Who leads an army well resolves his purpose,
absent force, absent reward.
He meets the purpose, not to boast of power.
He meets the purpose, not to bask in fortune.
He meets the purpose, not to brag with glory.
Rather, he meets the purpose with full regret
because the purpose must be met.
All things flourish, then decay.
One cannot ever force the Way.
What goes against it soon dies away.
31
Weapons bode not well.
All creatures under heaven fear them.
Who follows the Way honors them not,
and adopts them only at the last.
Who prizes peace will not prettify a weapon.
Who prettifies a weapon finds delight in slaughter.
Who finds delight in slaughter is not fit
to steward creatures under heaven.
How should a commander in war position himself?
梂here he can see the sadness, not the triumph.
When many people die, one weeps in sorrow.
To mark a victory, mourn what is lost.
32
The Way is ever nameless,
a modest the unhewn block.
Yet none dare not respect it.
If one instilled its simpleness,
all things in nature would acquiesce.
Heaven and earth would reunite.
A gentle dew would fall.
Peace and order, unenforced,
among the people would reign.
When once the block is hewn,
things multiply and names ensue.
Knowing when to end
frees one from peril.
All under heaven is received into the Way,
like valley streams cascading to the sea.
33
Who understand others has knowledge.
Who understands himself is enlightened.
Who overcomes others has power.
Who overcomes himself has strength.
Who values just what suffices is rich.
Who perseveres has strength of purpose.
Who finds where he belongs, endures.
Who leaves memories when he dies, lives on.
34
How great the Way,
like a flooding river flowing left and right!
Holding nothing back, it gives to all in need
and makes no claim upon them.
All creatures return to it, yet it rules none:
how small it seems.
It rules none, yet all creatures return to it:
how great it seems.
By never seeking greatness,
greatness comes.
35
Cultivate the void.
Hold fast to the center.
All creatures will pass your way,
for in stillness no harm dwells.
Voyagers pass by way of music and fine food.
To them how bland the Way will seem.
Looking, you cannot see it.
Listening, you cannot hear it.
Yet when summoned, it ever flows freely.
36
What one would reduce
first stretch to its limit.
What one would weaken,
first consolidate.
What one would cast down,
first elevate.
What one would seize,
first forsake.
Such is subtle insight.
To the flexible and yielding
the hard and strong give way.
No more than a fish out of water
should one see a ruler's hand at work.
37
The Way is ever nameless.
When leaders of the land respect it,
all creatures of themselves transcend.
If yet intent should well,
invoke the nameless unhewn block.
Nameless, all will be free of want.
Ever simple, all will be filled with wonder.
Whereupon, all will be well with the world.
38
Integrity never concerns those who express it,
while obsessing those who want to possess it.
With integrity one has no motive and does not act,
and nothing's left undone.
With humanism, no motive still, and though one acts,
nothing is disturbed.
With justice one has a motive and also acts,
and much is left undone.
With rectitude one acts, and when no one responds,
he rolls his sleeves and coerces them.
When the Way is lost,
it yields to integrity, integrity to humanism,
humanism to justice, and justice to propriety.
So do trust and order wane,
reduced to florid protocol,
wherein nonsense blooms.
Greatness dwells in substance, not in surfaces,
in the fruit and not the flower,
in releasing what is without for what is within.
39
Long ago, many attained oneness.
Heaven became pure.
Earth became firm.
Spirits became endowed.
Waterways became full.
Men became guides.
Now
without clarity, heaven would collapse.
Without firmness, earth would burst.
Without power, spirits would wane.
Without fullness, valleys would run dry.
Without guidance, communities would dissolve.
Greatness springs from a humble font.
Towers spring from modest foundations.
Thus true leaders profess their lowly roots
and postures to serve.
Too much renown will lead to ruin.
Thus glisten not like polished jade.
Be solid like unhewn rock.
40
The Way moves unpredictably
acting with each opportunity.
All creatures are of being born,
while being is of non-being born.
41
A wise man, once he hears the Way,
begins to practice right away.
A common man who hears the Way,
will heed it some, not every day.
A fool who hears just laughs out loud,
by which one knows the Way's endowed.
To quote old sayings:
"The path to enlightenment seems dim."
"The way ahead seems like regress."
"Easy solutions seem hard to find."
"Utmost virtue feels incomplete."
"Abundant virtue feels unrewarding."
"The backbone of virtue feels limp."
"Plain truths go unappreciated."
"Great talents go unrecognized."
"The perfect form has no shape."
"The perfect square has no corner."
"The perfect music has no sound."
The Way is hidden and without name,
yet brings fulfillment just the same.
42
From the Way came one,
from one came two,
from two, a few,
and then a sum,
until a myriad had come.
All these creatures,
with yin on their backs and yang in their breasts,
live by harmonizing their vital breaths.
A commoner is loathe to admit,
while leaders openly submit,
their humble roots or low repute.
One may gain by loss,
and lose by gain.
"Who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
And "as you live, so shall you die."
What experience confirms,
I will wisely reaffirm.
43
Water, ever fluid,
erodes the most resistant rock.
While what is insubstantial
penetrates the densest block.
Without ado,
non-action demonstrates what it can do.
Wisdom without words,
deeds without doing
are realized by very few.
44
Fame or no-name,
which means more?
Self or wealth?,
the choice is yours.
With or without,
think either-or.
Pursuing pleasures will meet great cost.
Amassing treasures will meet great loss.
To know good measure frees a man from shame.
To act in good measure frees a man from claim,
and so he endures.
45
Great perfection seems to need repair
and yet its usefulness is not impaired.
Great fullness seems like empty air
and yet its usefulness is everywhere.
Great directedness may seem wayward.
Great mastery may seem haphazard.
Great eloquence may seem awkward.
Movement stirs the cold.
Stillness calms the heat.
When purity and stillness reign,
all things under heaven gain.
46
When the world follows the Way,
metals form plows and horses draw them.
When the world fails the Way,
metals form swords and horses bear them.
No chancre's more vile than craving,
no curse more viscious than discontent,
no crime more grievous than coveting.
How men suffer from want!:
want of knowing what suffices.
47
Never venturing abroad,
one may know the world entire.
Never casting forth one's gaze,
one may see the Way of heaven.
The farther one goes,
the less one knows.
Know, without stirring.
See, without looking.
Work, without doing.
48
To pursue what's known, learn ever more each day.
To pursue the Way, do ever less each day.
Release. Renounce. Let go. Divest.
Fill every moment with less and less.
And when at last nothing is done,
then nothing also is left undone.
The world will not be ruled by intervening.
Follow nature's course to seek its meaning.
49
Who keeps his own mind to follow
with mind enough among his fellows?
Respect the good.
Respect the evil, too.
Such is respect.
Trust the faithful.
Trust the untrue, as well.
Such is trust.
A wise man disappears himself,
and appears to all confounded and wild.
With every eye and ear upon him,
he exudes the innocence of a child.
50
Of every ten who journey,
three are living, blind to death,
three are dying and find no life,
and those cascading unto death
while clinging still to life
are three as well.
They all engage in life-and-death.
Now one among the ten, they say,
is sure of life along the way.
He never hides from tigers
when walking in the mountains.
He never puts on armor
when walking into battle.
The tiger's claw, the enemy's blade,
they cannot penetrate or harm him,
for this one has no place for death to enter.
51
The Way conceives them.
Integrity receives them.
Matter allows them.
Nature endows them.
All creatures thus respect the Way
and honor its Integrity.
No one demands that this be so.
Their respect by nature ever flows.
The Way gives birth to them and nurtures them.
It shapes them, develops them,
shelters them, strengthens them,
sustains them, preserves them.
Creating, not claiming as one's own,
working, not waiting for return,
guiding, not seeking to control:
such is the wonder of integrity.
52
All things began as One, the mother of the world.
Knowing the mother, you may know the offspring.
Hence you may return to the Source
and dwell beyond the fear of death.
Close your heart
and tter all entries:
your life will ever be filled.
Open your heart,
let concerns run wild:
your life will never be stilled.
Finding significance in the small is insight.
Yielding against pressure is strength.
Use the light without to be enlightened within,
lest you invite catastrophe.
Such is cultivating the perpetual.
53
With little wisdom, still I set upon the Way,
my only fear to go astray.
The path is low and fit to follow,
yet how men love to wander!
While fields are filled with weeds,
while granaries are bare,
some revel in fine clothes,
fine wine, fine food,
and altogether more than they can use.
Such is robbery, not the Way.
54
What is well rooted will not topple.
What is well embraced will not escape.
What is well remembered will not fade
as generations pass.
Cultivated in the self, integrity affirms.
Cultivated in the family, integrity enriches.
Cultivated in the village, integrity endures.
Cultivated in the nation, integrity abounds.
Cultivated in the world, integrity pervades.
Understand another as yourself.
Understand a family as a family,
a village as a village,
a nation as a nation.
Understand the world as the world.
How does one understand things so vast?
By what is deep within.
55
One filled with integrity?br> how like a hardy newborn!
No venomed bug will sting him.
No bird or beast will seize him.
His bones are soft, his muscles weak,
and yet how tight his grasp!
He knows not union, male and female,
and yet how much aroused!
Vitality is at its peak.
He cries full vent the whole day through,
and yet is never hoarse.
His harmony is at its peak.
Harmony means constancy.
Constancy means insight.
Living fully bodes well.
Thus, regulate the vital breath.
To live robustly, then decline:
such is not the Way.
What follows not the Way, soon ends.
56
Who knows does not use words.
Who uses words does not know.
Close the heart,
t all entries,
soften glare,
settle the dust,
blunt sharp edges,
unravel knots,
and know the wonder deep within.
Who offers neither intimacy nor distance,
benefit nor harm, honor nor disgrace,
all under heaven value.
57
Govern a country with ordinary acts.
Wage a war with extraordinary acts.
But win a world with absence of acts.
How does one know this?
By what is deep within.
The more the proscriptions,
the poorer the people.
The craftier the tools,
the greater the confusion.
The smarter the skillful,
the sooner the strangeness.
The harsher the laws,
the more men will break them.
Wise men say:
I do not intervene
and the people tend themselves.
I cherish stillness
and the people settle their differences.
I do not engage in exchange
and the people prosper.
I seek to be free from want
and the people on their own become
authentic unhewn blocks.
58
With anarchy, people are ever so honest.
With bureaucracy, people are ever so cunning.
Good fortune on misfortune rides.
Misfortune in good fortune hides.
Who can guide himself without a compass?
Standards become extraneous.
Virtue becomes vicious.
How long have men been deluded
while integrity eludes them!
Be square but not pointed,
sharp but not cutting,
straight but not intrusive,
bright but not glaring.
59
In governing men and serving heaven,
