Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 80
Chapter 80 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
小國寡民。使有什伯之器而不用；使民重死而不遠徙。雖有舟輿，無所乘之，雖有甲兵，無所陳之。使民復結繩而用之，甘其食，美其服，安其居，樂其俗。鄰國相望，雞犬之聲相聞，民至老死，不相往來。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
Let the state be small and the people few.Let there be tools in tens and hundreds, yet leave them unused;Let the people take death seriously and not migrate far.Though there are boats and carriages, let there be nowhere to ride them; though there are armor and weapons, let there be nowhere to deploy them.Let the people return to tying knots and using them, savor their food, delight in their clothing, rest secure in their homes, and rejoice in their customs.Neighboring states gaze upon one another, the calls of cocks and dogs are heard across them, yet the people grow old and die without traveling back and forth.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
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.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. In a little state with a small population, I would so order it, that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make the people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove elsewhere (to avoid it).
2. Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they should have no occasion to don or use them.
3. I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead of the written characters).
4. They should think their (coarse) food sweet; their (plain) clothes beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common (simple) ways sources of enjoyment.
5. There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it.