TaoDeChing - Lao Tze![](0010101_files/laozi2.gif)
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Lao Tze![](0010101_files/laozi2.gif)
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1. The Way
The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world
that can be constructed is not true.
The Way manifests all that happens and
may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
To
experience without intention is to sense the world;
To experience with
intention is to anticipate the world.
These two experiences are
indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the
same.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever
greater and more subtle than the world.
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2. Abstraction
When beauty is abstracted
Then ugliness has been
implied;
When good is abstracted
Then evil has been implied.
So
alive and dead are abstracted from nature,
Difficult and easy abstracted from
progress,
Long and short abstracted from contrast,
High and low abstracted
from depth,
Song and speech abstracted from melody,
After and before
abstracted from sequence.
The sage experiences without
abstraction,
And accomplishes without action;
He accepts the ebb and flow
of things,
Nurtures them, but does not own them,
And lives, but does not
dwell.
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3. Without Action
Not praising the worthy prevents contention,
Not
esteeming the valuable prevents theft,
Not displaying the beautiful prevents
desire.
In this manner the sage governs people:
Emptying their
minds,
Filling their bellies,
Weakening their ambitions,
And
strengthening their bones.
If people lack knowledge and desire
Then
they can not act;
If no action is taken
Harmony remains.
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4. Limitless
The Way is a limitless vessel;
Used by the self, it is
not filled by the world;
It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;
Its
depths are hidden, ubiquitous and eternal;
I don't know where it comes
from;
It comes before nature.
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5. Nature
Nature is not kind;
It treats all things
impartially.
The Sage is not kind,
And treats all people
impartially.
Nature is like a bellows,
Empty, yet never ceasing its
supply.
The more it moves, the more it yields;
So the sage draws upon
experience
And cannot be exhausted.
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6. Experience
Experience is a riverbed,
Its source hidden, forever
flowing:
Its entrance, the root of the world,
The Way moves within
it:
Draw upon it; it will not run dry.
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7. Complete
Nature is complete because it does not serve
itself.
The sage places himself after and finds himself
before,
Ignores his desire and finds himself content.
He is complete
because he does not serve himself.
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8. Water
The best of man is like water,
Which benefits all things,
and does not contend with them,
Which flows in places that others
disdain,
Where it is in harmony with the Way.
So the sage:
Lives
within nature,
Thinks within the deep,
Gives within
impartiality,
Speaks within trust,
Governs within order,
Crafts within
ability,
Acts within opportunity.
He does not contend, and none
contend against him.
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9. Retire
Fill a cup to its brim and it is easily spilled;
Temper a
sword to its hardest and it is easily broken;
Amass the greatest treasure and
it is easily stolen;
Claim credit and honour and you easily fall;
Retire
once your purpose is achieved - this is natural.
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10. Harmony
Embracing the Way, you become embraced;
Breathing gently,
you become newborn;
Clearing your mind, you become clear;
Nurturing your
children, you become impartial;
Opening your heart, you become
accepted;
Accepting the world, you embrace the Way.
Bearing and
nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
This is
harmony.
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11. Tools
Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
Because of the hole we may
use the wheel.
Clay is moulded into a vessel;
Because of the hollow we may
use the cup.
Walls are built around a hearth;
Because of the doors we may
use the house.
Thus tools come from what exists,
But use from what does
not.
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12. Substance
Too much colour blinds the eye,
Too much music deafens
the ear,
Too much taste dulls the palate,
Too much play maddens the
mind,
Too much desire tears the heart.
In this manner the sage cares
for people:
He provides for the belly, not for the senses;
He ignores
abstraction and holds fast to substance.
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13. Self
Both praise and blame cause concern,
For they bring people
hope and fear.
The object of hope and fear is the self -
For, without
self, to whom may fortune and disaster occur?
Therefore,
Who
distinguishes himself from the world may be given the world,
But who regards
himself as the world may accept the world.
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14. Mystery
Looked at but cannot be seen - it is beneath
form;
Listened to but cannot be heard - it is beneath sound;
Held but
cannot be touched - it is beneath feeling;
These depthless things evade
definition,
And blend into a single mystery.
In its rising there is no
light,
In its falling there is no darkness,
A continuous thread beyond
description,
Lining what can not occur;
Its form formless,
Its image
nothing,
Its name silence;
Follow it, it has no back,
Meet it, it has
no face.
Attend the present to deal with the past;
Thus you grasp the
continuity of the Way,
Which is its essence.
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15. Enlightenment
The enlightened possess understanding
So profound
they can not be understood.
Because they cannot be understood
I can only
describe their appearance:
Cautious as one crossing thin
ice,
Undecided as one surrounded by danger,
Modest as one who is a
guest,
Unbounded as melting ice,
Genuine as unshaped wood,
Broad as a
valley,
Seamless as muddy water.
Who stills the water that the mud may
settle,
Who seeks to stop that he may travel on,
Who desires less than may
transpire,
Decays, but will not renew.
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16. Decay and Renewal
Empty the self completely;
Embrace perfect
peace.
The world will rise and move;
Watch it return to rest.
All the
flourishing things
Will return to their source.
This return is
peaceful;
It is the flow of nature,
An eternal decay and
renewal.
Accepting this brings enlightenment,
Ignoring this brings
misery.
Who accepts nature's flow becomes all-cherishing;
Being
all-cherishing he becomes impartial;
Being impartial he becomes
magnanimous;
Being magnanimous he becomes natural;
Being natural he
becomes one with the Way;
Being one with the Way he becomes
immortal:
Though his body will decay, the Way will not.
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17. Rulers
The best rulers are scarcely known by their subjects;
The
next best are loved and praised;
The next are feared;
The next
despised:
They have no faith in their people,
And their people become
unfaithful to them.
When the best rulers achieve their purpose
Their
subjects claim the achievement as their own.
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18. Hypocrisy
When the Way is forgotten
Duty and justice
appear;
Then knowledge and wisdom are born
Along with
hypocrisy.
When harmonious relationships dissolve
Then respect and
devotion arise;
When a nation falls to chaos
Then loyalty and patriotism
are born.
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19. Simplify
If we could abolish knowledge and wisdom
Then people
would profit a hundredfold;
If we could abolish duty and justice
Then
harmonious relationships would form;
If we could abolish artifice and
profit
Then waste and theft would disappear.
Yet such remedies treat
only symptoms
And so they are inadequate.
People need personal
remedies:
Reveal your naked self and embrace your original nature;
Bind
your self-interest and control your ambition;
Forget your habits and simplify
your affairs.
[Chinese
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20. Wandering
What is the difference between assent and denial?
What
is the difference between beautiful and ugly?
What is the difference between
fearsome and afraid?
The people are merry as if at a magnificent
party
Or playing in the park at springtime,
But I am tranquil and
wandering,
Like a newborn before it learns to smile,
Alone, with no true
home.
The people have enough and to spare,
Where I have
nothing,
And my heart is foolish,
Muddled and cloudy.
The people
are bright and certain,
Where I am dim and confused;
The people are clever
and wise,
Where I am dull and ignorant;
Aimless as a wave drifting over
the sea,
Attached to nothing.
The people are busy with
purpose,
Where I am impractical and rough;
I do not share the peoples'
cares
But I am fed at nature's breast.
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21. Accept
Harmony is only in following the Way.
The Way is
without form or quality,
But expresses all forms and qualities;
The Way is
hidden and implicate,
But expresses all of nature;
The Way is
unchanging,
But expresses all motion.
Beneath sensation and
memory
The Way is the source of all the world.
How can I understand the
source of the world?
By accepting.
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22. Home
Accept and you become whole,
Bend and you
straighten,
Empty and you fill,
Decay and you renew,
Want and you
acquire,
Fulfill and you become confused.
The sage accepts the
world
As the world accepts the Way;
He does not display himself, so is
clearly seen,
Does not justify himself, so is recognized,
Does not boast,
so is credited,
Does not pride himself, so endures,
Does not contend, so
none contend against him.
The ancients said, "Accept and you become
whole",
Once whole, the world is as your home.
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23. Words
Nature says only a few words:
High wind does not last
long,
Nor does heavy rain.
If nature's words do not last
Why should
those of man?
Who accepts harmony, becomes harmonious.
Who accepts
loss, becomes lost.
For who accepts harmony, the Way harmonizes with
him,
And who accepts loss, the Way cannot find.
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24. Indulgence
Straighten yourself and you will not stand
steady;
Display yourself and you will not be clearly seen;
Justify
yourself and you will not be respected;
Promote yourself and you will not be
believed;
Pride yourself and you will not endure.
These behaviours are
wasteful, indulgent,
And so they attract disfavour;
Harmony avoids
them.
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25. Beneath Abstraction
There is a mystery,
Beneath abstraction,
Silent, depthless,
Alone, unchanging,
Ubiquitous and liquid,
The
mother of nature.
It has no name, but I call it "the Way";
It has no
limit, but I call it "limitless".
Being limitless, it flows away
forever;
Flowing away forever, it returns to my self:
The Way is
limitless,
So nature is limitless,
So the world is limitless,
And so I
am limitless.
For I am abstracted from the world,
The world from
nature,
Nature from the Way,
And the Way from what is beneath
abstraction.
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26. Calm
Gravity is the source of lightness,
Calm, the master of
haste.
A lone traveller will journey all day, watching over his
belongings;
Yet once safe in his bed he will lose them in sleep.
The
captain of a great vessel will not act lightly or hastily.
Acting lightly, he
loses sight of the world,
Acting hastily, he loses control of
himself.
A captain can not treat his great ship as a small
boat;
Rather than glitter like jade
He must stand like stone.
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27. Perfection
The perfect traveller leaves no trail to be
followed;
The perfect speaker leaves no question to be answered;
The
perfect accountant leaves no working to be completed;
The perfect container
leaves no lock to be closed;
The perfect knot leaves no end to be
ravelled.
So the sage nurtures all men
And abandons no one.
He
accepts everything
And rejects nothing.
He attends to the smallest
details.
So the strong must guide the weak,
For the weak are raw
material to the strong.
If the guide is not respected,
Or the material is
not cared for,
Confusion will result, no matter how clever one
is.
This is the secret of perfection:
When raw wood is carved, it
becomes a tool;
When a man is employed, he becomes a tool;
The perfect
carpenter leaves no wood to be carved.
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28. Becoming
Using the male, being female,
Being the entrance of the
world,
You embrace harmony
And become as a newborn.
Using strength,
being weak,
Being the root of the world,
You complete harmony
And
become as unshaped wood.
Using the light, being dark,
Being the
world,
You perfect harmony
And return to the Way.
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29. Ambition
Those who wish to change the world
According with their
desire
Cannot succeed.
The world is shaped by the Way;
It cannot be
shaped by the self.
Trying to change it, you damage it;
Trying to possess
it, you lose it.
So some will lead, while others follow.
Some will be
warm, others cold
Some will be strong, others weak.
Some will get where
they are going
While others fall by the side of the road.
So the sage
will be neither wasteful nor violent.
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30. Violence
Powerful men are well advised not to use violence,
For
violence has a habit of returning;
Thorns and weeds grow wherever an army
goes,
And lean years follow a great war.
A general is well
advised
To achieve nothing more than his orders:
Not to take advantage of
his victory.
Nor to glory, boast or pride himself;
To do what is dictated
by necessity,
But not by choice.
For even the strongest force will
weaken with time,
And then its violence will return, and kill it.
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31. Armies
Armies are tools of violence;
They cause men to hate and
fear.
The sage will not join them.
His purpose is creation;
Their
purpose is destruction.
Weapons are tools of violence,
Not of the
sage;
He uses them only when there is no choice,
And then calmly, and with
tact,
For he finds no beauty in them.
Whoever finds beauty in
weapons
Delights in the slaughter of men;
And who delights in slaughter
Cannot content himself with peace.
So slaughters must be
mourned
And conquest celebrated with a funeral.
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32. Shapes
The Way has no true shape,
And therefore none can control
it.
If a ruler could control the Way
All things would follow
In harmony
with his desire,
And sweet rain would fall,
Effortlessly slaking every
thirst.
The Way is shaped by use,
But then the shape is lost.
Do
not hold fast to shapes
But let sensation flow into the world
As a river
courses down to the sea.
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[Chinese
text]|
33. Virtues
Who understands the world is learned;
Who understands the
self is enlightened.
Who conquers the world has strength;
Who conquers the
self has harmony.
Who is determined has purpose;
Who is contented has
wealth.
Who defends his home may long endure;
Who surrenders his home may
long survive it.
[Go To
Top]
34. Control
The Way flows and ebbs, creating and
destroying,
Implementing all the world, attending to the tiniest
details,
Claiming nothing in return.
It nurtures all things,
Though
it does not control them;
It has no intention,
So it seems
inconsequential.
It is the substance of all things;
Though it does not
control them;
It has no exception,
So it seems all-important.
The
sage would not control the world;
He is in harmony with the world.
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35. Peace
If you offer music and food
Strangers may stop with
you;
But if you accord with the Way
All the people of the world will keep
you
In safety, health, community, and peace.
The Way lacks art and
flavour;
It can neither be seen nor heard,
But its benefit cannot be
exhausted.
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36. Opposition
To reduce someone's influence, first expand it;
To
reduce someone's force, first increase it;
To overthrow someone, first exalt
them;
To take from someone, first give to them.
This is the subtlety
by which the weak overcome the strong:
Fish should not leave their
depths,
And swords should not leave their scabbards.
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37. Tranquillity
The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing
undone.
When you accept this
The world will flourish,
In harmony with
nature.
Nature does not possess desire;
Without desire, the heart
becomes quiet;
In this manner the whole world is made tranquil.
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38. Ritual
Well established hierarchies are not easily
uprooted;
Closely held beliefs are not easily released;
So ritual
enthralls generation after generation.
Harmony does not care for harmony,
and so is naturally attained;
But ritual is intent upon harmony, and so can
not attain it.
Harmony neither acts nor reasons;
Love acts, but
without reason;
Justice acts to serve reason;
But ritual acts to enforce
reason.
When the Way is lost, there remains harmony;
When harmony is
lost, there remains love;
When love is lost, there remains justice;
But
when justice is lost, there remains ritual.
Ritual is the end of
compassion and honesty,
The beginning of confusion;
Belief is a colourful
hope or fear,
The beginning of folly.
The sage goes by harmony, not by
hope;
He dwells in the fruit, not the flower;
He accepts substance, and
ignores abstraction.
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39. Support
In mythical times all things were whole:
All the sky was
clear,
All the earth was stable,
All the mountains were firm,
All the
riverbeds were full,
All of nature was fertile,
And all the rulers were
supported.
But, losing clarity, the sky tore;
Losing stability, the
earth split;
Losing strength, the mountains sank;
Losing water, the
riverbeds cracked;
Losing fertility, nature disappeared;
And losing
support, the rulers fell.
Rulers depend upon their subjects,
The noble
depend upon the humble;
So rulers call themselves orphaned, hungry and
alone,
To win the people's support.
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40. Motion and Use
The motion of the Way is to return;
The use of the
Way is to accept;
All things come from the Way,
And the Way comes from
nothing.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
41. Following
When the great man learns the Way, he follows it with
diligence;
When the common man learns the Way, he follows it on
occasion;
When the mean man learns the Way, he laughs out loud;
Those who
do not laugh, do not learn at all.
Therefore it is said:
Who
understands the Way seems foolish;
Who progresses on the Way seems to
fail;
Who follows the Way seems to wander.
For the finest harmony
appears plain;
The brightest truth appears coloured;
The richest character
appears incomplete;
The bravest heart appears meek;
The simplest nature
appears inconstant.
The square, perfected, has no corner;
Music,
perfected, has no melody;
Love, perfected, has no climax;
Art, perfected,
has no meaning.
The Way can be neither sensed nor known:
It transmits
sensation and transcends knowledge.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
42. Mind
The Way bears sensation,
Sensation bears
memory,
Sensation and memory bear abstraction,
And abstraction bears all
the world;
Each thing in the world bears feeling and doing,
And, imbued
with mind, harmony with the Way.
As others have taught, so do I
teach,
"Who loses harmony opposes nature";
This is the root of my
teaching.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
43. Overcoming
Water overcomes the stone;
Without substance it
requires no opening;
This is the benefit of taking no action.
Yet
benefit without action,
And experience without abstraction,
Are practiced
by very few.
[Chinese
text]|[Go To
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44. Contentment
Health or reputation: which is held dearer?
Health or
possessions: which has more worth?
Profit or loss: which is more
troublesome?
Great love incurs great expense,
And great riches incur
great fear,
But contentment comes at no cost;
Who knows when to stop
Does not continue into danger,
And so may long endure.
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45. Quiet
Great perfection seems incomplete,
But does not
decay;
Great abundance seems empty,
But does not fail.
Great truth
seems contradictory;
Great cleverness seems stupid;
Great eloquence seems
awkward.
As spring overcomes the cold,
And autumn overcomes the
heat,
So calm and quiet overcome the world.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
46. Horses
When a nation follows the Way,
Horses bear manure through
its fields;
When a nation ignores the Way,
Horses bear soldiers through
its streets.
There is no greater mistake than following desire;
There
is no greater disaster than forgetting contentment;
There is no greater
sickness than seeking attainment;
But one who is content to satisfy his
needs
Finds that contentment endures.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
47. Knowing
Without taking a step outdoors
You know the whole
world;
Without taking a peep out the window
You know the colour of the
sky.
The more you experience,
The less you know.
The sage wanders
without knowing,
Sees without looking,
Accomplishes without acting.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
48. Inaction
The follower of knowledge learns as much as he can every
day;
The follower of the Way forgets as much as he can every day.
By
attrition he reaches a state of inaction
Wherein he does nothing, but nothing
remains undone.
To conquer the world, accomplish nothing;
If you must
accomplish something,
The world remains beyond conquest.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
49. People
The sage does not distinguish between himself and the
world;
The needs of other people are as his own.
He is good to those
who are good;
He is also good to those who are not good,
Thereby he is
good.
He trusts those who are trustworthy;
He also trusts those who are
not trustworthy,
Thereby he is trustworthy.
The sage lives in harmony
with the world,
And his mind is the world's mind.
So he nurtures the
worlds of others
As a mother does her children.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
50. Death
Men flow into life, and ebb into death.
Some are filled
with life;
Some are empty with death;
Some hold fast to life, and thereby
perish,
For life is an abstraction.
Those who are filled with
life
Need not fear tigers and rhinos in the wilds,
Nor wear armour and
shields in battle;
The rhinoceros finds no place in them for its horn,
The
tiger no place for its claw,
The soldier no place for a weapon,
For death
finds no place in them.
[Chinese
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51. Nurture
The Way bears all things;
Harmony nurtures
them;
Nature shapes them;
Use completes them.
Each follows the Way
and honours harmony,
Not by law,
But by being.
The Way bears,
nurtures, shapes, completes,
Shelters, comforts, and makes a home for
them.
Bearing without possessing,
Nurturing without taming,
Shaping
without forcing,
This is harmony.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
52. Clarity
The origin of the world is its mother;
Understand the
mother, and you understand the child;
Embrace the child, and you embrace the
mother,
Who will not perish when you die.
Reserve your judgments and
words
And you maintain your influence;
Speak your mind and take
positions
And nothing can save you.
As observing detail is
clarity,
So maintaining flexibility is strength;
Use the light but shed no
light,
So that you do yourself no harm,
But embrace clarity.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
53. Difficult Paths
With but a small understanding
One may follow
the Way like a main road,
Fearing only to leave it;
Following a main road
is easy,
Yet people delight in difficult paths.
When palaces are kept
up
Fields are left to weeds
And granaries empty;
Wearing fine
clothes,
Bearing sharp swords,
Glutting with food and drink,
Hoarding
wealth and possessions -
These are the ways of theft,
And far from the
Way.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
54. Cultivate Harmony
Cultivate harmony within yourself, and harmony
becomes real;
Cultivate harmony within your family, and harmony becomes
fertile;
Cultivate harmony within your community, and harmony becomes
abundant;
Cultivate harmony within your culture, and harmony becomes
enduring;
Cultivate harmony within the world, and harmony becomes
ubiquitous.
Live with a person to understand that person;
Live with a
family to understand that family;
Live with a community to understand that
community;
Live with a culture to understand that culture;
Live with the
world to understand the world.
How can I live with the world?
By
accepting.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
55. Soft Bones
Who is filled with harmony is like a newborn.
Wasps
and snakes will not bite him;
Hawks and tigers will not claw him.
His
bones are soft yet his grasp is sure,
For his flesh is supple;
His mind is
innocent yet his body is virile,
For his vigour is plentiful;
His song is
long-lasting yet his voice is sweet,
For his grace is perfect.
But
knowing harmony creates abstraction,
And following abstraction creates
ritual.
Exceeding nature creates calamity,
And controlling nature creates
violence.
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56. Impartiality
Who understands does not preach;
Who preaches does
not understand.
Reserve your judgments and words;
Smooth differences
and forgive disagreements;
Dull your wit and simplify your purpose;
Accept
the world.
Then,
Friendship and enmity,
Profit and loss,
Honour
and disgrace,
Will not affect you;
The world will accept you.
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57. Conquer with Inaction
Do not control the people with laws,
Nor
violence nor espionage,
But conquer them with inaction.
For:
The
more morals and taboos there are,
The more cruelty afflicts people;
The
more guns and knives there are,
The more factions divide people;
The more
arts and skills there are,
The more change obsoletes people;
The more laws
and taxes there are,
The more theft corrupts people.
Yet take no
action, and the people nurture eachother;
Make no laws, and the people deal
fairly with eachother;
Own no interest, and the people cooperate with
eachother;
Express no desire, and the people harmonize with eachother.
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58. No End
When government is lazy and informal
The people are kind
and honest;
When government is efficient and severe
The people are
discontented and deceitful.
Good fortune follows upon
disaster;
Disaster lurks within good fortune;
Who can say how things will
end?
Perhaps there is no end.
Honesty is ever deceived;
Kindness is
ever seduced;
Men have been like this for a long time.
So the sage is
firm but not cutting,
Pointed but not piercing,
Straight but not
rigid,
Bright but not blinding.
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59. Restraint
Manage a great nation as you would cook a delicate
fish.
To govern men in accord with nature
It is best to be
restrained;
Restraint makes agreement easy to attain,
And easy agreement
builds harmonious relationships;
With sufficient harmony no resistance will
arise;
When no resistance arises, then you possess the heart of the
nation,
And when you possess the nation's heart, your influence will long
endure:
Deeply rooted and firmly established.
This is the method of far
sight and long life.
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60. Demons
When you use the Way to conquer the world,
Your demons
will lose their power to harm.
It is not that they lose their power as
such,
But that they will not harm others;
Because they will not harm
others,
You will not harm others:
When neither you nor your demons can do
harm,
You will be at peace with them.
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61. Submission
A nation is like a hierarchy, a marketplace, and a
maiden.
A maiden wins her husband by submitting to his
advances;
Submission is a means of union.
So when a large country
submits to a small country
It will adopt the small country;
When a small
country submits to a large country
It will be adopted by the large
country;
The one submits and adopts;
The other submits and is
adopted.
It is in the interest of a large country to unite and gain
service,
And in the interest of a small country to unite and gain
patronage;
If both would serve their interests,
Both must submit.
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62. Sin
The Way is the fate of men,
The treasure of the saint,
And the refuge of the sinner.
Fine words are often borrowed,
And
great deeds are often appropriated;
Therefore, when a man falls, do not
abandon him,
And when a man gains power, do not honour him;
Only remain
impartial and show him the Way.
Why should someone appreciate the
Way?
The ancients said, "By it, those who seek may easily find,
And those
who regret may easily absolve"
So it is the most precious gift.
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63. Difficulty
Practice no-action;
Attend to do-nothing;
Taste the
flavorless,
Magnify the small,
Multiply the few,
Return love for
hate.
Deal with the difficult while it is yet easy;
Deal with the
great while it is yet small;
The difficult develops naturally from the
easy,
And the great from the small;
So the sage, by dealing with the
small,
Achieves the great.
Who finds it easy to promise finds it hard
to be trusted;
Who takes things lightly finds things difficult;
The sage
recognizes difficulty, and so has none.
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64a. Care at the Beginning
What lies still is easy to grasp;
What
lies far off is easy to anticipate;
What is brittle is easy to
shatter;
What is small is easy to disperse.
Yet a tree broader than a
man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
A dam greater than a river can
overflow starts with a clod of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles begins at
the spot under one's feet.
Therefore deal with things before they
happen;
Create order before there is confusion.
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64b. Care at the End
He who acts, spoils;
He who grasps,
loses.
People often fail on the verge of success;
Take care at the end as
at the beginning,
So that you may avoid failure.
The sage desires
no-desire,
Values no-value,
Learns no-learning,
And returns to the
places that people have forgotten;
He would help all people to become
natural,
But then he would not be natural.
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65. Subtlety
The ancients did not seek to rule people with
knowledge,
But to help them become natural.
It is difficult for
knowledgeable people to become natural;
So to use law to control a nation
weakens the nation,
But to use nature to control a nation strengthens the
nation.
Understanding these two paths is understanding
subtlety;
Subtlety runs deep, ranges wide,
Resolves confusion and
preserves peace.
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66. Lead by Following
The river carves out the valley by flowing beneath
it.
Thereby the river is the master of the valley.
In order to master
people
One must speak as their servant;
In order to lead people
One
must follow them.
So when the sage rises above the people,
They do not
feel oppressed;
And when the sage stands before the people,
They do not
feel hindered.
So the popularity of the sage does not fail,
He does
not contend, and no one contends against him.
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67. Unimportance
All the world says,
"I am important;
I am
separate from all the world.
I am important because I am separate,
Were I
the same, I could never be important."
Yet here are three
treasures
That I cherish and commend to you:
The first is
compassion,
By which one finds courage.
The second is restraint,
By
which one finds strength.
And the third is unimportance,
By which one
finds influence.
Those who are fearless, but without
compassion,
Powerful, but without restraint,
Or influential, yet
important,
Cannot endure.
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68. Compassion
Compassion is the finest weapon and best defence.
If
you would establish harmony,
Compassion must surround you like a
fortress.
Therefore,
A good soldier does not inspire fear;
A good
fighter does not display aggression;
A good conqueror does not engage in
battle;
A good leader does not exercise authority.
This is the value
of unimportance;
This is how to win the cooperation of others;
This to how
to build the same harmony that is in nature.
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69. Ambush
There is a saying among soldiers:
It is easier to lose a
yard than take an inch.
In this manner one may deploy troops without
marshalling them,
Bring weapons to bear without exposing them,
Engage the
foe without invading them,
And exhaust their strength without fighting
them.
There is no worse disaster than misunderstanding your enemy;
To
do so endangers all of my treasures;
So when two well matched forces oppose
eachother,
The general who maintains compassion will win.
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70. Individuality
My words are easy to understand
And my actions are
easy to perform
Yet no other can understand or perform them.
My words
have meaning; my actions have reason;
Yet these cannot be known and I cannot
be known.
We are each unique, and therefore valuable;
Though the sage
wears coarse clothes, his heart is jade.
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71. Limitation
Who recognizes his limitations is healthy;
Who ignores
his limitations is sick.
The sage recognizes this sickness as a
limitation.
And so becomes immune.
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72. Revolution
When people have nothing more to lose,
Then revolution
will result.
Do not take away their lands,
And do not destroy their
livelihoods;
If your burden is not heavy then they will not shirk
it.
The sage maintains himself but exacts no tribute,
Values himself
but requires no honours;
He ignores abstraction and accepts substance.
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73. Fate
Who is brave and bold will perish;
Who is brave and subtle
will benefit.
The subtle profit where the bold perish
For fate does not
honour daring.
And even the sage dares not tempt fate.
Fate does not
attack, yet all things are conquered by it;
It does not ask, yet all things
answer to it;
It does not call, yet all things meet it;
It does not plan,
yet all things are determined by it.
Fate's net is vast and its mesh is
coarse,
Yet none escape it.
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74. Execution
If people were not afraid of death,
Then what would be
the use of an executioner?
If people were only afraid of death,
And
you executed everyone who did not obey,
No one would dare to disobey
you.
Then what would be the use of an executioner?
People fear death
because death is an instrument of fate.
When people are killed by execution
rather than by fate,
This is like carving wood in the place of a
carpenter.
Those who carve wood in place of a carpenter
Often injure
their hands.
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75. Rebellion
When rulers take grain so that they may feast,
Their
people become hungry;
When rulers take action to serve their own
interests,
Their people become rebellious;
When rulers take lives so that
their own lives are maintained,
Their people no longer fear
death.
When people act without regard for their own lives
They
overcome those who value only their own lives.
[Chinese text]|[Go To Top]
76. Flexibility
A newborn is soft and tender,
A crone, hard and
stiff.
Plants and animals, in life, are supple and succulent;
In death,
withered and dry.
So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,
And
hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.
Just as a sapless tree will
split and decay
So an inflexible force will meet defeat;
The hard and
mighty lie beneath the ground
While the tender and weak dance on the breeze
above.
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77. Need
Is the action of nature not unlike drawing a bow?
What is
higher is pulled down, and what is lower is raised up;
What is taller is
shortened, and what is thinner is broadened;
Nature's motion decreases those
who have more than they need
And increases those who need more than they
have.
It is not so with Man.
Man decreases those who need more than
they have
And increases those who have more than they need.
To give
away what you do not need is to follow the Way.
So the sage gives without
expectation,
Accomplishes without claiming credit,
And has no desire for
ostentation.
[Go To
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78. Yielding
Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as
water,
Yet nothing can better overcome the hard and strong,
For they can
neither control nor do away with it.
The soft overcomes the hard,
The
yielding overcomes the strong;
Every person knows this,
But no one can
practice it.
Who attends to the people would control the land and
grain;
Who attends to the state would control the whole world;
Truth is
easily hidden by rhetoric.
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79. Reconciliation
When conflict is reconciled, some hard feelings
remain;
This is dangerous.
The sage accepts less than is due
And
does not blame or punish;
For harmony seeks agreement
Where justice seeks
payment.
The ancients said: "nature is impartial;
Therefore it serves
those who serve all."
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80. Utopia
Let your community be small, with only a few people;
Keep
tools in abundance, but do not depend upon them;
Appreciate your life and be
content with your home;
Sail boats and ride horses, but don't go too
far;
Keep weapons and armour, but do not employ them;
Let everyone read
and write,
Eat well and make beautiful things.
Live peacefully and
delight in your own society;
Dwell within cock-crow of your
neighbours,
But maintain your independence from them.
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81. The Sage
Honest people use no rhetoric;
Rhetoric is not
honesty.
Enlightened people are not cultured;
Culture is not
enlightenment.
Content people are not rich;
Riches are not
contentment.
So the sage does not serve himself;
The more he does for
others, the more he is satisfied;
The more he gives, the more he
receives.
Nature flourishes at the expense of no one;
So the sage benefits
all men and contends with none.
[Chinese text]|[Return to top]
The GNL Tao De Ching.
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Peter A. Merel.
Caveat
This document attempts to draw the texts of several popular
English translations of Lao Tse into a consistent and accessible context. It is
based on the translations of Robert G. Henricks, Lin Yutang, D.C. Lau, Ch'u
Ta-Kao, Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English, Richard Wilhelm and Aleister Crowley.
This work is not a translation, but an interpolation. It does not represent
the original text; the original, if there was an original, has been jumbled,
mistranscribed and reinterpreted many times over many thousands of years, and is
here cast into a language that is incapable of presenting its poetic structure
and philological connections.
Even an original text, translated as faithfully as possible, might remain
inaccessible to the modern reader unable to place it within its original
context. The intention of this work is to construct a document that closely
corresponds with the best modern translations of Lao Tse, but which is blunt,
easy and useful to read within a modern context.
Structural Changes
- The last three lines of chapter 28 have been moved to the end of Chapter
27.
- The last three lines of chapter 39 have been moved to the end of Chapter
26.
- The last three lines of chapter 47 oppose most translations.
- The first three lines of chapter 54 have been moved to the start of
Chapter 38.
- The last two lines of chapter 55, a repetition of the last two lines of
chapter 30, have been removed.
- The first line of chapter 60 has been moved to the start of chapter 59.
- Chapter 64 is split into two chapters, 64a and 64b.
- In chapter 64a the order of the second and third paragraphs is reversed.
- The last four lines of Chapter 67 have been moved to the start of Chapter
68.
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