Latest / Classic Philosophy Library / Tao Te Ching - Dao De Jing
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapters one through nine. Part one. Chapter one, Section one.
- 0:07Speaker 1: The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring
- 0:10Speaker 1: and unchanging tao. The name that can be named is
- 0:14Speaker 1: not the enduring and unchanging name. Chapter one, section two.
- 0:20Speaker 1: Conceived of as having no name, it is the originator
- 0:24Speaker 1: of heaven and earth. Conceived of as having a name,
- 0:27Speaker 1: it is the mother of all things. Chapter one, Section three.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Always without desire we must be found. If it's deep mystery,
- 0:38Speaker 1: we would sound. But if desire always within us be
- 0:43Speaker 1: its outer fringe, is all that we shall see. Chapter one,
- 0:48Speaker 1: section four. Under these two aspects, it is really the same.
- 0:54Speaker 1: But as development takes place, it receives the different names.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Together we call them the mystery. Where the mystery is
- 1:02Speaker 1: the deepest is the gait of all that is subtle
- 1:05Speaker 1: and wonderful. Chapter two, Section one. All in the world
- 1:13Speaker 1: know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this
- 1:16Speaker 1: they have the idea of what ugliness is. They all
- 1:19Speaker 1: know the skill of the skillful, and in doing this
- 1:22Speaker 1: they have the idea of what the want of skill is.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Chapter two, Section two. So it is that existence and
- 1:31Speaker 1: non existence give birth the one to the idea of
- 1:33Speaker 1: the other, that difficulty and ease produce the one the
- 1:37Speaker 1: idea of the other. That length and shortness fashion out
- 1:41Speaker 1: the one the figure of the other. That the ideas
- 1:45Speaker 1: of height and lonness arise from the contrast of the
- 1:48Speaker 1: one with the other. That the musical notes and tones
- 1:51Speaker 1: become harmonious through the relation of one with another, And
- 1:55Speaker 1: that being before and behind give the idea of one
- 1:58Speaker 1: following another. Chapter two, Section three. Therefore the sage manages
- 2:07Speaker 1: affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the
- 2:12Speaker 1: use of speech. Chapter two, Section four. All things spring up,
- 2:20Speaker 1: and there is not one which declines to show itself.
- 2:23Speaker 1: They grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership.
- 2:27Speaker 1: They go through their processes, and there is no expectation
- 2:31Speaker 1: of a reward for the results. The work is accomplished,
- 2:35Speaker 1: and there is no resting in it as an achievement.
- 2:39Speaker 1: The work is done, but how no one can see.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Tis this that makes the power not cease to be?
- 2:49Speaker 1: Chapter three, Section one. Not to value and employment of
- 2:54Speaker 1: superior ability is the way to keep the people from
- 2:57Speaker 1: rivalry among themselves. Not to prize articles which are difficult
- 3:01Speaker 1: to procure is the way to keep them from becoming thieves.
- 3:06Speaker 1: Not to show them what is likely to excite their
- 3:08Speaker 1: desires is the way to keep their minds from disorder.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Chapter three, section two. Therefore, the Sage, in the exercise
- 3:20Speaker 1: of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens
- 3:25Speaker 1: their wills, and strengthens their bones. Chapter three, Section three.
- 3:32Speaker 1: He constantly tries to keep them without knowledge and without desire,
- 3:36Speaker 1: and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep
- 3:39Speaker 1: them from presuming to act on it. When there is
- 3:42Speaker 1: this abstinence from action, good order is universal. Chapter four
- 3:50Speaker 1: Section one. The Tao is like the emptiness of a vessel,
- 3:55Speaker 1: and in our employment of it, we must be on
- 3:57Speaker 1: our guard against all fullness. How deep and unfathomable it is,
- 4:02Speaker 1: as if it were the honored ancestor of all things.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Chapter four section two. We should blunt our sharp points
- 4:14Speaker 1: and unravel the complications of things. We should attemper our
- 4:18Speaker 1: brightness and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others.
- 4:23Speaker 1: How pure and still the Tao is, as if it
- 4:26Speaker 1: would ever so continue. Chapter four Section three. I do
- 4:34Speaker 1: not know whose sun it is. It might appear to
- 4:37Speaker 1: have been before God. Chapter five Section one. Heaven and
- 4:45Speaker 1: Earth do not act from the impulse of any wish
- 4:47Speaker 1: to be benevolent. They deal with all things as the
- 4:50Speaker 1: dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not
- 4:54Speaker 1: act from any wish to be benevolent. They deal with
- 4:57Speaker 1: the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Chapter five, Section two. May not the space between heaven
- 5:06Speaker 1: and Earth be compared to a bellows tis emptied, Yet
- 5:10Speaker 1: it loses not its power, tis moved again and sends
- 5:14Speaker 1: forth air. The more much speech to swift exhaustion lead.
- 5:19Speaker 1: We see your inner being guard and keep it free.
- 5:26Speaker 1: Chapter six. The valley's spirit dies, not I the same
- 5:32Speaker 1: the female mystery. Thus do we name its gait, from
- 5:37Speaker 1: which at first they issued forth is called the root
- 5:40Speaker 1: from which grew Heaven and Earth long and unbroken. Does
- 5:44Speaker 1: its power remain used gently and without the touch of pain.
- 5:50Speaker 1: Chapter seven, Section one. Heaven is long enduring, and earth
- 5:56Speaker 1: continues long. The reason why heaven and Earth are a
- 6:00Speaker 1: to endure and continue thus long is because they do
- 6:03Speaker 1: not live of or for themselves. This is how they
- 6:06Speaker 1: are able to continue and endure. Chapter seven, Section two. Therefore,
- 6:14Speaker 1: the sage puts his own person last, and yet it
- 6:17Speaker 1: is found in the foremost place. He treats his person
- 6:21Speaker 1: as if it were foreign to him, And yet that
- 6:23Speaker 1: person is preserved. Is it not because he has no
- 6:27Speaker 1: personal and private ends, that therefore such ends are realized?
- 6:34Speaker 1: Chapter eight Section one. The highest excellence is like that
- 6:39Speaker 1: of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting
- 6:43Speaker 1: all things, and in its occupying without striving to the
- 6:47Speaker 1: contrary the low place, which all men dislike. Hence its
- 6:51Speaker 1: way is near to that of the Tao. Chapter eight
- 6:57Speaker 1: section two. The excellence of a residence is in the
- 7:02Speaker 1: suitability of the place. That of the mind is in
- 7:05Speaker 1: abysmal stillness. That of associations is in their being with
- 7:10Speaker 1: the virtuous, That of government is in its securing good order,
- 7:16Speaker 1: That of the conduct of affairs is in its ability,
- 7:19Speaker 1: and that of the initiation of any movement is in
- 7:23Speaker 1: its timeliness. Chapter eight Section three. And when one with
- 7:31Speaker 1: the highest excellence does not wrangle about his low position,
- 7:35Speaker 1: no one finds fault with him. Chapter nine Section one.
- 7:43Speaker 1: It is better to leave a vessel unfilled than to
- 7:46Speaker 1: attempt to carry it when it is full. If you
- 7:49Speaker 1: keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point
- 7:52Speaker 1: cannot long preserve its sharpness. Chapter nine Section two. When
- 8:01Speaker 1: gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep
- 8:04Speaker 1: them safe. When wealth and honors lead to arrogancy, this
- 8:08Speaker 1: brings its evil on itself. When the work is done
- 8:13Speaker 1: and one's name is becoming distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity
- 8:17Speaker 1: is the way of heaven. End of chapter nine. This
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- 8:35Speaker 1: recorded by Eric S. Pietrowski f B E. S p
- 8:39Speaker 1: dot org, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, thirteenth of January two thousand
- 8:45Speaker 1: and six. The Tao de King or the Tao and
- 8:49Speaker 1: Its Characteristics by Laotsey, translated by James Legga Part one,
- 8:57Speaker 1: Chapters ten through eighteen. Chapter ten, Part one. When the
- 9:04Speaker 1: intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace,
- 9:08Speaker 1: they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided
- 9:12Speaker 1: attention to the vital breath and brings it to the
- 9:15Speaker 1: utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a tender
- 9:19Speaker 1: babe when he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights
- 9:23Speaker 1: of his imagination, he can become without a flaw Chapter ten,
- 9:29Speaker 1: Section two. In loving the people and ruling the state?
- 9:34Speaker 1: Cannot he proceed without any purpose of action in the
- 9:38Speaker 1: opening and shutting of his gates of heaven? Can he
- 9:41Speaker 1: not do so as a female bird? While his intelligence
- 9:45Speaker 1: reaches in every direction? Cannot he appear to be without knowledge?
- 9:52Speaker 1: Chapter ten, Section three. The Tao produces all things, and
- 9:58Speaker 1: nourishes themduce uses them, and does not claim them as
- 10:02Speaker 1: its own. It does all, and yet does not boast
- 10:05Speaker 1: of it. It presides over all, and yet does not
- 10:09Speaker 1: control them. This is what is called the mysterious quality
- 10:13Speaker 1: of the Doo. Chapter eleven. The thirty spokes unite in
- 10:20Speaker 1: the one nave, But it is on the empty space
- 10:24Speaker 1: for the axle that the use of the wheel depends.
- 10:27Speaker 1: Clay is fashioned into vessels, but it is on their
- 10:30Speaker 1: empty hollowness that their use depends. The door and windows
- 10:35Speaker 1: are cut out from the walls to form an apartment,
- 10:38Speaker 1: but it is on the empty space within that its
- 10:41Speaker 1: use depends. Therefore, what has a positive existence serves for
- 10:46Speaker 1: profitable adaptation, and what has not that for actual usefulness.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, Section one colors five hues from the eye.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Their sight will take music's five notes. The ears as
- 11:04Speaker 1: death can make the flavors five deprive, the mouth of taste,
- 11:08Speaker 1: the chariot course, and the wild hunting waste make mad
- 11:12Speaker 1: the mind and objects rare and strange sought for man's
- 11:17Speaker 1: conduct will to evil change. Chapter twelve, Section two. Therefore,
- 11:26Speaker 1: the sage seeks to satisfy the craving of the belly
- 11:30Speaker 1: and not the insatiable longing of the eyes. He puts
- 11:33Speaker 1: from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, Section one. Favor and disgrace would seem equally
- 11:45Speaker 1: to be feared, honor and great calamity to be regarded
- 11:49Speaker 1: as personal conditions of the same kind. Chapter thirteen, Section two.
- 11:58Speaker 1: What is meant by speaking thus favor and disgrace Disgrace
- 12:02Speaker 1: is being in a low position after the enjoyment of favor,
- 12:06Speaker 1: The getting that favor leads to the apprehension of losing it,
- 12:10Speaker 1: and the losing it leads to the fear of still
- 12:12Speaker 1: greater calamity. This is what is meant by saying that
- 12:16Speaker 1: favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared, And
- 12:22Speaker 1: what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity
- 12:24Speaker 1: are to be similarly regarded as personal conditions. What makes
- 12:28Speaker 1: me liable to great calamity is my having the body
- 12:31Speaker 1: which I call myself. If I had not the body,
- 12:34Speaker 1: what great calamity could come to me? Chapter thirteen, Section three. Therefore,
- 12:43Speaker 1: he who would administer the kingdom, honoring it as he
- 12:46Speaker 1: honors his own person, may be employed to govern it,
- 12:49Speaker 1: And he who would administer it with the love which
- 12:52Speaker 1: he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, Section one. We look at it and we
- 13:03Speaker 1: do not see it, and we name it the equable.
- 13:07Speaker 1: We listen to it, and we do not hear it,
- 13:09Speaker 1: and we name it the inaudible. We try to grasp
- 13:13Speaker 1: it and do not get hold of it, and we
- 13:15Speaker 1: name it the subtle. With these three qualities, it cannot
- 13:20Speaker 1: be made the subject of description. And hence we blend
- 13:23Speaker 1: them together and obtain the one. Chapter fourteen, Section two.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part
- 13:35Speaker 1: is not obscure, ceaseless in its action. It yet cannot
- 13:40Speaker 1: be named. And then it again returns and becomes nothing.
- 13:44Speaker 1: This is called the form of the formless, and the
- 13:47Speaker 1: semblance of the invisible. This is called the fleeting and
- 13:51Speaker 1: indeterminable Chapter fourteen, section three. We meet it and do
- 13:58Speaker 1: not see its front. We follow it and do not
- 14:02Speaker 1: seek its back. When we can lay hold of the
- 14:05Speaker 1: Tao of old to direct the things of the present day,
- 14:08Speaker 1: and are able to know it as it was of
- 14:11Speaker 1: old in the beginning, this is called unwinding the clue
- 14:15Speaker 1: of Tao. Chapter fifteen, Section one. The skillful masters of
- 14:22Speaker 1: the Tao in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration,
- 14:26Speaker 1: comprehended its mysteries, and were deep also so as to
- 14:30Speaker 1: elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge,
- 14:34Speaker 1: I will make an effort to describe of what sort
- 14:37Speaker 1: they appeared to be. Chapter fifteen, Section two. Shrinking looked
- 14:45Speaker 1: they like those who wade through a stream in winter, irresolute,
- 14:50Speaker 1: like those who are afraid of all around them, Grave,
- 14:53Speaker 1: like a guest in awe of his host, Evanescent, like
- 14:57Speaker 1: ice that is melting away, unpretended, like wood that has
- 15:01Speaker 1: not been fashioned into anything, Vacant like a valley, and
- 15:05Speaker 1: dull like muddy water. Chapter fifteen, section three. Who can
- 15:14Speaker 1: make the muddy water clear? Let it be still and
- 15:18Speaker 1: it will gradually become clear who can secure the condition
- 15:22Speaker 1: of rest. Let movement go on, and the condition of
- 15:26Speaker 1: rest will gradually arise. Chapter fifteen, Section four. They who
- 15:34Speaker 1: preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to
- 15:37Speaker 1: be full of themselves. It is through their not being
- 15:40Speaker 1: full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn
- 15:43Speaker 1: and not appear new and complete. Chapter sixteen, Section one.
- 15:51Speaker 1: The state of vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree,
- 15:55Speaker 1: and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigor. All things
- 16:00Speaker 1: alike go through their processes of activity, and then we
- 16:03Speaker 1: see them return to their original state. When things in
- 16:07Speaker 1: the vegetable world have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see
- 16:11Speaker 1: each of them return to its root. This returning to
- 16:15Speaker 1: their root is what we call the state of stillness,
- 16:18Speaker 1: and that stillness may be called a reporting that they
- 16:20Speaker 1: have fulfilled their appointed end. Chapter sixteen, Section two. The
- 16:28Speaker 1: report of that fulfillment is the regular unchanging rule. To
- 16:32Speaker 1: know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent. Not to
- 16:36Speaker 1: know it leads to wild movements and evil issues. The
- 16:40Speaker 1: knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a grand capacity and forbearance,
- 16:45Speaker 1: And that capacity and forbearance lead to a community of
- 16:49Speaker 1: feeling with all things. From this community of feeling comes
- 16:53Speaker 1: the kingliness of character, and he who is king like
- 16:57Speaker 1: goes on to be heaven like. In that likeness to
- 17:00Speaker 1: heaven he possesses the Tao. Possessed of the Tao, he
- 17:05Speaker 1: endures long, and to the end of his bodily life
- 17:09Speaker 1: is exempt from all danger of decay. Chapter seventeen, Section one.
- 17:17Speaker 1: In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that
- 17:20Speaker 1: there were their rulers. In the next age, they loved
- 17:24Speaker 1: them and praised them. In the next they feared them,
- 17:28Speaker 1: in the next they despised them. Thus it was that,
- 17:32Speaker 1: when faith in the Tao was deficient in the rulers,
- 17:35Speaker 1: a want of faith in them ensued in the people.
- 17:41Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, Section two. How irresolute did those earliest rulers appear,
- 17:48Speaker 1: showing by their reticence the importance which they set upon
- 17:51Speaker 1: their words. Their work was done and their undertakings were successful,
- 17:56Speaker 1: while the people all said, we are as we are
- 17:59Speaker 1: of ourselves. Chapter eighteen, Section one. When the great Tao
- 18:08Speaker 1: weigh or method ceased to be observed, benevolence and righteousness
- 18:13Speaker 1: came into vogue. Then appeared wisdom and shrewdness, and there
- 18:17Speaker 1: ensued great hypocrisy. Chapter eighteen, Section two. When harmony no
- 18:26Speaker 1: longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their
- 18:30Speaker 1: manifestation when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal
- 18:35Speaker 1: ministers appeared. End of chapter eighteen. Chapters nineteen through twenty seven.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, Section one. If we could renounce our sageness
- 18:49Speaker 1: and discard our wisdom, it would be better for the
- 18:52Speaker 1: people one hundredfold. If we could renounce our benevolence and
- 18:56Speaker 1: discard our righteousness, the people would again become and kindly.
- 19:01Speaker 1: If we could renounce our artful contrivances and discard our
- 19:05Speaker 1: scheming for gain, there would be no thieves nor robbers.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, Section two. Those three methods of government thought
- 19:17Speaker 1: olden ways in elegance did fail and made these names
- 19:21Speaker 1: their want of worth to veil. But simple views and
- 19:24Speaker 1: courses plain and true would selfish ends and many lusts Eschew.
- 19:32Speaker 1: Chapter twenty, Section one. When we renounce learning, we have
- 19:37Speaker 1: no troubles. The ready yes and flattering yea small is
- 19:42Speaker 1: the difference they display, but mark their issues good and ill.
- 19:47Speaker 1: What space the gulf between shall fill what all men
- 19:52Speaker 1: fear is indeed to be feared. But how wide and
- 19:56Speaker 1: without end is the range of questions asking to be discussed?
- 20:02Speaker 1: Chapter twenty, Section two. The multitude of men look satisfied
- 20:07Speaker 1: and pleased, as if enjoying a full banquet, as if
- 20:11Speaker 1: mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless
- 20:15Speaker 1: and still, my desires having as yet given no indication
- 20:19Speaker 1: of their presence. I am like an infant which has
- 20:22Speaker 1: not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if
- 20:26Speaker 1: I had no home to go to. The multitude of
- 20:30Speaker 1: men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem
- 20:33Speaker 1: to have lost everything. My mind is that of a
- 20:37Speaker 1: stupid man. I am in a state of chaos. Ordinary
- 20:42Speaker 1: men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to
- 20:45Speaker 1: be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone
- 20:50Speaker 1: am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about
- 20:54Speaker 1: as on the sea, drifting, as if I had nowhere
- 20:57Speaker 1: to rest. All men have their years of action, while
- 21:01Speaker 1: I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer.
- 21:06Speaker 1: Thus I alone am different from other men, But I
- 21:09Speaker 1: value the nursing mother. The Tao, Chapter twenty one the
- 21:17Speaker 1: grandest forms of active force. From Tao come their only source.
- 21:23Speaker 1: Who can of Tao? The nature tell our sight, It
- 21:27Speaker 1: flies our touch, as well, eluding sight, eluding touch. The
- 21:32Speaker 1: forms of things all in it crouch eluding touch, eluding sight.
- 21:37Speaker 1: There are their semblances, all right, profound. It is dark
- 21:42Speaker 1: and obscure things essences all there endure those essences the
- 21:47Speaker 1: truth enfold of what, when seen, shall then be told.
- 21:53Speaker 1: Now it is so twas so of old its name,
- 21:56Speaker 1: what passes not away? So in their beautiful earth ray
- 22:00Speaker 1: things form and never know decay. How know I that
- 22:06Speaker 1: it is so with all the beauties of existing things?
- 22:09Speaker 1: By this nature of the Tao Chapter twenty two, Section one,
- 22:18Speaker 1: the partial becomes complete, the crooked, straight, the empty, full,
- 22:24Speaker 1: the worn out new. He whose desires are few gets them.
- 22:30Speaker 1: He whose desires are many goes astray. Chapter twenty two,
- 22:37Speaker 1: Section two. Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the
- 22:41Speaker 1: one thing of humility and manifests it to all the world.
- 22:46Speaker 1: He is free from self display, and therefore he shines
- 22:50Speaker 1: from self assertion, And therefore he is distinguished from self boasting,
- 22:55Speaker 1: and therefore his merit is acknowledged from self complacency, and
- 22:59Speaker 1: therefore he acquires superiority. It is because he is thus
- 23:03Speaker 1: free from striving, that therefore no one in the world
- 23:07Speaker 1: is able to strive with him. Chapter twenty two, section three.
- 23:15Speaker 1: That saying of the ancients that the partial becomes complete
- 23:18Speaker 1: was not vainly spoken. All real completion is comprehended under it.
- 23:25Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, Section one. Abstaining from speech marks him
- 23:31Speaker 1: who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent
- 23:35Speaker 1: wind does not last for a whole morning, a sudden
- 23:38Speaker 1: rain does not last for the whole day. To whom
- 23:42Speaker 1: is it that these two things are owing to heaven
- 23:45Speaker 1: and earth. If Heaven and earth cannot make such spasmodic
- 23:49Speaker 1: actings last long, how much less can man Chapter twenty three,
- 23:57Speaker 1: section two. Therefore, when one is making the Tao his business,
- 24:01Speaker 1: those who are also pursuing it agree with him in it,
- 24:05Speaker 1: and those who are making the manifestation of its course
- 24:08Speaker 1: their object agree with him in that, while even those
- 24:11Speaker 1: who are failing in both these things agree with him
- 24:14Speaker 1: where they fail. Chapter twenty three, section three. Hence, those
- 24:22Speaker 1: with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the
- 24:24Speaker 1: happiness of attaining to it. Those with whom he agrees
- 24:28Speaker 1: as to its manifestation have the happiness of attaining to it,
- 24:32Speaker 1: and those with whom he agrees in their failure have
- 24:35Speaker 1: also the happiness of attaining to the Tao. But when
- 24:39Speaker 1: there is not faith sufficient on his part, a want
- 24:42Speaker 1: of faith in him ensues on the part of the others.
- 24:48Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four. He who stands on his tiptoes does
- 24:52Speaker 1: not stand firm. He who stretches his legs does not
- 24:56Speaker 1: walk easily. So he who displays himsel does not shine.
- 25:01Speaker 1: He who asserts his own views is not distinguished. He
- 25:05Speaker 1: who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged. He
- 25:09Speaker 1: who is self conceited has no superiority allowed to him.
- 25:13Speaker 1: Such conditions, viewed from the standpoint of the Tao, are
- 25:16Speaker 1: like remnants of food or a tumor on the body,
- 25:19Speaker 1: which all dislike. Hence those who pursue the course of
- 25:23Speaker 1: the Tao do not adopt and allow them. Chapter twenty five,
- 25:30Speaker 1: Section one. There was something undefined and complete, coming into
- 25:35Speaker 1: existence before heaven and earth. How still it was and formless,
- 25:40Speaker 1: standing alone and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere, and in
- 25:44Speaker 1: no danger of being exhausted. It may be regarded as
- 25:48Speaker 1: the mother of all things. Chapter twenty five, Section two.
- 25:54Speaker 1: I do not know its name, and I give it
- 25:56Speaker 1: the designation of the Tao, the way or course. Making
- 26:01Speaker 1: an effort further to give it a name, I call
- 26:03Speaker 1: it the Great Chapter twenty five, Section three. Great it
- 26:11Speaker 1: passes on in constant flow. Passing on, it becomes remote.
- 26:16Speaker 1: Having become remote, it returns. Therefore, the Tao is great,
- 26:21Speaker 1: Heaven is great, Earth is great, and the Sage King
- 26:26Speaker 1: is also great. In the universe, there are four that
- 26:29Speaker 1: are great, and the Sage King is one of them.
- 26:34Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five, Section four. Man takes his law from
- 26:39Speaker 1: the earth. The earth takes its law from heaven. Heaven
- 26:43Speaker 1: takes its law from the Tao. The law of the
- 26:47Speaker 1: Tao is its being what it is. Chapter twenty six,
- 26:54Speaker 1: Section one. Gravity is the root of lightness, stillness the
- 27:00Speaker 1: u of movement. Chapter twenty six, Section two. Therefore, a
- 27:07Speaker 1: wise prince marching the whole day does not go far
- 27:11Speaker 1: from his baggage wagons. Although he may have brilliant prospects
- 27:15Speaker 1: to look at, he quietly remains in his proper place,
- 27:18Speaker 1: indifferent to them. How should the lord of a myriad
- 27:21Speaker 1: chariots carry himself lightly before the kingdom. If he do
- 27:26Speaker 1: act lightly, he has lost his root of gravity. If
- 27:29Speaker 1: he proceed to active movement, he will lose his throne.
- 27:35Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven, Section one. The skillful traveler leaves no
- 27:40Speaker 1: traces of his wheels or footsteps. The skillful speaker says
- 27:45Speaker 1: nothing that can be found fault with or blamed. The
- 27:48Speaker 1: skillful reckoner uses no tallies. The skillful closer needs no
- 27:53Speaker 1: bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut
- 27:56Speaker 1: will be impossible. The skillful binder uses no strings or knots,
- 28:01Speaker 1: while to unloose what he has bound will be impossible.
- 28:05Speaker 1: In the same way, the sage is always skillful at
- 28:08Speaker 1: saving men, and so he does not cast away any man.
- 28:12Speaker 1: He is always skillful at saving things, and so he
- 28:15Speaker 1: does not cast away anything. This is called hiding the
- 28:19Speaker 1: light of his procedure. Chapter twenty seven, section two. Therefore,
- 28:27Speaker 1: the man of skill is a master to be looked
- 28:29Speaker 1: up to by him who has not the skill, And
- 28:32Speaker 1: he who has not the skill is the helper of
- 28:35Speaker 1: the reputation of him who has the skill. If the
- 28:38Speaker 1: one did not honor his master, and the other did
- 28:41Speaker 1: not rejoice in his helper, an observer, though intelligent might
- 28:45Speaker 1: greatly err about them. This is called the utmost degree
- 28:49Speaker 1: of mystery. End of Chapter twenty seven. Chapters twenty eight
- 28:56Speaker 1: through thirty seven. Chapter twenty eight, Section one. One. Who
- 29:01Speaker 1: knows his manhood's strength, yet still his female feebleness maintains
- 29:07Speaker 1: as to one channel flow the many drains all come
- 29:11Speaker 1: to him, yea, all beneath the sky. Thus he, the
- 29:15Speaker 1: constant Excellence, retains the simple child, again free from all stains,
- 29:22Speaker 1: who knows how white attracts, yet always keeps himself within
- 29:26Speaker 1: Black's shade. The pattern of humility displayed displayed in view
- 29:32Speaker 1: of all beneath the sky. He, in the unchanging Excellence,
- 29:36Speaker 1: arrayed endless return to man's first state has made. Who
- 29:43Speaker 1: knows how glory shines, yet loves disgrace nor e'er, for
- 29:47Speaker 1: it is pale. Behold his presence in a spacious veale,
- 29:51Speaker 1: to which men come from all beneath the sky. The
- 29:55Speaker 1: unchanging Excellence completes its tail the simple infant man in
- 30:00Speaker 1: him we hail. Chapter twenty eight, Section two. The unwrought material,
- 30:08Speaker 1: when divided and distributed, forms vessels. The sage, when employed,
- 30:13Speaker 1: becomes the head of all the officers of government, and
- 30:17Speaker 1: in his greatest regulations he employs no violent measures. Chapter
- 30:24Speaker 1: twenty nine, Section one. If anyone should wish to get
- 30:29Speaker 1: the Kingdom for himself, and to affect this by what
- 30:32Speaker 1: he does, I see that he will not succeed. The
- 30:36Speaker 1: Kingdom is a spirit like thing and cannot be got
- 30:39Speaker 1: by active doing. He who would so win it destroys it.
- 30:45Speaker 1: He who would hold it in his grasp loses it.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine, Section two. The course and nature of
- 30:56Speaker 1: things is such that what was in front is now behind.
- 31:00Speaker 1: What warmed anon we freezing find strength is of weakness.
- 31:06Speaker 1: Off the spoil. The store in ruins mocks our toil.
- 31:12Speaker 1: Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence.
- 31:20Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, Section one. He who would assist a lord
- 31:24Speaker 1: of men in harmony with the Tao will not assert
- 31:27Speaker 1: his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms. Such
- 31:31Speaker 1: a course is sure to meet with its proper return
- 31:36Speaker 1: Chapter thirty section two. Wherever a host is stationed, briars
- 31:43Speaker 1: and thorns spring up in the sequence of great armies,
- 31:47Speaker 1: there are sure to be bad years. Chapter thirty section three.
- 31:55Speaker 1: A skillful commander strikes a decisive blow and stops. He
- 31:59Speaker 1: does not dare by continuing his operations to assert and
- 32:03Speaker 1: complete his mastery. He will strike the blow, but will
- 32:06Speaker 1: be on his guard against being vain or boastful or
- 32:10Speaker 1: arrogant in consequence of it. He strikes it. As a
- 32:13Speaker 1: matter of necessity. He strikes it, but not from a
- 32:16Speaker 1: wish for mastery. Chapter thirty, section four. When things have
- 32:25Speaker 1: attained their strong maturity, they become old. This may be
- 32:30Speaker 1: said to be not in accordance with the Tao, and
- 32:32Speaker 1: what is not in accordance with it soon comes to
- 32:35Speaker 1: an end. Chapter thirty one, Section one. Now, arms, however beautiful,
- 32:44Speaker 1: are instruments of evil omen hateful, it may be said
- 32:48Speaker 1: to all creatures. Therefore, they who have the Tao do
- 32:52Speaker 1: not like to employ them. Chapter thirty one, Section two.
- 33:00Speaker 1: The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most
- 33:04Speaker 1: honorable place, but in time of war the right hand.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not
- 33:12Speaker 1: the instruments of the superior man. He uses them only
- 33:15Speaker 1: on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what
- 33:20Speaker 1: he prizes. Victory by force of arms is to him
- 33:24Speaker 1: undesirable to consider this desirable would be to delight in
- 33:29Speaker 1: the slaughter of men, And he who delights in the
- 33:32Speaker 1: slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom
- 33:37Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, Section three. On occasions of festivity, to
- 33:43Speaker 1: be on the left hand is the prized position. On
- 33:46Speaker 1: occasions of mourning the right hand. The second in command
- 33:50Speaker 1: of the army has his place on the left. The
- 33:53Speaker 1: general commanding in chief has his on the right. His place,
- 33:57Speaker 1: that is, is assigned to him as in the rites
- 34:00Speaker 1: of mourning, He who has killed multitudes of men should
- 34:04Speaker 1: weep for them with the bitterest grief, And the victor
- 34:07Speaker 1: in battle has his place rightly according to those rites.
- 34:13Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two, Section one. The Tao considered as unchanging
- 34:19Speaker 1: has no name Chapter thirty two, Section two. Though in
- 34:27Speaker 1: its primordial simplicity it may be small, the whole world
- 34:31Speaker 1: dares not deal with one embodying it as a minister.
- 34:35Speaker 1: If a feudal prince or the king could guard and
- 34:38Speaker 1: hold it, all would spontaneously submit themselves to him. Chapter
- 34:45Speaker 1: thirty two, Section three. Heaven and Earth, under its guidance,
- 34:50Speaker 1: unite together and send down the sweet dew, which without
- 34:54Speaker 1: the directions of men reaches equally everywhere as of its
- 34:58Speaker 1: own accord. Chapter thirty two, section four. As soon as
- 35:05Speaker 1: it proceeds to action, it has a name. When it
- 35:09Speaker 1: once has that name, men can know to rest in it.
- 35:13Speaker 1: When they know to rest in it, they can be
- 35:15Speaker 1: free from all risk of failure and error. Chapter thirty two,
- 35:21Speaker 1: Section five. The relation of the Tao to all the
- 35:25Speaker 1: world is like that of the great rivers and sees
- 35:28Speaker 1: to the streams from the valleys. Chapter thirty three, Section one.
- 35:36Speaker 1: He who knows other men is discerning. He who knows
- 35:39Speaker 1: himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong. He
- 35:45Speaker 1: who overcomes himself is mighty. He who is satisfied with
- 35:49Speaker 1: his lot is rich. He who goes on acting with
- 35:53Speaker 1: energy has a firm will. Chapter thirty three, Section two.
- 36:01Speaker 1: He who does not fail in the requirements of his
- 36:03Speaker 1: position continues long. He who dies and yet does not
- 36:08Speaker 1: perish has longevity. Chapter thirty four, Section one. All pervading
- 36:17Speaker 1: is the great Tao. It may be found on the
- 36:19Speaker 1: left hand and on the right. Chapter thirty four, section two.
- 36:27Speaker 1: All things depend on it for their production, which it
- 36:30Speaker 1: gives to them. Not one refusing obedience to it when
- 36:34Speaker 1: its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name
- 36:36Speaker 1: of having done it. It clothes all things as with
- 36:39Speaker 1: a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord.
- 36:43Speaker 1: It may be named in the smallest things. All things
- 36:47Speaker 1: return to their root and disappear, and do not know
- 36:50Speaker 1: that it is it which presides over their doing. So
- 36:54Speaker 1: it may be named in the greatest Things thirty four,
- 37:01Speaker 1: section three. Hence the Sage is able in the same
- 37:05Speaker 1: way to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his
- 37:09Speaker 1: not making himself great that he can accomplish them. Chapter
- 37:15Speaker 1: thirty five, Section one. To him who holds in his
- 37:19Speaker 1: hands the great image of the invisible Tao, the whole
- 37:23Speaker 1: world repairs. Men resort to him and receive no hurt,
- 37:27Speaker 1: but find rest, peace and the feeling of ease. Chapter
- 37:33Speaker 1: thirty five, Section two. Music and dainties will make the
- 37:38Speaker 1: passing guest stop for a time. But though the Tao
- 37:42Speaker 1: as it comes from the mouth seems insipid and has
- 37:45Speaker 1: no flavor, though it seems not worth being looked at
- 37:49Speaker 1: or listened to, the use of it is inexhaustible. Chapter
- 37:55Speaker 1: thirty six, Section one. When one is about to take
- 37:59Speaker 1: an inspect duration, he is sure to make a previous expiration.
- 38:03Speaker 1: When he is going to weaken another, he will first
- 38:05Speaker 1: strengthen him. When he is going to overthrow another, he
- 38:09Speaker 1: will first have raised him up. When he is going
- 38:11Speaker 1: to despoil another, he will first have made gifts to him.
- 38:15Speaker 1: This is called hiding the light of his procedure. Chapter
- 38:21Speaker 1: thirty six, Section two. The soft overcomes the hard, and
- 38:27Speaker 1: the weak the strong. Chapter thirty six, Section three. Fishes
- 38:35Speaker 1: should not be taken from the deep. Instruments for the
- 38:39Speaker 1: profit of a state should not be shown to the people.
- 38:43Speaker 1: Chapter thirty seven, Section one. The Tao in its regular
- 38:48Speaker 1: course does nothing for the sake of doing it, and
- 38:51Speaker 1: so there is nothing which it does not do. Chapter
- 38:56Speaker 1: thirty seven, Section two. If princes and kings were able
- 39:01Speaker 1: to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed
- 39:05Speaker 1: by them. Chapter thirty seven, Section three. If this transformation
- 39:13Speaker 1: became to me an object of desire, I would express
- 39:16Speaker 1: the desire by the nameless simplicity. Simplicity without a name
- 39:22Speaker 1: is free from all external aim, with no desire at rest,
- 39:26Speaker 1: and still all things go right as of their will.
- 39:32Speaker 1: End of Part one. Chapters thirty eight through forty five.
- 39:38Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight, Section one. Those who possessed in highest
- 39:43Speaker 1: degree the attributes of the Tao did not seek to
- 39:47Speaker 1: show them, and therefore they possessed them in fullest measure.
- 39:51Speaker 1: Those who possessed in a lower degree those attributes sought
- 39:55Speaker 1: how not to lose them, and therefore they did not
- 39:58Speaker 1: possess them in fullest measure. Chapter thirty eight, Section two.
- 40:05Speaker 1: Those who possessed in the highest degree those attributes did
- 40:08Speaker 1: nothing with a purpose and had no need to do anything.
- 40:13Speaker 1: Those who possessed them in a lower degree were always
- 40:15Speaker 1: doing and had need to be so doing. Chapter thirty eight,
- 40:22Speaker 1: Section three. Those who possessed the highest benevolence were always
- 40:27Speaker 1: seeking to carry it out, and had no need to
- 40:30Speaker 1: be doing so. Those who possessed the highest righteousness were
- 40:34Speaker 1: always seeking to carry it out and had no need
- 40:37Speaker 1: to be so doing. Chapter thirty eight, Section four. Those
- 40:45Speaker 1: who possessed the highest sense of propriety were always seeking
- 40:49Speaker 1: to show it, and when men did not respond to it,
- 40:52Speaker 1: they bared the arm and marched up to them. Chapter
- 40:57Speaker 1: thirty eight, Section five. Thus it was that when the
- 41:01Speaker 1: Tao was lost, its attributes appeared. When its attributes were lost,
- 41:06Speaker 1: benevolence appeared when benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared, and when
- 41:12Speaker 1: righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared. Chapter thirty eight, Section six. Now,
- 41:22Speaker 1: propriety is the attenuated form of leal heartedness and good faith,
- 41:27Speaker 1: and is also the commencement of disorder. Swift apprehension is
- 41:31Speaker 1: only a flower of the Tao, and is the beginning
- 41:34Speaker 1: of stupidity. Chapter thirty eight, Section seven. Thus it is
- 41:42Speaker 1: that the Great Man abides by what is solid, and
- 41:45Speaker 1: eschews what is flimsy, dwells with the fruit and not
- 41:49Speaker 1: with the flower. It is thus that he puts away
- 41:52Speaker 1: the one and makes choice of the other. Chapter thirty nine,
- 41:59Speaker 1: Section one. The things which from of old have got
- 42:03Speaker 1: the one the Tao are Heaven, which by it is
- 42:08Speaker 1: bright and pure, Earth rendered thereby firm and sure spirits
- 42:14Speaker 1: with powers by its supplied valleys kept full throughout their void,
- 42:20Speaker 1: all creatures which through it do live, princes and kings,
- 42:25Speaker 1: who from it get the model which to all they give.
- 42:31Speaker 1: All these are the results of the One Tao. Chapter
- 42:38Speaker 1: thirty nine, Section two. If heaven were not thus pure,
- 42:43Speaker 1: it soon would rend. If earth were not thus sure,
- 42:48Speaker 1: twould break and bend. Without these powers, the spirit soon
- 42:52Speaker 1: would fail. If not so filled, the drought would parch
- 42:56Speaker 1: each veil. Without that life, creature would pass away. Princes
- 43:02Speaker 1: and kings without that moral sway, however, grand and high,
- 43:07Speaker 1: would all decay. Chapter thirty nine, Section three. Thus it
- 43:14Speaker 1: is that dignity finds its firm root in its previous meanness,
- 43:18Speaker 1: and what is lofty finds its stability in the lowness
- 43:22Speaker 1: from which it rises. Hence princes and kings call themselves orphans,
- 43:27Speaker 1: men of small virtue, and as carriages without a knave.
- 43:31Speaker 1: Is not this an acknowledgment that, in their considering themselves mean,
- 43:36Speaker 1: they see the foundation of their dignity. So it is
- 43:39Speaker 1: that in the enumeration of the different parts of a carriage,
- 43:43Speaker 1: we do not come on what makes it answer the
- 43:45Speaker 1: ends of a carriage. They do not wish to show
- 43:48Speaker 1: themselves elegant, looking as jade, but prefer to be coarse,
- 43:52Speaker 1: looking as an ordinary stone. Chapter forty, Section one. The
- 44:00Speaker 1: movement of the Tao by contraries, proceeds and weakness marked
- 44:05Speaker 1: the course of Tao's mighty deeds. Chapter forty section two.
- 44:14Speaker 1: All things under heavens sprang from it as existing, and
- 44:18Speaker 1: named that existence sprang from it as nonexistent and not named.
- 44:26Speaker 1: Chapter forty one, Section one. Scholars of the highest class,
- 44:31Speaker 1: when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice.
- 44:35Speaker 1: Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it,
- 44:38Speaker 1: seem now to keep it, and now to lose it.
- 44:42Speaker 1: Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it,
- 44:45Speaker 1: laugh greatly at it. If it were not thus laughed at,
- 44:49Speaker 1: it would not be fit to be the Tao Chapter
- 44:54Speaker 1: forty one, Section two. Therefore, the sentence makers have thus
- 45:00Speaker 1: expressed themselves the Tao, when brightest scene seems light to
- 45:05Speaker 1: lack who progress in it makes seems drawing back. Its
- 45:09Speaker 1: even way is like a rugged track. Its highest virtue
- 45:14Speaker 1: from the veil doth rise. Its greatest beauty seems to
- 45:17Speaker 1: offend the eyes, and he has most whose lot the
- 45:21Speaker 1: least supplies. Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low.
- 45:26Speaker 1: Its solid truth seems changed to undergo Its largest square
- 45:31Speaker 1: doth yet no corner show a vessel grate. It is
- 45:35Speaker 1: the slowest made. Loud is its sound, but never word
- 45:39Speaker 1: it said a semblance great the shadow of a shade.
- 45:46Speaker 1: Chapter forty one, Section three. The Tao is hidden and
- 45:51Speaker 1: has no name. But it is the Tao which is
- 45:54Speaker 1: skillful at imparting to all things what they need and
- 45:57Speaker 1: making them complete. Chapter forty two, Section one. The Tao
- 46:05Speaker 1: produced one, one, produced two, two, produced three three produced
- 46:12Speaker 1: all things. All things leave behind them the obscurity out
- 46:17Speaker 1: of which they have come, and go forward to embrace
- 46:21Speaker 1: the brightness into which they have emerged, while they are
- 46:24Speaker 1: harmonized by the breath of vacancy. Chapter forty two, Section two.
- 46:33Speaker 1: What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue,
- 46:37Speaker 1: to be as carriages without knaves. And yet these are
- 46:40Speaker 1: the designations which kings and princes use for themselves. So
- 46:45Speaker 1: it is that some things are increased by being diminished,
- 46:49Speaker 1: and others are diminished by being increased. Chapter forty two,
- 46:56Speaker 1: Section three. What other men thus teach? I also teach
- 47:01Speaker 1: the violent and strong do not die their natural death.
- 47:05Speaker 1: I will make this the basis of my teaching. Chapter
- 47:12Speaker 1: forty three, Section one. The softest thing in the world
- 47:17Speaker 1: dashes against and overcomes the hardest. That which has no
- 47:22Speaker 1: substantial existence enters where there is no crevice. I know
- 47:26Speaker 1: hereby what advantage belongs to doing nothing with a purpose.
- 47:33Speaker 1: Chapter forty three, Section two. There are few in the
- 47:38Speaker 1: world who attain to the teaching without words, and the
- 47:42Speaker 1: advantage arising from non action. Chapter forty four, Section one.
- 47:50Speaker 1: Or fame or life, Which do you hold more dear?
- 47:54Speaker 1: Or life? Or wealth? To which would you adhere? Keep
- 47:58Speaker 1: life and lose the other things? Keep them and lose
- 48:02Speaker 1: your life, which brings sorrow and pain more near Chapter
- 48:08Speaker 1: forty four, Section two. Thus we may see who cleaves
- 48:13Speaker 1: to fame, rejects what is more great? Who loves large
- 48:17Speaker 1: stores gives up the richer state. Chapter forty four, Section three.
- 48:26Speaker 1: Who is content needs fear no shame. Who knows to
- 48:30Speaker 1: stop incurs no blame from danger free Long live shall
- 48:35Speaker 1: he Chapter forty five, Section one. Who thinks his great
- 48:42Speaker 1: achievements poor shall find his vigor long endure of greatest
- 48:47Speaker 1: fullness deemed avoid exhaustionnaire shall stem the tide. Do thou
- 48:53Speaker 1: whatst straight, still crooked? Dem thy greatest art still stupid?
- 48:58Speaker 1: Seam and whins a stammering screen. Chapter forty five, Section two.
- 49:08Speaker 1: Constant action overcomes cold, being still overcomes heat, purity and stillness.
- 49:15Speaker 1: Give the correct law to all under heaven. End of
- 49:21Speaker 1: chapter forty five. Chapters forty six through fifty four, Chapter
- 49:28Speaker 1: forty six, Section one. When the dow prevails in the world,
- 49:33Speaker 1: they send back their swift horses to draw the dung carts.
- 49:38Speaker 1: When the doo is disregarded in the world, the war
- 49:41Speaker 1: horses breed in the border lands. Chapter forty six, Section two.
- 49:49Speaker 1: There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition, no
- 49:53Speaker 1: calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot, no
- 49:57Speaker 1: fault greater than the wish to begin. Therefore, the sufficiency
- 50:02Speaker 1: of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency Chapter forty seven,
- 50:10Speaker 1: Section one. Without going outside his door, one understands all
- 50:17Speaker 1: that takes place under the sky. Without looking out from
- 50:20Speaker 1: his window, one sees the Tao of heaven. The farther
- 50:24Speaker 1: that one goes out from himself, the less he knows.
- 50:31Speaker 1: Chapter forty seven, Section two. Therefore, the sages got their
- 50:37Speaker 1: knowledge without traveling, gave their right names to things without
- 50:41Speaker 1: seeing them, and accomplished their ends without any purpose of
- 50:45Speaker 1: doing so. Chapter forty eight, Section one. He who devotes
- 50:52Speaker 1: himself to learning seeks from day to day to increase
- 50:55Speaker 1: his knowledge. He who devotes himself to the Tao seeks
- 50:59Speaker 1: from day today to diminish his doing. Chapter forty eight,
- 51:04Speaker 1: Section two, He diminishes it, and again diminishes it till
- 51:09Speaker 1: he arrives at doing nothing on purpose. Having arrived at
- 51:13Speaker 1: this point of non action, there is nothing which he
- 51:16Speaker 1: does not do. Chapter forty eight, Section three. He who
- 51:23Speaker 1: gets as his own all under heaven, does so by
- 51:26Speaker 1: giving himself no trouble with that end. If one take
- 51:30Speaker 1: trouble with that end, he is not equal to getting
- 51:33Speaker 1: as his own all under heaven. Chapter forty nine, Section one.
- 51:41Speaker 1: The Sage has no invariable mind of his own. He
- 51:45Speaker 1: makes the mind of the people his mind. Chapter forty nine,
- 51:52Speaker 1: Section two. To those who are good to me, I
- 51:57Speaker 1: am good, and to those who are not good to me,
- 52:00Speaker 1: I am also good, and thus all get to be good.
- 52:04Speaker 1: To those who are sincere with me, I am sincere,
- 52:08Speaker 1: and to those who are not sincere with me, I
- 52:11Speaker 1: am also sincere, and thus all get to be sincere.
- 52:18Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine, Section three. The sage has in the
- 52:23Speaker 1: world an appearance of indecision, and keeps his mind in
- 52:26Speaker 1: a state of indifference to all the people. All keep
- 52:30Speaker 1: their eyes and ears directed to him, and he deals
- 52:33Speaker 1: with them all as his children. Chapter fifty Section one.
- 52:41Speaker 1: Men come forth and live, they enter again and die.
- 52:47Speaker 1: Chapter fifty Section two. Of every ten, three are ministers
- 52:53Speaker 1: of life to themselves, and three are ministers of death.
- 53:00Speaker 1: Fifty section three. There are also three in every ten
- 53:05Speaker 1: whose aim is to live, but whose movements tend to
- 53:08Speaker 1: the land or place of death, And for what reason,
- 53:11Speaker 1: because of their excessive endeavors to perpetuate life. Chapter fifty
- 53:19Speaker 1: Section four. But I have heard that he who is
- 53:23Speaker 1: skillful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time,
- 53:27Speaker 1: travels on the land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger,
- 53:31Speaker 1: and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat
- 53:35Speaker 1: or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him
- 53:38Speaker 1: into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a
- 53:41Speaker 1: place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon
- 53:44Speaker 1: a place to admit its point. And for what reason,
- 53:48Speaker 1: because there is in him no place of death? Chapter
- 53:53Speaker 1: fifty one, Section one. All things are produced by the
- 53:58Speaker 1: Tao and nourished by its outflowing operation. They receive their
- 54:03Speaker 1: forms according to the nature of each and are completed
- 54:06Speaker 1: according to the circumstances of their condition. Therefore, all things,
- 54:11Speaker 1: without exception honor the Tao and exalt its outflowing operation.
- 54:18Speaker 1: Chapter fifty one, section two. This honoring of the Tao
- 54:23Speaker 1: and exalting of its operation is not the result of
- 54:26Speaker 1: any ordination, but always a spontaneous tribute. Chapter fifty one,
- 54:32Speaker 1: section three. Thus it is that the Tao produces all things,
- 54:37Speaker 1: nourishes them, brings them to their full growth, nurses them,
- 54:42Speaker 1: completes them, matures them, maintains them, and overspreads them. Chapter
- 54:49Speaker 1: fifty one, section four. It produces them and makes no
- 54:54Speaker 1: claim to the possession of them. It carries them through
- 54:58Speaker 1: their processes and does not vaunt its ability in doing so.
- 55:02Speaker 1: It brings them to maturity and exercises no control over them.
- 55:06Speaker 1: This is called its mysterious operation. Chapter fifty two, Section one.
- 55:16Speaker 1: The Tao, which originated all under the sky, is to
- 55:19Speaker 1: be considered as the mother of them all Chapter fifty two,
- 55:25Speaker 1: Section two. When the mother is found, we know what
- 55:30Speaker 1: her children should be. When one knows that he is
- 55:33Speaker 1: his mother's child and proceeds to guard the qualities of
- 55:37Speaker 1: the mother that belong to him to the end of
- 55:39Speaker 1: his life, he will be free from all peril. Chapter
- 55:45Speaker 1: fifty two, Section three. Let him keep his mouth closed
- 55:50Speaker 1: and shut up the portals of his nostrils, and all
- 55:53Speaker 1: his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion. Let
- 55:57Speaker 1: him keep his mouth open and spend his breath in
- 56:00Speaker 1: the promotion of his affairs, and all his life there
- 56:03Speaker 1: will be no safety for him. Chapter fifty two, Section four.
- 56:11Speaker 1: The perception of what is small is the secret of
- 56:14Speaker 1: clear sightedness. The guarding of what is soft and tender
- 56:18Speaker 1: is the secret of strength. Chapter fifty two, Section five.
- 56:26Speaker 1: Who uses well his light, reverting to its source so bright,
- 56:31Speaker 1: will from his body ward all blight and hides the
- 56:35Speaker 1: unchanging from men's sight. Chapter fifty three, Section one. If
- 56:44Speaker 1: I were suddenly to become known and put into a
- 56:47Speaker 1: position to conduct a government according to the Great Tao,
- 56:50Speaker 1: what I should be most afraid of would be a
- 56:52Speaker 1: boastful display. Chapter fifty three, Section two. The Great Tao
- 57:01Speaker 1: or Whey is very level and easy, but people love
- 57:05Speaker 1: the byeways. Chapter fifty three, Section three. Their courtyards and
- 57:13Speaker 1: buildings shall be well kept, but their fields shall be
- 57:17Speaker 1: ill cultivated, and their granaries very empty. They shall wear
- 57:21Speaker 1: elegant and ornamented robes, carry a sharp sword at their girdle,
- 57:25Speaker 1: pamper themselves in eating and drinking, and have a superabundance
- 57:29Speaker 1: of property and wealth. Such princes may be called robbers
- 57:33Speaker 1: and boasters. This is contrary to the Tao. Surely Chapter
- 57:41Speaker 1: fifty four, Section one. What Tao's skillful planter plants can
- 57:47Speaker 1: never be uptrn what his skillful arms enfold from him
- 57:52Speaker 1: can ne'er be borne. Suns shall bring in lengthening line
- 57:57Speaker 1: sacrifices to his shrine. Chapter fifty four, Section two. Now,
- 58:06Speaker 1: when nursed within oneself, his vigor will make true. And
- 58:11Speaker 1: where the family it rules, what riches will accrue. The neighborhood,
- 58:16Speaker 1: where it prevails in thriving will abound. And when tis
- 58:20Speaker 1: seen throughout the state, good fortune will be found. Employ
- 58:25Speaker 1: it the kingdom o'er and men thrive all around Chapter
- 58:31Speaker 1: fifty four, Section three. In this way, the effect will
- 58:36Speaker 1: be seen in the person by the observation of different
- 58:39Speaker 1: cases in the family, in the neighborhood, in the state,
- 58:43Speaker 1: and in the kingdom. Chapter fifty four, Section four. How
- 58:51Speaker 1: do I know that this effect is sure to hold
- 58:54Speaker 1: thus all under the sky by this method of observation.
- 59:01Speaker 1: End of chapter fifty four. Chapters fifty five through sixty three,
- 59:08Speaker 1: Chapter fifty five, Section one. He who has in himself
- 59:14Speaker 1: abundantly the attributes of the Tao is like an infant.
- 59:18Speaker 1: Poisonous insects will not sting him. Fierce beasts will not
- 59:23Speaker 1: seize him. Birds of prey will not strike him. Chapter
- 59:30Speaker 1: fifty five, Section two. The infant's bones are weak and
- 59:36Speaker 1: its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm. It
- 59:40Speaker 1: knows not yet the union of male and female, And
- 59:44Speaker 1: yet its virile member may be excited, showing the perfection
- 59:48Speaker 1: of its physical essence. All day long. It will cry
- 59:52Speaker 1: without its throat becoming hoarse, showing the harmony in its constitution.
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: Chapter fifty five, Section three. To him by whom this
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: harmony is known, the secret of the unchanging Tao is shown,
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: and in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne. All life
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: increasing arts to evil turn where the mind makes the
- 1:00:20Speaker 1: vital breath to burn. False is the strength, and o'er
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: it we should mourn. Chapter fifty five, Section four. When
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: things have become strong, they then become old, which may
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: be said to be contrary to the Tao. Whatever is
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: contrary to the Tao soon ends Chapter fifty six, Section one.
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: He who knows the Tao does not care to speak
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: about it. He who is ever ready to speak about
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: it does not know it. Fifty five, Section two. He
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: who knows it will keep his mouth shut and close
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: the portals of his nostrils. He will blunt his sharp
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: points and unravel the complications of things. He will attemper
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: his brightness and bring himself into agreement with the obscurity
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: of others. This is called the mysterious agreement. Chapter fifty six,
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: Section three. Such an one cannot be treated familiarly or distantly.
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: He is beyond all consideration of profit or injury, of
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: nobility or meanness. He is the noblest man under heaven.
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: Chapter fifty seven, Section one. A state may be ruled
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: by measures of correction, weapons of war may be used
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: with crafty dexterity. But the kingdom is made one's own
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: only by freedom from action and purpose Chapter fifty seven,
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: Section two. How do I know that it is so?
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: By these facts? In the kingdom, the multiplication of prohibitive
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: enactments increases the poverty of the people. The more implements
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: to add to their profit that the people have, the
- 1:02:22Speaker 1: greater disorder there is in the state and clan. The
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess. The more
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: do strange contrivances appear, the more display there is of legislation,
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: the more thieves and robbers there are. Chapter fifty seven,
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: Section three. Therefore, a sage has said, I will do
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: nothing of purpose, and the people will be transformed of themselves.
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: I will be fond of keeping still, and the people
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: will of themselves become correct. I will take no trouble
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: about it, and the people will of themselves become rich.
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: I will manifest no ambition, and the people will of
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: themselves attain to the primitive simplicity. Chapter fifty eight, Section one.
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: The government that seems the most unwise oft goodness to
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: the people best supplies that which is meddling. Touching everything
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: will work, but ill and disappointment bring misery. Happiness is
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: to be found by its side happiness misery lurks beneath it.
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: Who knows what either will come to In the end.
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: Chapter fifty eight, Section two. Shall we then dispense with correction?
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: The method of correction shall by a turn become distortion,
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: and the good in it shall by a turn become evil.
- 1:03:59Speaker 1: The delusion of the the people on this point has
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: indeed subsisted for a long time Chapter fifty eight, Section three. Therefore,
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: the sage is like a square which cuts no one
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: with its angles, like a corner which injures no one
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: with its sharpness. He is straightforward, but allows himself no license.
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: He is bright, but does not dazzle. Chapter fifty nine,
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: Section one. For regulating the human in our constitution and
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: rendering the proper service to the heavenly, there is nothing
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: like moderation Chapter fifty nine, Section two. It is only
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: by this moderation that there is effected an early return
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: to man's normal state. That early return is what I
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: call the repeated accumulation of the attributes of the Tao.
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: With that repeat accumulation of those attributes, there comes the
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: subjugation of every obstacle to such return. Of this subjugation,
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: we know not what shall be the limit. And when
- 1:05:10Speaker 1: one knows not what the limit shall be, he may
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: be the ruler of a state. Chapter fifty nine, Section three.
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: He who possesses the mother of the state may continue long.
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: His case is like that of the plant of which
- 1:05:28Speaker 1: we say that its roots are deep and its flower
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: stalks firm. This is the way to secure that its
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: enduring life shall long be seen. Chapter sixty Section one.
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish.
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: Chapter sixty Section two. Let the kingdom be governed according
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: to the Tao, and the mains of the departed will
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: not manifest their spear spiritual energy. It is not that
- 1:06:02Speaker 1: those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: not be employed to hurt men. It is not that
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: it could not hurt men, but neither does the ruling
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: sage hurt them Chapter sixty section three. When these two
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: in the virtue of the Tao. Chapter sixty one, Section one.
- 1:06:32Speaker 1: What makes a great state is its being like a low, lying,
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: down flowing stream. It becomes the center to which tend
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: all the small states under heaven Chapter sixty one, section two.
- 1:06:49Speaker 1: To illustrate, from the case of all females, the female
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: considered a sort of abasement. Chapter sixty one, Section three.
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: small states, gains them for itself, and that small states,
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: by abasing themselves to a great state win it over
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: to them. In the one case, the abasement leads to
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favor. Chapter
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: sixty one, Section four. The great state only wishes to
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: unite men together and nourish them. A small state only
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: wishes to be received by and to serve the other.
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: Each gets what it desires, But the great state must
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: learn to abase itself. Chapter sixty two, Section one. Tao
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: has of all things the most honored place. No treasures
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: give good men so rich a grace. Bad men it
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: guards and doth their ill efface. Chapter sixty two, Section two.
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: Its admirable words can purchase honor. Its admirable deeds can
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: raise their performer above others. Even men who are not
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: good are not abandoned by it. Chapter sixty two, Section three. Therefore,
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: when the sovereign occupies his place as the son of Heaven,
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: and he has appointed his three ducal ministers, though a
- 1:08:34Speaker 1: prince were to send in a round of symbol of
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: rank large enough to fill both the hands and that
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: as the precursor of the team of horses in the courtyard,
- 1:08:44Speaker 1: such an offering would not be equal to a lesson
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: of this tw which one might present on his knees.
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: Chapter sixty two, Section four. Why was it that the
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: ancients prized this Tao so much? Was it not because
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: it could be got by seeking for it, and the
- 1:09:05Speaker 1: guilty could escape from the stain of their guilt by it.
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: This is the reason why all under Heaven consider it
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: the most valuable thing. Chapter sixty three, Section one. It
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: is the way of the Tao to act without thinking
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: of acting, to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of them,
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: to taste without discerning any flavor, to consider what is
- 1:09:31Speaker 1: small as great and a few as many, and to
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: recompense injury with kindness. Chapter sixty three, Section two. The
- 1:09:44Speaker 1: master of it anticipates things that are difficult while they
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: are easy, and does things that would become great while
- 1:09:51Speaker 1: they are small. All difficult things in the world are
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: sure to arise from a previous state in which they
- 1:09:57Speaker 1: were easy, and all great things from one in which
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: they were small. Therefore, the Sage, while he never does
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: what is great, is able on that account to accomplish
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: the greatest things. Chapter sixty three, Section three. He who
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: lightly promises is sure to keep, but little faith. He
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: who is continually thinking things easy, is sure to find
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: them difficult. Therefore, the Sage sees difficulty even in what
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: seems easy, and so never has any difficulties. End of
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: Chapter sixty three. Chapters sixty four to seventy two. Chapter
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: sixty four, Section one. That which is at rest is
- 1:10:48Speaker 1: easily kept hold of. Before a thing has given indications
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: of its presence, it is easy to take measures against it.
- 1:10:57Speaker 1: That which is brittle is easily broken, That which is
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: very small is easily dispersed. Action should be taken before
- 1:11:06Speaker 1: a thing has made its appearance. Orders should be secured
- 1:11:10Speaker 1: before disorder has begun. Chapter sixty four, Section two. The
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout.
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: The tower of nine stories rose from a small heap
- 1:11:27Speaker 1: of earth. The journey of a thousand lee commenced with
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: a single step. Chapter sixty four, Section three. He who
- 1:11:39Speaker 1: acts with an ulterior purpose does harm. He who takes
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: hold of a thing in the same way loses his hold.
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: The Sage does not act so, and therefore does no harm.
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: But he does not lay hold so, and therefore he
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: does not lose his hold. But people, in their conduct
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: of affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: the eve of success. If they were careful at the end,
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: as they should be at the beginning, they would not
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: so ruin them. Chapter sixty four, Section four. Therefore, the
- 1:12:16Speaker 1: sage desires what other men do not desire, and does
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: not prize things difficult to get. He learns what other
- 1:12:24Speaker 1: men do not learn, and turns back to what the
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: multitude of men have passed by. Thus he helps the
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: natural development of all things, and does not dare to
- 1:12:34Speaker 1: act with an ulterior purpose of his own. Chapter sixty five,
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: Section one. The ancients who showed their skill in practicing
- 1:12:45Speaker 1: the Tao did so not to enlighten the people, but
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: rather to make them simple and ignorant. Chapter sixty five,
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: Section two. The difficulty in governing the people arises from
- 1:13:01Speaker 1: their having much knowledge. He who tries to govern a
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: state by his wisdom is a scourge to it, while
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: he who does not try to do so is a blessing.
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: Chapter sixty five, Section three. He who knows these two
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: things finds in them also his model and rule. Ability
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: to know this model and rule constitutes what we call
- 1:13:26Speaker 1: the mysterious excellence of a governor. Deep and far reaching.
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: Is such mysterious excellence, showing indeed its possessor as opposite
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: to others, but leading them to a great conformity to him.
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: Chapter sixty six, Section one. That whereby the rivers and
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: seas are able to receive the homage and tribute of
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: than they. It is thus that they are the kings
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: of them all. So it is that the sage ruler,
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: wishing to be above men, puts himself, by his words,
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: below them, and wishing to be before them, places his
- 1:14:09Speaker 1: person behind them Chapter sixty six, section two. In this way,
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: though he has his place above them, men do not
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: feel his weight, nor though he has his place before them,
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: do they feel it an injury to them. Chapter sixty six,
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: section three. Therefore, all in the world delight to exalt him,
- 1:14:36Speaker 1: and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive,
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: no one finds it possible to strive with him. Chapter
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: sixty seven, Section one. All the world says that while
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: Ma Tao is great, it yet appears to be inferior
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: to other systems of teaching. Now, it is just its
- 1:14:56Speaker 1: greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: were like any other system, for long would its smallness
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: have been known. Chapter sixty seven, Section two. But I
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: have three precious things which I prize and hold fast.
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: The first is gentleness, the second is economy, and the
- 1:15:18Speaker 1: third is shrinking from taking precedence of others. Chapter sixty seven,
- 1:15:25Speaker 1: Section three. With that gentleness, I can be bold. With
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: that economy, I can be liberal, shrinking from taking precedence
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honor.
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: Nowadays they give up gentleness and are all for being
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: bold economy and are all for being liberal the hindmost place,
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: and seek only to be foremost of all, which the
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: end is death. Chapter sixty seven, Section four. Gentleness is
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: sure to be victorious even in battle, and firmly to
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: maintain its ground. Heaven will save its possessor by his
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: very gentleness protecting him. Chapter sixty eight. He who endows
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: wars has skill, assumes no martial port. He who fights
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: with most good will to rage makes no resort. He
- 1:16:28Speaker 1: who vanquishes, yet still keeps from his foes apart, He
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: whose hests men most fulfill, yet humbly plies his art.
- 1:16:38Speaker 1: Thus we say he ne'er contends and therein is his might.
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: Thus we say men's wills he bends that they with
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: him unite. Thus we say, like Heaven's his ends. No
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: sage of old more Bright. Chapter sixty nine, Section one.
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: A master of the art of war has said, I
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: do not dare to be the host to commence the war.
- 1:17:06Speaker 1: I prefer to be the guest to act on the defensive.
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: I do not dare to advance an inch. I prefer
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: to retire a foot. This is called marshaling the ranks
- 1:17:18Speaker 1: where there are no ranks, bearing the arms to fight
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: where there are no arms to bear, grasping the weapon
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: where there is no weapon to grasp, advancing against the
- 1:17:28Speaker 1: enemy where there is no enemy. Chapter sixty nine, Section two.
- 1:17:36Speaker 1: There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war.
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: To do that is near losing the gentleness which is
- 1:17:43Speaker 1: so precious. Thus it is that when opposing weapons are
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: actually crossed, he who deplores the situation conquers. Chapter seventy
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: Section one. My words are very easy to know and
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: very easy to practice. But there is no one in
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: the world who is able to know and able to
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: practice them. Chapter seventy section two. There is an originating
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: and all comprehending principle in my words, and an authoritative
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: law for the things which I enforce. It is because
- 1:18:22Speaker 1: they do not know these that men do not know me.
- 1:18:28Speaker 1: Chapter seventy section three. They who know me are few,
- 1:18:34Speaker 1: and I am on that account the more to be prized.
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: It is thus that the Sage wears a poor garb
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: of haircloth while he carries his signet of jade in
- 1:18:44Speaker 1: his bosom. Chapter seventy one, Section one. To know and
- 1:18:51Speaker 1: yet think we do not know is the highest attainment.
- 1:18:55Speaker 1: Not to know and yet think we do know is
- 1:18:57Speaker 1: a disease. Chapter seventy one, Section two. It is simply
- 1:19:06Speaker 1: by being pained at the thought of having this disease
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: that we are preserved from it. The Sage has not
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable
- 1:19:15Speaker 1: from it, and therefore he does not have it. Chapter
- 1:19:21Speaker 1: seventy two, Section one. When the people do not fear
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: what they ought to fear, that which is their great
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: dread will come on them. Chapter seventy two, Section two.
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves in their ordinary life.
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: Let them not act as if weary of what that
- 1:19:43Speaker 1: life depends on Chapter seventy two, Section three. It is
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not arise.
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: Chapter seventy two, Section four. Therefore the sage knows these
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: things of himself, but does not parade his knowledge, loves,
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: but does not appear to set a value on himself.
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: And thus he puts the latter alternative away and makes
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: choice of the former. End of chapter seventy two, Chapter
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: seventy three through eighty one. Chapter seventy three, Section one.
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: He whose boldness appears in his daring to do wrong
- 1:20:33Speaker 1: in defiance of the laws is put to death. He
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: whose boldness appears in his not daring to do so lives.
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: On of these two cases, the one appears to be
- 1:20:45Speaker 1: advantageous and the other to be injurious. But when Heaven's
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: anger smites a man who the cause shall truly scan
- 1:20:56Speaker 1: on this account, the sage feels a difficulty as to
- 1:20:59Speaker 1: what to do in the former case. Chapter seventy three,
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: Section two. It is the way of Heaven not to strive,
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: and yet it skillfully overcomes not to speak, and yet
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: it is skillful in obtaining a reply. Does not call,
- 1:21:20Speaker 1: and yet men come to it of themselves. Its demonstrations
- 1:21:24Speaker 1: are quiet, and yet its plans are skillful and effective.
- 1:21:28Speaker 1: The meshes of the net of Heaven are large, far apart,
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: but letting nothing escape. Chapter seventy four, Section one. The
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: people do not fear death. To what purpose is it
- 1:21:45Speaker 1: to try to frighten them with death? If the people
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: were always in awe of death, and I could always
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: seize those who do wrong and put them to death,
- 1:21:55Speaker 1: who would dare to do wrong? Seventy four, Section two.
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: There is always one who presides over the infliction death.
- 1:22:08Speaker 1: He who would inflict death in the room of him
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: who so presides over it may be described as hewing
- 1:22:14Speaker 1: wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom is it that
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: he who undertakes the hewing instead of the great carpenter
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: does not cut his own hands. Chapter seventy five, Section one.
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of
- 1:22:33Speaker 1: taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: they suffer famine. Chapter seventy five, Section two. The people
- 1:22:45Speaker 1: are difficult to govern because of the excessive agency of
- 1:22:49Speaker 1: their superiors in governing them. It is through this that
- 1:22:52Speaker 1: they are difficult to govern. Chapter seventy five, Section three.
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: The people make light of dying because of the greatness
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: of their labors in seeking for the means of living.
- 1:23:07Speaker 1: It is this which makes them think light of dying.
- 1:23:10Speaker 1: Thus it is that to leave the subject of living
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: altogether out of view is better than to set a
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: high value on it. Chapter seventy six, Section one. Man
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: at his birth is supple and weak, at his death
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: firm and strong. So it is with all things. Trees
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: and plants, in their early growth are soft and brittle,
- 1:23:38Speaker 1: at their death, dry and withered. Chapter seventy six, Section two.
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants
- 1:23:50Speaker 1: of death, softness and weakness the concomitance of life. Chapter
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: seventy six, Section three. Hence, he who relies on the
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: strength of his forces does not conquer, and a tree
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: which is strong will fill the outstretched arms, and thereby
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: invites the feller. Chapter seventy six, Section four. Therefore, the
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: place of what is firm and strong is below, and
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: that of what is soft and weak is above. Chapter
- 1:24:29Speaker 1: seventy seven, Section one. May not the way or taw
- 1:24:34Speaker 1: of heaven be compared to the method of bending a bow.
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: The part of the bow which was high is brought low,
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: and what was low is raised up. So Heaven diminishes
- 1:24:44Speaker 1: where there is superabundance, and supplements where there is deficiency.
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: Chapter seventy seven, Section two. It is the way of
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: Heaven to diminish superabundance and to supplement deficiency. It is
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: not so with the way of man. He takes away
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: from those who have not enough to add to his
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: own superabundance. Chapter seventy seven, Section three. Who can take
- 1:25:15Speaker 1: his own superabundance? And therewith serve all under heaven Only
- 1:25:20Speaker 1: he who is in possession of the Tao Chapter seventy seven,
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: Section four. Therefore, the ruling sage acts without claiming the
- 1:25:31Speaker 1: results as his. He achieves his merit and does not
- 1:25:35Speaker 1: rest arrogantly in it. He does not wish to display
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: his superiority. Chapter seventy eight, Section one. There is nothing
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: in the world more soft and weak than water, And
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: yet for attacking things that are firm and strong, there
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: is nothing that can take precedence of it, for there
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: is nothing so effectual for which it can be changed.
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: Chapter seventy eight, Section two. Everyone in the world knows
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong,
- 1:26:11Speaker 1: But no one is able to carry it out in practice.
- 1:26:17Speaker 1: Chapter seventy eight, Section three. Therefore, a sage has said,
- 1:26:24Speaker 1: he who accepts his state's reproach is hailed. Therefore its
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: altars lord to him who bears men's direful woes. They
- 1:26:33Speaker 1: all the name of King accord. Chapter seventy eight, Section four.
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical Chapter
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: seventy nine, Section one. When a reconciliation is effected between
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: two parties after a great animosity, there is sure to
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: be a grudge remaining in the mind of the one
- 1:27:01Speaker 1: who was wrong, And how can this be beneficial to
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: the other? Chapter seventy nine, Section two. Therefore, to guard
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: against this, the sage keeps the left hand portion of
- 1:27:15Speaker 1: the record of the engagement and does not insist on
- 1:27:18Speaker 1: the speedy fulfillment of it by the other party. So
- 1:27:22Speaker 1: he who has the attributes of the Tao regards only
- 1:27:25Speaker 1: the conditions of the engagement, while he who has not
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: those attributes regards only the conditions favorable to himself. Chapter
- 1:27:37Speaker 1: seventy nine, Section three. In the way of Heaven, there
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: is no partiality of love. It is always on the
- 1:27:45Speaker 1: side of the good man Chapter eighty section one. In
- 1:27:53Speaker 1: a little state with a small population, I would so
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: order it that though there were individuals with the abilities
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: of ten or one hundred men, there should be no
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: employment of them. I would make the people, while looking
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove elsewhere
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: to avoid it. Chapter eighty section two. Though they had
- 1:28:16Speaker 1: boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride
- 1:28:19Speaker 1: in them. Though they had buff coats and sharp weapons,
- 1:28:23Speaker 1: they should have no occasion to dawn or use them.
- 1:28:28Speaker 1: Chapter eighty Section three. I would make the people return
- 1:28:33Speaker 1: to the use of knotted cords instead of the written characters.
- 1:28:39Speaker 1: Chapter eighty section four. They should think their coarse food sweet,
- 1:28:45Speaker 1: their plain clothes beautiful, their poor dwellings places of rest,
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: and their common simple ways sources of enjoyment. Chapter eighty
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: section five. There should be a neighboring state within sight,
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: and the voices of the fowls and dogs should be
- 1:29:04Speaker 1: heard all the way from it to us. But I
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: would make the people to old age, even to death,
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: not have any intercourse with it. Chapter eighty one, Section one.
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: Sincere words are not fine. Fine words are not sincere.
- 1:29:22Speaker 1: Those who are skilled in the Tao do not dispute
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: about it. The disputations are not skilled in it. Those
- 1:29:30Speaker 1: who know the Tao are not extensively learned. The extensively
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: learned do not know it. Chapter eighty one, Section two.
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: The Sage does not accumulate for himself. The more that
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: he expends for others, the more does he possess of
- 1:29:48Speaker 1: his own. The more that he gives to others, the
- 1:29:51Speaker 1: more does he have himself. Chapter eighty one, Section three.
- 1:29:59Speaker 1: With all the sh sharpness of the way of Heaven,
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: it injures not. With all the doing in the way
- 1:30:05Speaker 1: of the Sage, he does not strive. End of section
- 1:30:11Speaker 1: two