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07 - Tao Te Ching - Laozi · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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  Chapters fifty five through sixty three. Chapter fifty five, Section one. He
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  who has in himself abundantly the attributes of the Tao is like an infant.
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  Poisonous insects will not sting him. Fierce beasts will not seize him. Birds
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  of prey will not strike him. Chapter fifty five, Section two. The
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  infant's bones are weak and its sinews soft, but yet its grasp is firm.
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  It knows not yet the union of male and female, And yet its
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  virile member may be excited, showing the perfection of its physical essence. All
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  day long. It will cry without its throat becoming hoarse, showing the harmony
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  in its constitution. Chapter fifty five, Section three. To him by whom
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  this harmony is known, the secret of the unchanging Tao is shown, and
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  in the knowledge wisdom finds its throne. All life increasing arts to evil turn
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  where the mind makes the vital breath to burn. False is the strength,
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  and o'er it we should mourn. Chapter fifty five, Section four. When
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  things have become strong, they then become old, which may be said to
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  be contrary to the Tao. Whatever is contrary to the Tao soon ends Chapter
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  fifty six Section one. He who knows the Tao does not care to speak
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  about it. He who is ever ready to speak about it does not know
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  it. Chapter fifty six, Section two. He who knows it will keep
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  his mouth shut and close the portals of his nostrils. He will blunt his
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  sharp points and unravel the complications of things. He will attemper his brightness and
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  bring himself into agreement with the obscurity of others. This is called the mysterious
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  agreement. Chapter fifty six, Section three. Such an one cannot be treated
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  familiarly or distantly. He is beyond all consideration of profit or injury, of
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  nobility or meanness. He is the noblest man under heaven. Chapter fifty seven,
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  Section one. A state may be ruled by measures of correction, weapons
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  of war may be used with crafty dexterity. But the kingdom is made one's
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  own only by freedom from action and purpose Chapter fifty seven, Section two.
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  How do I know that it is so? By these facts? In the
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  kingdom, the multiplication of prohibitive enactments increases the poverty of the people. The
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  more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder
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  there is in the state and clan. The more acts of crafty dexterity that
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  men possess, the more do strange contrivances appear, The more display there is
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  of legislation, the more thieves and robbers there are. Chapter fifty seven,
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  Section three. Therefore a sage has said, I will do nothing of purpose,
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  and the people will be transformed of themselves. I will be fond of
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  keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct. I will take
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  no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich. I
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  will manifest no no ambition, and the people will of themselves attain to the
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  primitive simplicity. Chapter fifty eight, Section one. The government that seems the
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  most unwise oft goodness to the people best supplies that which is meddling. Touching
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  everything will work, but ill and disappointment bring misery. Happiness is to be
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  found by its side happiness misery lurks beneath it. Who knows what either will
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  come to In the end. Chapter fifty eight, Section two. Shall we
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  then dispense with correction? The method of correction shall by a turn become distortion,
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  and the good in it shall by a turn become evil. The delusion
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  of the people on this point has indeed subsisted for a long time Chapter fifty
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  eight, Section three. Therefore, the sage is like a square which cuts
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  no one with its angles, like a corner which injures no one with its
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  sharpness. He is straightforward, but allows himself no license. He is bright,
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  but does not dazzle Chapter fifty nine, Section one. For regulating the
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  human in our constitution and rendering the proper service to the heavenly, there is
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  nothing like moderation Chapter fifty nine, Section two. It is only by this
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  moderation that there is effected an early return to man's normal state. That early
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  return is what I call the repeated accumulation of the attributes of the Tao.
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  With that repeated accumulation of those attributes, there comes the subjugation of every opstele.
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  To such return. Of this subjugation, we know not what shall be
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  the limit. And when one knows not what the limit shall be, he
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  may be the ruler of a state Chapter fifty nine, Section three. He
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  who possesses the mother of the state may continue long. His case is like
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  that of the plant of which we say that its roots are deep and its
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  flower stalks firm. This is the way to secure that its enduring life shall
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  long be seen. Chapter sixty Section one. Governing a great state is like
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  cooking a small fish. Chapter sixty Section two. Let the kingdom be governed
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  according to the Tao, and the manes of the departed will not manifest their
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  spiritual energy. It is not that those maines have not that spiritual energy,
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  but it will not be employed to hurt men. It is not that it
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  could not hurt men, but neither does the ruling sage hurt them. Chapter
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  sixty section three. When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their
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  good influences converge in the virtue of the Tao. Chapter sixty one, Section
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  one. What makes a great state is its being like a low, lying,
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  down flowing stream. It becomes the center to which tend all the small
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  states under heaven. Chapter sixty one, section two. To illustrate, from
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  the case of all females, the female always overcomes the male by her stillness.
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  Stillness may be considered a sort of abasement. Chapter sixty one, Section
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  three. Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states,
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  gains them for itself, and that small states, by abasing themselves to
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  a great state, win it over to them. In the one case,
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  the abasement leads to gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favor.
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  Chapter sixty one, Section four. The great state only wishes to unite men
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  together and nourish them. A small state only wishes to be received by and
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  to serve the other. Each gets what it desires, But the great state
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  must learn to abase itself. Chapter sixty two, Section one. Tao has
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  of all things the most honored place. No treasures give good men so rich
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  a grace. Bad men it guards and doth their ill efface. Chapter sixty
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  two, Section two. Its admirable words can purchase honor. Its admirable deeds
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  can raise their performer above others. Even men who are not good are not
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  abandoned by it. Chapter sixty two, Section three. Therefore, when the
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  sovereign occupies his place as the son of Heaven, and he has appointed his
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  three ducal ministers, though a prince were to send in a round of symbol
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  of rank large enough to fill both the hands and that as the precursor of
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  the team of horses in the courtyard, such an offering would not be equal
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  to a lesson of this Tao, which one might present on his knees.
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  Chapter sixty two, Section four. Why was it that the ancients prized this
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  Tao so much? Was it not because it could be got by seeking for
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  it, and the guilty could escape from the stain of their guilt by it.
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  This is the reason why all under Heaven consider it the most valuable thing.
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  Chapter sixty three, Section one. It is the way of the Tao
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  to act without thinking of acting, to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of
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  them, to taste without discerning any flavor, to consider what is small as
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  great and a few as many, and to recompense injury with kindness. Chapter
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  sixty three, Section two. The master of it anticipates things that are difficult
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  while they are easy, and does things that would become great while they are
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  small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous
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  state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which
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  they were small. Therefore, the Sage, while he never does what is
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  great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest things. Chapter sixty
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  three, Section three. He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little
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  faith. He who is continually thinking things easy, is sure to find them
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  difficult. Therefore, the Sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and
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  so never has any difficulties. End of Chapter sixty three.