Daodejing

Any path we can describe or follow is not the enduring Way.Any name we can give is not the enduring name.Nameless, it is the origin of heaven and earth;named, it is the mother of all things.So live free of desire, and you glimpse its hidden workings;live with desire, and you see its outer edge.These two spring from one source, though their names differ; together they are called dark.Dark upon dark: the gateway to all that is subtle.

When all the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness is already there.When all the world knows the good as good, what is not good is already there.So being and nonbeing bring each other forth; the difficult and the easy complete each other; long and short measure each other; high and low lean on each other; notes and tones harmonize with each other; before and after follow each other.So the sage manages affairs without forcing and teaches without words;All things spring to life, and he turns none away; he gives them life but never makes them his.He acts without resting on what he has done; when the work is complete, he claims no place in it.Precisely because he does not claim a place in the achievement, it never leaves him.

When rulers do not exalt the talented, the people do not contend;when they do not prize rare goods, the people do not turn to theft;when they do not display what awakens desire, hearts and minds are not thrown into disorder.So the sage rules by emptying their hearts and minds, filling their bellies, weakening their ambitions, and strengthening their bones.He keeps the people always free of calculation and craving.He keeps the clever from daring to interfere.Act without forcing, and nothing remains out of order.

The Way is a hollow cup: put it to use, and perhaps it never fills.Deep as a bottomless pool, it seems the forebear of all things.It blunts the edge, loosens the tangle, softens the glare, and mingles with the dust.Still and clear in its depths, it seems as if it might remain.I do not know whose child it is; it appears to precede even the ancestral god.

Heaven and earth know no humaneness; they use all things as straw dogs.The sage, too, shows no partiality; he treats the people as straw dogs.Is the space between heaven and earth not like a smith’s bellows?Empty, it never gives out; set in motion, it brings forth more and more.Too many words soon exhaust themselves; better to hold to the center.

The valley spirit never dies; it is called the mysterious female.Its gate is called the root of heaven and earth.Fine and unbroken, it seems barely there; draw on it, and it is never spent.

Heaven lasts; earth endures.Heaven and earth endure because they do not live for themselves; therefore their life lasts.So the sage puts himself last and comes first;he sets his own life aside, and it survives.Is this not because he has no private interest?And so he can fulfill his own interest.

What is best is like water.Water benefits all things yet never competes. It settles in the low places people despise, and so comes close to the Way.For dwelling, low ground is best; for the heart, still depth; for dealing with others, kindness; for speech, faithfulness; for governing, order; for work, ability; for action, the right moment.Precisely because it does not compete, it draws no blame.

If you keep filling the vessel in your hand, it is better to stop short of the brim.Work a blade to too fine an edge, and its sharpness will not last.Fill a hall with gold and jade, and no one can keep it safe.Let wealth and rank make you proud, and calamity is the legacy you leave yourself.The work complete, step away: this is the way of heaven.

Bearing spirit and body, holding to the One, can you keep them from parting?Gathering your vital breath until it grows supple, can you become soft as a newborn?Cleansing the mind’s dark mirror, can you leave it without a stain?Can you care for the people and govern the realm without resorting to calculation?As heaven’s gate opens and closes, can you assume the female role?When luminous understanding reaches in every direction, can you still do without cleverness?The Way gives life and nurtures: gives life without possessing, acts without laying claim, raises without ruling. This is called its hidden power.

Thirty spokes converge on one hub; the cart’s use lies in the emptiness at its center.Clay is shaped into a vessel; its use lies in the hollow within.Doors and windows are cut to make a room; its use lies in the empty space within.So what is there brings benefit; what is not there is what we use.

Too much color blinds the eye;too much music deafens the ear;too much flavor dulls the palate;racing at full gallop in the chase drives the heart mad;rare goods corrupt people’s conduct.So the sage cares for the belly, not the eye—choosing what nourishes over what dazzles.

Favor and disgrace are equally alarming; value great calamity as you value your own body.What does it mean to say that favor and disgrace are equally alarming?Favor places you beneath another: gaining it startles you, and losing it startles you. This is what it means for favor and disgrace to be equally alarming.What does it mean to value great calamity as you value your own body?I suffer great calamity because I have this body to call my own. Were I without this body, what calamity could be mine?So whoever treasures the world as their own body may be given custody of the world;whoever cares for the world as for their own body may be entrusted with the world.

Look for it—you cannot see it; we call it the Even.Listen for it—you cannot hear it; we call it the Faint.Seize it—you cannot hold it; we call it the Minute.No questioning can reach the end of these three; mingled, they are one.Above, it is not bright; below, it is not dark.Strand after unbroken strand, beyond naming, it returns to no thing.We call it the shape of the shapeless, the image of no thing; we call it elusive and indistinct.Meet it face-on—you see no front; follow behind—you see no rear.Hold to the ancient Way, and use it to steer what now exists.Knowing the origin of origins is called the guiding thread of the Way.

The skilled practitioners of old were subtle and refined, mysterious and penetrating, too deep to fathom.Because they were beyond fathoming, I can only attempt to describe how they bore themselves.Cautious as one fording a river in winter;wary as one who fears the neighbors on every side;grave and formal as a guest;loosening like ice on the verge of melting;plain and solid as uncarved wood;wide and empty as a valley;mingled and murky as muddy water.Who can let muddy water rest until it slowly clears?Who can take what is settled and, by moving it patiently over time, slowly bring it to life?Those who hold to this Way do not seek to brim over.Because they stop short of fullness, they can remain worn—unrenewed, unfinished.

Reach the utmost emptiness; hold fast to the deepest stillness.Amid all things arising together, I watch each one return.Things flourish in profusion, and each returns to its own root.Returning to the root: this is stillness. It is the return to one’s mandate.Returning to the mandate is the constant; to know the constant is clarity.Without knowledge of the constant, reckless action brings disaster.Knowing the constant, one has room for all; with room for all, one is impartial; impartial, one is kingly; kingly, one accords with heaven; with heaven, one accords with the Way; with the Way, one endures, free from peril to the end of life.

With the best rulers, those below know only that they exist;Next come those they love and praise;Next come those they fear;Lowest are the rulers they scorn.When good faith falls short, distrust follows.Unhurried, they were sparing with words.The work complete, every undertaking fulfilled, all the people say: We did it ourselves.

When the great Way fell into disuse, humaneness and righteousness arose;When cleverness and shrewdness came to the fore, great hypocrisy arose;When the six family bonds lost their harmony, filial devotion and parental tenderness arose;When state and clan sank into dark confusion, loyal ministers appeared.

Renounce sagehood and cast off cleverness; the people will benefit a hundredfold.Renounce benevolence and cast off righteousness; the people will return to filial devotion and loving care.Renounce contrivance and abandon the pursuit of gain; thieves and robbers will disappear.But these three, set down as doctrine, are not enough.So give the people something to hold to: show the undyed silk, embrace the uncarved wood; lessen self-interest and keep desires few.

Cast off learning, and care falls away. A respectful yes, a dismissive yeah—how far apart are they?What we call good and evil—how far apart are they?What people fear, we cannot help but fear.What a desolate expanse, with no end in sight!The crowd shines with delight, as if feasting at the grand sacrifice, as if climbing a terrace in spring.I alone am quiet, with nothing yet stirring;like a newborn before its first smile;spent and cast down, as if there were no home to return to.Everyone else has more than enough; I alone seem to have lost it all.I have a fool’s heart!Murk upon murk. Ordinary people shine brightly; I alone seem dim.Ordinary people scrutinize every detail; I alone remain withdrawn and mute.Still as the sea, swept onward like a high wind that never rests. Everyone else has a purpose; I alone am stubborn and uncouth, like a rustic from the borderlands.I alone differ from others: I treasure nursing at the mother’s breast.

Great power takes form by following the Way alone.As a thing, the Way is only glimmer, only blur.Blurred, glimmering—within it are images;Glimmering, blurred—within it are things.Deep and dark—within it lies the vital essence;that essence is utterly real, and within it lies something trustworthy.From ancient times to now, its name endures; through it we see into the origins of all things.How do I know the shape of those beginnings?By this.

Bent, you become whole; crooked, you become straight; hollow, you are filled; worn out, you are renewed; with little, you gain; with much, you lose your way.This is why the sage holds the One and becomes a pattern for the world.He does not put himself on display, and so he is seen clearly;he does not insist that he is right, and so he stands out;he does not boast of what he has done, and so his achievement is acknowledged;he does not exalt himself, and so he endures as a leader.Precisely because he does not contend, no one in the world can contend with him.The ancients said: “Bent, and therefore whole.” Could that have been empty talk?Truly, wholeness comes home to him.

To speak sparingly is natural: a gale does not blow all morning, nor a sudden downpour last all day.Who brings them about?Heaven and Earth.Even Heaven and Earth cannot sustain such violence for long—how much less can human beings?So those who give themselves to the Way become one with the Way;those who give themselves to inner power become one with that power;those who give themselves to loss become one with loss.The Way gladly welcomes those who are one with the Way;inner power gladly welcomes those who are one with inner power;loss gladly welcomes those who are one with loss.Where trust is lacking, mistrust follows.

Whoever rises on tiptoe cannot stand firm;whoever sets his feet too far apart cannot walk.Whoever puts himself on display does not shine;whoever insists he is right wins no recognition;whoever boasts of his achievements earns no credit;whoever exalts himself does not endure.Measured by the Way, these are scraps of food and growths on the body.All beings recoil from such things; therefore one who lives by the Way keeps clear of them.

There is a thing, undivided and whole, born before Heaven and Earth.Silent and empty, it stands alone, unchanged. Circling everywhere, it never fails; it may be the mother of all under heaven.I do not know its name. I call it the Way; forced to name it, I call it Great.Great, it passes on; passing on, it reaches far; reaching far, it turns back.Thus the Way is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; the king, too, is great.Within the universe, four are great, and the king is one of them.Humankind models itself on Earth; Earth on Heaven; Heaven on the Way; the Way on what is so of itself.

Weight is the root of lightness; stillness is the master of unrest.So the sage travels all day, never straying from the laden wagons.Though the prospect is glorious, he rests at ease, standing clear of the spectacle.How, then, can the lord of ten thousand chariots carry himself lightly before the world?When he makes himself light, he loses his root; when he grows restless, he loses command.

The skillful traveler leaves neither rut nor track; the skillful speaker leaves no word open to blame;the skillful reckoner needs neither tally nor counting rod;those skilled at closing use neither bolt nor bar, yet what they shut cannot be opened; those skilled at binding use no cords and tie no knots, yet what they bind cannot be undone.Thus the sage is always skillful at saving people, and abandons no one;always skillful at salvaging things, and discards nothing.This is called keeping the light folded away.Thus the skilled are teachers of the unskilled;the unskilled are material for the skilled to work with.Fail to honor the teacher or cherish the material, and however clever you may be, you are deeply lost. This is called the essential mystery.

Know the male’s strength, yet keep to the female; become the ravine where all beneath heaven flows.Be the ravine of all beneath heaven, and enduring inner power will not leave you; you return to the state of a newborn child.Know the brightness of white, yet hold to the darkness of black; become the measure for all beneath heaven.Be the measure for all beneath heaven, and enduring inner power will never stray; you return to the boundless.Know glory, yet stay with disgrace; become the valley of all beneath heaven.Be the valley of all beneath heaven, and enduring inner power comes to fullness; you return to uncarved wood.When uncarved wood is split apart, it becomes useful vessels; the sage uses them and becomes chief of officials. So the greatest ordering cuts nothing apart.

Whoever would seize the world and shape it by deliberate action—I can see they will not succeed.The world is a spirit-vessel; it cannot be fashioned. Whoever tries to shape it ruins it; whoever grips it loses it.So it is with things: some go ahead, some follow;some breathe softly, some blow hard;some are sturdy, some frail;some bear up, some collapse.That is why the sage casts off extremes, casts off extravagance, casts off all that is overfull.

Whoever aids a ruler through the Way does not use arms to dominate the world.Such actions tend to recoil on those who take them.Where an army camps, brambles and thorns spring up.Great armies pass; famine years surely follow.A good commander secures the objective and stops there, never using success to press for dominance.Achieve it without self-satisfaction; achieve it without boasting; achieve it without arrogance.Achieve it only because no choice remains; achieve it without pressing for dominance.Whatever is driven to full strength begins to age. This is called going against the Way; what goes against the Way comes to an early end.

Even the finest weapons are tools of ill omen. Living things recoil from them, so one who follows the Way does not dwell among them.In ordinary life, the noble-minded honor the left; in war, the right.Weapons are tools of ill omen, unfit for the noble-minded. Only when there is no choice does one use them; calm detachment is best.Win, but find no beauty in victory; to find it beautiful is to delight in killing.Whoever delights in killing cannot realize his ambitions under heaven.The left is honored on auspicious occasions, the right on occasions of calamity.The junior general takes the left, the commander in chief the right: this means they are placed according to the rites of mourning.Those who have slain multitudes should grieve for them, mourn them, and weep for them. Victory in battle should be received with funeral rites.

The Way endures without a name.The uncarved block may be small, yet nothing under heaven can rule it.If lords and kings could hold to it, all things would come as guests, of their own accord.Heaven and earth join, and sweet dew falls evenly of itself, with no one to command it.As soon as order is carved out, names arise. Once names exist, one must know when to stop. Knowing when to stop keeps one from peril.The Way in the world is like the rivers and sea toward which the valley streams flow.

Knowing others is cleverness; knowing yourself is clarity.Overcoming others takes force; overcoming yourself takes strength.Whoever knows what is enough is rich.Pressing on shows resolve.Whoever does not lose their ground endures.To die yet not vanish is long life.

The great Way floods everywhere, reaching left and right alike.All beings depend on it for life, and it turns none away; its work complete, it does not call them its own.It clothes and nourishes all beings without making itself their master. Always without desire, it may be called small;all beings return to it, yet still it does not make itself their master. It may be called great.Because, to the very end, it never claims greatness for itself, it can achieve greatness.

Hold to the great image, and all the world will come to it.Those who come are unharmed, finding rest, peace, and spaciousness.Music and delicacies make a passing traveler stop.Spoken aloud, the Way is bland, without flavor. Look at it: too little to see. Listen to it: too little to hear. Use it: it can never be exhausted.

If you want to draw it in, first let it open wide;if you want to weaken it, first let it gather strength;if you want to bring it down, first let it rise;if you want to take from it, first give to it.This is called the glimmer of clarity.The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong.A fish must not leave deep water; the sharp instruments of state must not be displayed before the people.

The Way never forces, yet nothing is left undone.If lords and kings could hold to it, all things would transform on their own.If desire arose during this transformation, I would calm it with the nameless uncarved block.The nameless uncarved block would leave them, too, free of desire.Free of desire, they would grow still, and all under heaven would settle of itself.

The highest integrity makes no show of integrity; that is why it has integrity.Lesser integrity never lets integrity go; that is why it has none.The highest integrity acts without forcing, with no ulterior purpose.Lesser integrity acts, with a purpose behind the act.The highest humaneness acts, but without ulterior purpose.The highest rightness acts, and with a purpose in view.The highest ritual propriety acts; when no one responds, it rolls up its sleeves and drags people along.Thus, when the Way is lost, integrity takes its place; when integrity is lost, humaneness takes its place; when humaneness is lost, rightness takes its place; when rightness is lost, ritual takes its place.Ritual is loyalty and good faith worn thin—the beginning of disorder.Foreknowledge is the Way’s flower, and folly’s beginning.Therefore the mature person dwells in what is substantial, not what is worn thin;dwells in the fruit, not the flower.And so they leave that and choose this.

Since ancient times, these have attained the One: heaven attained it and became clear;earth attained it and came to rest;the spirits attained it and gained their potency;the valley attained it and filled;all beings attained it and came alive;lords and kings attained it and became the plumb line for all under heaven.Follow this to its end: without what makes it clear, heaven, one fears, would split apart;without what keeps it settled, earth, one fears, would burst open;without what gives them their power, the spirits, one fears, would cease;without what fills it, the valley, one fears, would run dry;without what gives them life, all beings, one fears, would perish;Without the means to remain exalted, lords and kings, one fears, would topple.Thus what is noble is rooted in the lowly; what is high is founded on what lies below.That is why lords and kings call themselves orphaned, widowed, and unworthy.Is this not how they root themselves in lowliness?Is that not so?Thus, amassing praise upon praise amounts to no praise at all.They seek neither to gleam like jade nor to be stark and hard like stone.

The Way moves by turning back;it works through weakness.Everything under heaven is born of presence; presence is born of absence.

When the finest students hear of the Way, they practice it diligently;when middling students hear of it, they seem to keep it, seem to lose it;when the lowest students hear of it, they burst out laughing.If no one laughed at it, it would not deserve to be called the Way.So the old sayings have it: the radiant Way seems dark;the Way advancing seems to retreat;the level Way seems knotted;the highest integrity seems like a valley;the purest white seems stained;the broadest integrity seems lacking;integrity firmly grounded seems lax;what is solid and true seems to shift;the greatest square has no corners;the greatest vessel takes longest to finish;the greatest note is barely heard;the greatest image has no form;the Way remains hidden and nameless.Only the Way gives freely and brings all things to fulfillment.

The Way brings forth one; one brings forth two; two brings forth three; three brings forth the ten thousand things.All things carry yin on their backs and hold yang in their arms; their mingling breath makes harmony.What people most despise—being orphaned, widowed, or worthless—kings and lords choose as their own titles.So some things gain through loss, while others lose through gain.What others teach, I too teach.The rigid and overbearing do not die a natural death; I will make this the founding father of my teaching.

The softest thing in the world ranges freely through the hardest.What has no substance enters where there is no seam; from this I know the benefit of acting without forcing.Teaching without words, the benefit of action without forcing—few in the world ever attain them.

Your reputation or your life—which is dearer?Your life or your possessions—which weighs more?Gain or loss—which is the greater harm?So clinging too hard always exacts a heavy price;hoarding much always ends in heavy loss.Know what is enough, and you avoid humiliation; know when to stop, and you avoid danger. Then you can endure.

What is most complete may seem unfinished, yet it never wears out in use.What is most full may seem hollow, yet its use never runs dry.What is truly straight may seem bent; the master hand may seem clumsy; the finest eloquence may sound halting.Movement dispels the cold; stillness dispels the heat.Clarity and stillness are the true measure for all under heaven.

When the world follows the Way, swift horses are sent home to haul manure to the fields.When the world loses the Way, war mares foal at the frontier.No calamity is greater than not knowing what is enough;no fault is greater than the desire to gain more.So knowing what is enough is enough—and always will be.

Without stepping out the door, you can know the whole world;without peering through the window, you can see heaven’s course.The farther out you go, the less you come to know.Thus the sage knows without traveling, names things without seeing them, and brings them to completion without forcing.

Give yourself to learning, and each day you add; give yourself to the Way, and each day you let go.Let go, then let go again, until you act without forcing.Act without forcing, and nothing is left undone.The world is always won without meddling; once you begin to interfere, you are no longer fit to win it.

The sage has no fixed heart of his own; he takes the people’s heart as his own.I am good to those who are good;I am also good to those who are not;And goodness comes to be.I trust those who are trustworthy;I also trust those who are not;And trust comes to be.In the world, the sage draws inward, keeping his heart whole for the world’s sake. The people’s eyes and ears are all trained on him, and he treats them all as children.

We come forth into life and pass back into death.Three in ten follow life;three in ten follow death;and three in ten, though alive, move toward death-ground.Why is this?Because they lavish too much care on preserving their lives.I have heard that those skilled in shepherding life cross the land without meeting rhinoceros or tiger, and enter battle without suffering a blow from any weapon;the rhinoceros finds no place to thrust its horn, the tiger no place to set its claws, and a weapon’s edge no place to enter.Why is this?Because death has no ground in them.

The Way brings them forth; inner power nurtures them; the world of things shapes them; circumstances bring them to completion.So all things, without exception, honor the Way and prize inner power.The Way is honored and inner power prized, yet no one decrees it; it is always so of itself.And so the Way brings them forth, and inner power nurtures them:brings them to full growth and fosters them;settles them and ripens them;nourishes them and shelters them.It gives birth without possessing, acts without claiming credit, and raises without ruling: this is called profound inner power.

The world has a beginning, and this beginning may be taken as the mother of the world.Once you have found the mother, you can know her children. Once you know the children, return and hold fast to the mother, and to the end of your life you will meet no peril.Seal the openings, shut the gates, and all your life you will not wear yourself out.Open the passages, press on with your affairs, and all your life you will be beyond rescue.Clarity means seeing what is small; strength means holding to what yields.Use the outward light, then return to inner clarity, and bring no calamity on yourself;This is what it means to practice the constant.

If I had even a scrap of knowledge, I would walk the great Way and fear only straying from it.The great Way runs smooth and level, yet people prefer shortcuts.The court is spotless, the fields choked with weeds, the granaries standing empty;Those at court wear embroidered finery and sharp swords at their belts, gorge on food and drink, and amass wealth and goods in excess;This is the swagger of robbers.Surely this is not the Way!

What is planted well cannot be uprooted; what is held well cannot slip free. So descendants never cease their ancestral offerings.Cultivate the Way in yourself, and its inner power becomes genuine;cultivate it in the family, and its inner power is more than enough;cultivate it in the village, and its inner power endures;cultivate it in the state, and its inner power becomes abundant;cultivate it throughout the world, and its inner power reaches everywhere.So see the self from within the self, the family from within the family, the village from within the village, the state from within the state, and the world from within the world.How do I know this is true of the world?By this.

One whose integrity runs deep within may be compared to a newborn child.Wasps, scorpions, vipers, and snakes do not sting or bite it; fierce beasts do not seize it; birds of prey do not strike.Its bones are weak, its sinews soft, yet its fist is tightly clenched.It knows nothing of the union of female and male, yet its member rises: vital essence at its fullest.It cries all day and never grows hoarse: harmony at its fullest.To know harmony is called constancy; to know constancy is called clarity; trying to prolong one’s life is called an ill omen.When the mind commands the vital breath, that is called forcing.Whatever reaches full vigor begins at once to age. This is called going against the Way; what goes against the Way comes to an early end.

Whoever knows does not speak of it; whoever speaks of it does not know.Seal the openings, close the gates; blunt the edges, unravel the tangles; temper the brightness, mingle with the dust. This is called profound unity.Thus such a one can neither be won over by closeness nor driven away by distance;no one can benefit them or harm them;no one can raise them in rank or bring them low.And so the whole world prizes such a one above all.

Govern the state with upright measures; wage war by surprise; win the allegiance of all under heaven by not meddling.How do I know this is so?From this: the more prohibitions fill the realm, the poorer the people become;the more ingenious devices the people possess, the more confused the state and its ruling house grow;the more technical ingenuity people cultivate, the more strange contrivances arise;the more prominently laws and decrees are displayed, the more thieves and robbers appear.So the sage says: I act without forcing, and the people transform themselves;I cherish stillness, and the people set themselves right;I do not meddle, and the people prosper by themselves;I am free of desire, and the people become unworked wood on their own.

When rule is dim and unintrusive, the people are simple and true;when rule is sharp-eyed and probing, the people grow fractured and discontented.Calamity—fortune leans against it; fortune—calamity crouches beneath it.Who can know its end?There is no fixed standard of right.What is right turns strange again; what is good turns ominous again.People have lost their way in this for ages.So the sage is square without cutting, sharp-edged without wounding, straight without being overbearing, bright without dazzling.

For governing people and serving heaven, nothing equals holding something in reserve.Such reserve alone is called an early return;early return means storing up integrity, layer upon layer;with integrity stored layer upon layer, there is nothing one cannot overcome;when there is nothing one cannot overcome, no one can know where the limit lies;when the limit cannot be known, one can hold a state;possessing the mother of the state, one can endure for a long time;this is called the way of deep roots and a firm taproot, of long life and sight that endures.

Ruling a great state is like cooking a small fish.Rule all beneath heaven through the Way, and its ghosts exert no spirit-power;not that the ghosts have no power—their power does not harm anyone;Not only does their power do no harm; the sage, too, does no harm.So when neither side does harm, their integrity comes together and returns home.

A great state is like a river’s lower reaches: the meeting place of all beneath heaven, the female of the world.The female always prevails over the male by stillness; in stillness, she keeps to the lower place.Thus, by placing itself below a small state, a great state wins its allegiance;and by placing itself below a great state, a small state is received by the great.Thus one takes the lower place to win; the other takes the lower place and is won.The great state seeks only to take others under its care; the small state seeks only to enter another’s service.Since both gain what they seek, the greater should take the lower place.

The Way is the deep shelter where all things gather.Good people treasure it; those who are not good are sheltered by it.Fine words can fetch a price; honored conduct can raise one above others.Why cast aside those who are not good?So at the enthronement of the Son of Heaven and the installation of the three great ministers, even a jade disc borne in both hands before a four-horse team cannot match offering this Way while seated.Why was this Way so precious to the ancients?Was it not said: through it, one seeks and finds; through it, the guilty go free?That is why the whole world prizes it above all.

Act without forcing; attend to affairs without making an affair of them; savor what has no flavor.See the small as great, the few as many; answer resentment with integrity.Plan for what is difficult while it is still easy; work on what is great while it is still minute;Every difficult undertaking under heaven must begin while still easy; every great undertaking must begin while still minute.So the sage never sets out to do great things, and for that very reason can accomplish the great.Whoever promises lightly will surely be little trusted; whoever treats many things as easy will surely meet many difficulties.Thus the sage treats even the easy as difficult, and so in the end encounters no difficulty.

What is settled is easy to keep steady; what has not yet given a sign is easy to prepare for.What is fragile is easy to split; what is minute is easy to scatter.Attend to it before it arises; set it in order before disorder begins.A tree that takes both arms to encircle grows from a shoot fine as a hair;a terrace nine tiers high rises from earth piled basket by basket;a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet.Those who meddle with things ruin them; those who clutch them lose them.Therefore the sage acts without forcing and so ruins nothing;clutches nothing and so loses nothing.People usually ruin an undertaking just as it nears completion.Take as much care at the end as at the beginning, and no undertaking will be ruined; therefore the sage desires what others do not desire and does not prize goods hard to come by;learns what others leave unlearned, returns to what the crowd has passed by, and so helps all things follow their own course, without daring to force them.

The ancients who excelled in the Way did not aim to make the people knowledgeable, but to keep them artless.People are hard to govern when they have too much cunning.So governing a state through cunning is itself a thief, robbing the state;governing it without cunning is the state’s blessing.To know these two is itself the measure and model.To keep this measure steadily in mind is called dark potency.Dark potency is deep indeed, far-reaching indeed, contrary to the usual course of things—and only then does it arrive at the great accord.

The rivers and seas can reign over the hundred valleys because they are skilled at lying below them; that is why they are kings of the hundred valleys.So when the sage wishes to stand above the people, he must speak as one below them;when he wishes to lead them, he must place himself behind them.Thus the sage stands above, yet the people feel no burden; he stands before them, yet they suffer no harm.So everyone under heaven gladly pushes him forward and never wearies of him.Because he does not contend, no one in the world can contend with him.

All the world says my Way is great, yet it resembles nothing they know.Only because it is great does it resemble nothing.If it had resembled anything, by now—how small it would have become!I have three treasures; I hold them close and keep them safe.The first is compassion; the second, frugality; the third, not daring to take the lead in the world.Compassion makes courage possible;frugality gives generosity reach;not daring to lead the world enables one to become chief among its officers.Now people cast off compassion, yet expect to be brave;they cast off frugality, yet expect to give freely;they cast off staying behind, yet expect to lead;Death!With compassion, one wins in battle and stands firm in defense.When Heaven is about to save someone, it shields them with compassion.

Those skilled in war make no show of force;those skilled in battle do not give way to anger;those skilled at defeating enemies do not engage them;those skilled at leading others place themselves below them.This is called the power of not contending; this is called the strength to lead others; this is called standing level with heaven—the highest attainment of the ancients.

Those who wage war have a saying: I dare not be the host who begins, but the guest who answers;I dare not advance an inch, but would rather retreat a foot.This is called marching with no marching formation;rolling up the sleeve on an arm that is not there;grappling with no enemy to seize;gripping a weapon that does not exist.Nothing is more disastrous than taking the enemy lightly—it almost costs me my treasure.Thus, when evenly matched armies clash, the one that mourns the battle will prevail.

My words are very easy to understand, very easy to put into practice.Yet no one under heaven can understand them; no one can put them into practice.My words descend from an ancestor; my actions answer to a lord.Only because they do not know this do they fail to know me.Those who understand me are few; those who pattern themselves on me are precious.Thus the sage wears coarse cloth, with jade concealed against the breast.

Nothing is higher than knowing that you do not know;not knowing, yet believing you know, is sickness.Only by recognizing the sickness as a sickness can you be free of it.The sage is not sick; because he recognizes the sickness as a sickness, he remains free of it.

When the people no longer dread the ruler’s power, a greater dread arrives.Do not hem in their homes; do not crush their means of living.Only because he does not oppress them do they not grow sick of him.Thus the sage knows himself without making a show of himself;he cares for himself without setting himself above others.So he leaves that behind and chooses this.

Courage that dares meets death; courage that does not dare survives.Of the two, one helps; the other harms.What Heaven abhors—who knows why?So this remains difficult even for the sage.Without contending, Heaven’s way prevails; without speaking, it answers; unsummoned, it comes of itself; at ease, it plans well.Heaven’s net is immense; its mesh is wide, yet nothing slips through.

When people no longer fear death, to what end threaten them with it?If people could always be kept afraid of death, and I could seize and kill anyone who went astray, who would dare to do so?There is always one who presides over killing and carries it out.The one who presides over killing is the master carpenter, hewing the wood;Whoever takes the master carpenter’s place to hew the wood rarely escapes without wounding his own hands.

The people go hungry because those above eat up so much in taxes. That is why they go hungry.The people are hard to govern because those above keep interfering. That is why they are hard to govern.The people make light of death because the pursuit of life weighs so heavily. That is why they make light of death.Only one who does not make a project of living is better than one who prizes life.

Alive, the human body is soft and yielding; dead, it is stiff and hard.In life, all creatures, grasses, and trees are tender and fragile; in death, withered and dry.So hardness and strength keep company with death; softness and weakness with life.So an army grown strong will not prevail; a tree grown hard and stout is ringed by the woodcutter’s arms.The strong and great take their place below; the soft and weak, above.

Could the Way of heaven be like drawing a bow?The upper limb is pressed down, the lower lifted up;the surplus is reduced; the shortfall is made up.The Way of heaven reduces the surplus and makes up the shortfall.The human way is otherwise: it takes from those with too little and offers it up to those with too much.Who can offer their surplus to all under heaven? Only one who has the Way.Thus the sage acts but does not lean on what he has done; completes the work but does not dwell in it; and has no wish to display his excellence.

Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water, yet nothing can surpass it in wearing down the hard and strong; nothing can take its place.The weak overcomes the strong; the soft overcomes the hard. Everyone knows this, yet no one can live by it.So the sage says: Whoever bears the state’s disgrace is called lord of its altars of soil and grain;whoever bears the state’s calamities is called king of all under heaven.Straight words seem backward.

Reconcile a deep grievance, and resentment is bound to remain;how could that count as a good outcome?So the sage holds the left half of the tally, but makes no demand on the other party.A person of integrity keeps the tally; one without integrity enforces the levy.The way of heaven favors no kin; it always sides with those who are good.

A small country with few people.Let there be tools able to do the work of ten or a hundred, yet leave them unused;let the people feel the weight of death and not move far from home.Though boats and carts are at hand, there is no need to use them; though armor and weapons are at hand, there is no cause to deploy them.Let the people return to using knotted cords for records; let them savor their food, find beauty in their clothes, live at ease in their homes, and delight in their ways.Neighboring countries lie within sight of one another; their people hear one another’s roosters crow and dogs bark; yet they grow old and die without ever going back and forth.

Sincere words are not polished; polished words are not sincere.The good do not dispute; those who dispute are not good.Those who know are not widely learned; those who are widely learned do not know.The sage hoards nothing. Having spent everything for others, the sage has more; having given everything to others, the sage has more still.The way of heaven benefits without harming;the sage’s way is to act, not contend.