everyday thing,
Which of us would dare to seize them and slay them?
There is the Lord of Slaughter always ready for this task,
And to do it in his stead is like thrusting oneself into the master-carpenter's place
And doing his chipping for him.
Now 揾e who tries to do the master-carpenter's chipping for him is lucky if he does not cut his hand.?br>
75
The people starve because those above them eat too much tax-grain.
That is the only reason why they starve.
The people are difficult to keep in order because those above them interfere.
That is the only reason why they are so difficult to keep in order.
The people attach no importance to death,
Because those above them are too grossly absorbed in the pursuit of life.
That is why they attach no importance to death.
And indeed, in that their hearts are so little set on life
They are superior to these who set store by life.
76
When he is born, man is soft and weak;
In death he becomes stiff and hard.
The ten thousand creatures and all plants
And trees while they are alive are supple and soft,
But when and dead they become brittle and dry.
Truly, what is stiff and hard is a 揷ompanion of death?
What is soft and weak is a 揷ompanion of life?
Therefore 搕he weapon that is too hard will be broken,
The tree that has the hardest wood will be cut down?
Truly, the hard and mighty are cast down;
The soft and weak set on high.
77
Heaven's way is like the bending of a bow.
When a bow is bent the top comes down and the bottom-end comes up.
So too does Heaven take away from those who have too much,
And give to those that have not enough.
But if it is Heaven's way to take from those who have too much
And give to those who have not enough, this is far from being man's way.
He takes away from those that have not-enough in order
To make offering to those who already have too much.
One there is and one only, so rich that he the possessor of Tao.
(If, then, the Sage 搕hough he controls does not lean,
And when he has achieved his aim does not linger?
It is because he does not wish to reveal himself as better than others.)
78
Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water;
But when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail.
For they can find no way of altering it.
That the yielding conquers the resistant
And the soft conquers the hard is a fact known by all men,
Yet utilized by none.
Yet it is in reference to this that the Sage said
揙nly he who has accepted the dirt of the country can be lord of its soil shrines;
Only he who takes upon himself the evils of the country
Can become a king among those what dwell under heaven.?br> Straight words seem crooked.
79
(To requite injuries with good deeds.)
To allay the main discontent,
But only in a manner that will certainly produce further discontents can hardly be called successful.
Therefore the Sage behaves like the holder of the left-hand tally,
Who stays where he is and does not go round making claims on people.
For he who has the 損ower?of Tao is the Grand Almoner;
He who has not the 損ower?is the Grand Perquisitor.
揑t is Heaven's way, without distinction of persons,
To keep the good perpetually supplied.?br>
80
Given a small country with few inhabitants,
He could bring it about that through
There should be among the people contrivances requiring ten times,
A hundred times less labour, they would not use them.
He could bring it about that the people would be ready
To lay down their lives and lay them down again in defence of their homes,
Tather than emigrate.
There might still be boats and carriage,
But no one would go in them;
There might still be weapons of war,
But no one would drill with them.
He could bring it about that
揟he people should have no use for any from of writing save knotted ropes,
Should be contented with their food, pleased with their clothing,
Satisfied with their homes,
Should take pleasure in their rustic tasks.
The next place might be so near at hand
That one could one could hear the cocks crowing in it, the dogs barking;
But the people would grow old and die without ever having been there?
81
True words are not fine-sounding;
Fine-sounding words are not true.
The good man does not prove by argument;
The he who proves by argument is not good.
True wisdom is different from much learning;
Much learning means little wisdom.
The Sage has no need to hoard;
When his own last scrap has been used up on behalf of others,
Lo, he has more than before!
When his own last scrap has been used up in giving to other,
Lo, his stock is even greater than before!
For heaven's way is to sharpen without cutting,
And the Sage's way is to act without striving.
English_Walker_TTK
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
English by
Brian Browne Walker, 1996
1
Tao is beyond words and beyond understanding. Words may be used to speak of it, but they cannot contain it.
Tao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things.
Therefore, to see beyond all boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, with concepts, with expectations and ambitions and differences.
Tao and its many manifestations arise from the same source:
subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding.
