Book Two
38. Talking about power
Great power, not clinging to power,
has true power.
Lesser power, clinging to power,
lacks true power.
Great power, doing nothing,
has nothing to do.
Lesser power, doing nothing,
has an end in view.
The good the truly good do
has no end in view.
The right the very righteous do
has an end in view.
And those who act in true obedience to law
roll up their sleeves
and make the disobedient obey.
So: when we lose the Way we find power;
losing power we find goodness;
losing goodness we find righteousness;
losing righteousness we're left with obedience.
Obedience to law is the dry husk
of loyalty and good faith.
Opinion is the barren flower of the Way,
the beginning of ignorance.
So great-minded people
abide in the kernel not the husk,
in the fruit not the flower,
letting the one go, keeping the other.
*
39. Integrity
Those who of old got to be whole:
Hevaen through its wholeness is pure;
earth through its wholeness is steady;
spirit through its wholeness is potent;
the valley through its wholeness flows with rivers;
the ten thousand things through their wholeness live;
rulers through their wholeness have authority.
Their wholeness makes them what they are.
Without what makes it pure, heaven would disintegreate;
without what steadies it, earth would crack apart;
without what maakes it potent, spirit would fail;
without what fills it, the valley would run dry;
without what quickens them, the ten thousand things would die;
without what authorizes them, rulers would fall.
The root of the noble is in the common,
the high stands on what's below.
Princes and kings call themselves
"orphans, widowers, beggars,"
to get themselves rooted in the dirt.
A multiplicity of riches
is poverty.
Jade is praised as precious
but its strength is being stone.
*
40. By no means
Return in how the Way moves.
Weakness is how the Way works.
Heaven and earth and the ten thousand things
are born of being.
Being is born of nothing.
*
41. On and off
Thoughtful people hear about the Way
and try hard to follow it.
Ordinary people hear about the Way
and wander onto it and off it.
Thoughtless people hear about the Way
and make jokes about it.
It wouldn't be the Way
if there weren't jokes about it.
So they say:
The Way's brightness looks like darkness;
advancing on the Way feels like retreating;
the plain Way seems hard going.
The height of power seems a valley;
the amplest power seems not enough;
the firmest power seems feeble.
Perfect whiteness looks dirty.
The pure and simple looks chaotic.
The great square has no corners.
The great vessel is never finished.
The great tone is barely heard.
The great thought can't be thought.
The Way is hidden
in its namelessness.
But only the Way
begins, sustains, fulfills.
*
42. Children of the Way
The Way bears one.
The one bears two.
The two bear three.
The three bear the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things
carry the yin on their shoulders
and hold in their arms the yang,
whose interplay of energy
makes harmony.
People despise
orphans, widowers, outcasts.
Yet that's what kings and rulers call themselves.
Whatever you lose, you've won.
Whatever you win, you've lost.
What others teach, I say too:
violence and aggression
destroy themselves.
My teaching rests on that.
*
43. Water and stone
What's softest in the world
rushes and run
over what's hardest in the world.
The immaterial
enters
the impenetrable.
So I know the good in not doing.
The wordless teaching,
the profit in not doing --
not many people understand it.
*
44. Fame and Fortune
Which is nearer,
name or self?
Which is dearer,
self or wealth?
Which gives more pain,
loss or gain?
All you grasp will be thrown away.
All you hoard will be utterly lost.
Contentment keeps disgrace away.
Restraint keeps you out of danger
so you can go on for a long, long time.
*
45. Real power
What's perfectly whole seems flawed,
but you can use it forever.
What's perfectly full seems empty,
but you can't use it up.
True straightness looks crooked.
Great skill looks clumsy.
Real eloquence seems to stammer.
To be comfortable in the cold, keep moving;
to be comfortable in the heat, hold still;
to be comfortable in the world, stay calm and clear.
*
46. Wanting Less
When the world's on the Way,
they use horses to haul manure.
When the world gets off the Way,
they breed warhorses on the common.
The greatest evil: wanting more.
The worst luck: discontent.
Greed's the curse of life.
To know enough's enough
is enough to know.
*
47. Looking far
You don't have to go out the door
to know what goes on in the world.
You don't have to look out the window
to see the way of heaven.
The farther you go,
the less you know.
So the wise soul
doesn't go, but knows;
doesn't look, but sees;
doesn't do, but gets it done.
*
48. Unlearning
Studying and learning daily you grow larger.
Following the Way daily you shrink.
You get smaller and smaller.
So you arrive at not doing.
You do nothing and nothing's not done.
To run things,
don't fuss with them.
Nobody who fusses
is fit to run things.
*
49. Trust and power
The wise have no mind of their own,
finding it in the minds
of ordinary people.
They're good to good people
and they're good to bad people.
Power is goodness.
They trust people of good faith
and they trust people of bad faith.
Power is trust.
They mingle their life with the world,
they mix their mind up with the world.
Ordinary people look after them.
Wise souls are children.
*
50. Love of life
To look for life
is to find death.
The thirteen organs of our living
are the thirteen organs of our dying.
Why are the organs of our life
where death enters us?
Because we hold too hard to living.
So I've heard
if you live in the right way,
when you cross country
you needn't fear to meet a mad bull or a tiger;
when you're in a battle
you needn't fear the weapons.
The bull would find nowhere to jab its horns,
the tiger nowhere to stick its claws,
the sword nowhere for its point to go.
Why? Because there's nowhere in you
for death to enter.
*
51. Nature, nurture
The Way bears them;
power nurtures them;
their own being shapes them;
their own energy completes them.
And not one of the ten thousand things
fails to hold the Way sacred
or to obey its power.
Their reverence for the Way
and obedience to its power
are unforced and always natural.
For the Way gives them life;
its power nourishes them,
mothers and feeds them,
completes and matures them,
looks after them, protects them.
To have without possessing,
do without claiming,
lead without controlling:
this is mysterious power.
*
52. Back to the beginning
The beginning of everything
is the mother of everything.
Truly to know the mother
is to know her children,
and truly to know the children
is to tun back to the mother.
The body comes to its ending
but there is nothing to fear.
Close the openings,
shut the doors,
and to the end of life
nothing will trouble you.
Open the openings,
be busy with business,
and to the end of life
nothing can help you.
Insight sees the insignificant.
Strength knows how to yield.
Use the way's light, return to its insight,
and so keep from going too far.
That's how to practice what's forever.
*
53. Insight
If my mind's modest,
I walk the great way.
Arrogance
is all I fear.
The great way is low and plain,
but people like shortcuts over the mountains.
The palace is full of splendor
and the fields are full of weeds
and the granaries are full of nothing.
People wearing ornaments and fancy clothes,
carrying weapons,
drinking a lot and eating a lot,
having a lot of things, a lot of money:
shameless thieves.
Surely their way
isn't the way.
*
54. Some rules
Well planted is not uprooted,
well kept is not lost,
The offerings of the generations
to the ancestors will not cease.
To follow the way yourself is real power.
To follow it in the family is abundant power.
To follow it in the community is steady power.
To follow it in the whole country is lasting power.
To follow it in the world is universal power.
So in myself I see what self is,
in my household I see what family is,
in my town I see what community is,
in my nation I see what a country is,
in the world I see what is under heaven.
How do I know the world is so?
By this.
*
55. The sign of the mysterious
Being full of power
is like being a baby.
Scorpions don't sting,
tigers don't attach,
eagles don't strike.
Soft bones, weak muscles,
but a firm grasp.
Ignorant of the intercourse
of man and woman
yet the baby penis is erect.
True and perfect energy!
All day long screaming and crying,
but never getting hoarse.
True and perfect harmony!
To know harmony
is to know what's eternal.
To know what's eternal
is enlightenment.
Increase of life is full of portent:
the strong heart exhausts the vital breath.
The full-grown is on the edge of age.
Not the Way.
What's not the Way soon dies.
*
56. Mysteries of power
Who knows
doesn't talk.
Who talks
doesn't know.
Closing the openings,
shutting doors,
blunting edge,
loosing bond,
dimming light,
be one with the dust of the way.
So you come to the deep sameness.
Then you can't be controlled by love
or by rejection.
You can''t be controlled by profit
or by loss.
You can't be controlled by praise
or by humiliation.
Then you have honor under heaven.
*
57. Being simple
Run the country by doing what's expected.
Win the war by doing the unexpected.
Control the world by doing nothing.
How do I know that?
By this.
The more restrictions and prohibitions in the world,
the poorer people get.
The more experts the country has
the more of a mess it's in.
The more ingenious the skillful are,
the more monstrous their inventions.
The louder the call for law and order,
the more the thieves and conmen multiply.
So a wise leader might say:
I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves.
I love to be quiet, and the people themselves find justice.
I don't do business, and the people prosper on their own.
I don't have wants, and the people themselves are uncut wood.
*
58. Living with change
When the government's dull and confused,
the people are placid.
When the government's sharp and keen,
the people are discontented.
Alas! misery lies under happiness,
and happiness sits on misery, alas!
Who knows where it will end?
Nothing is certain.
The normal changes into the monstrous,
the fortunate into the unfortunate,
and our bewilderment
goes on and on.
And so the wise
shape without cutting,
square without sawing,
true without forcing.
They are the light that does not shine.
*
59. Staying on the way
In looking after your life and following the way,
gather spirit.
Gather spirit early,
and so redouble power,
and so become invulnerable.
Invulnerable, unlimited,
you can do what you like with material things.
But only if you hold to the Mother of things
will you do it for long.
Have deep roots, a strong trunk.
Live long by looking long.
*
60. Staying Put
Rule a big country
the way you cook a small fish.
If you keep control by following the Way,
troubled spirits won't act up.
They won't lose their immaterial strength,
but they won't harm people with it,
nor will wise sould come to harm.
And so, neither harming the other,
these powers will come together in unity.
*
61. Lying low
The polity of greatness
runs downhill like a river to the sea,
joining with everything,
woman to everything.
By stillness the woman
may always dominate the man,
lying quiet underneath him.
So a great country
submitting to small ones, dominates them;
so small countries,
submitting to a great one, dominate it.
Lie low to be on top,
be on top by lying low.
*
62. The gift of the way
The way is the hearth and home
of the ten thousand things.
Good souls treasure it,
lost souls find shelter in it.
Fine words are for sale,
fine deeds go cheap;
even worthless people can get them.
So, at the coronation of the Son of Heaven
when the Three Ministers take office,
you might race out in a four-horse chariot
to offer a jade screen;
but wouldn't it be better to sit still
and let the Way be your offering?
Why was the Way honored
in the old days?
Wasn't it said:
Seek, you'll find it.
Hide, it will shelter you.
So it was honored under heaven.
*
63. Consider beginnings
Do without doing.
Act without action.
Savor the flavorless.
Treat the small as large,
the few as many.
Meet injury
with the power of goodness.
Study the hard while it's easy.
Do big things while they're small.
The hardest jobs in the world start out easy,
the great affairs of the world start small.
So the wise soul,
by never dealing with great things,
gets great things done.
Now, since taking things too lightly makes them worthless,
and taking things too easy makes them hard,
the wise soul,
by treating the easy as harrd,
doesn't find anything hard.
*
64. Mindful of little things
It's easy to keep hold of what hasn't stirred,
easy to plan what hasn't occurred.
It's easy to shatter delicate things,
easy to scatter little things.
Do things before they happen.
Get them straight before they get mixed up.
The tree you can't reach your arms around
grew from a tiny seedling.
The nine-story tower rises
from a heap of clay.
The ten-thousand-mile journey
begins beneath your foot.
Do, and do wrong;
Hold on, and lose.
Not doing, the wise soul
doesn't do it wrong,
and not holding on,
doesn't lose it.
(In all their undertakings,
it's just as they're almost finished
that people go wrong.
Mind the end as the beginning,
then it won't go wrong.)
That's why the wise
want not to want,
care nothing for hard-won treasures,
learn not to be learned,
turn back to what people overlooked.
They go along with things as they are,
but don't presume to act.
*
65. One power
Once upon a time
Those who ruled according to the Way
didn't use it to make people knowing
but to keep them unknowing.
People get hard to manage
when they know too much.
Whoever rules by intellect
is a curse upon the land.
Whoever rules by ignorance
is a blessing on it.
To understand these things
is to have a pattern and a model
and to understand the pattern and the model
is mysterious power.
Mysterious power
goes deep.
It reaches far.
It follows things back,
clear back to the great oneness.
*
66. Lowdown
Lakes and rivers are lords of the hundred valleys.
Why? Because they'll go lower.
So they're the lords of the hundred valleys.
Just so, a wise soul,
wanting to be above other people,
talks to them from below
and to guide them
follows them.
And so the wise soul
predominates without dominating,
and leads without misleading.
And people don't get tired
of enjoying and praising
one who, not competing,
has in all the world
no competitor.
*
67. Three treasures
Everybody says my way is great
but improbable.
All greatness
is improbable.
What's probable
is tedious and petty.
I have three treasures.
I keep and treasure them.
The first, mercy,
the second, moderation,
the third, modesty.
If you're merciful you can be brave,
if you're moderate you can be generous,
and if you don't presume to lead
you can lead the high and mighty.
But to be brave without compassion.
or generous without self-restraint,
or to take the lead,
is fatal.
Compassion wins the battle
and holds the fort;
it is the bulwark set
around those heaven helps.
*
68. Heaven's lead
The best captain doesn't rush in front.
The fiercest fighter doesn't bluster.
The big winner isn't competing/
The best boss takes a low footing.
This is the power of noncompetition.
This is the right use of ability.
To follow heaven's lead
has always been the best way.
*
69. Using mystery
The expert in warfare says:
Rather than dare make the attck
I'd take the attack;
rather than dare advance an inch
I'd retreat a foot.
It's called marching without marching,
rolling up your sleeves without flexing your muscles,
being armed without weapons,
giving the attacker no opponent.
Nothing's worse than attacking what yields.
To attack what yields is to throw away the prize.
So, when matched armies meet,
the one who comes to grief
is the true victor.
*
70. Being obscure
My words are so easy to understand,
so easy to follow,
and yet nobody in the world
understands or follows them.
Words come from an ancestry,
deeds from a mastery:
when these are unknown, so am I.
In my obscurity
is my value.
That's why the wise
wear their jade under common clothes.
*
71. The sick mind
To know without knowing is best.
Not knowing without knowing it is sick.
To be sick of sickness
is the only cure.
The wise aren't sick.
They're sick of sickness,
so they're well.
*
72. The right fear
When we don't fear what we should fear
we are in fearful danger.
We ought not to live in narrow houses,
we ought not to do stupid work.
If we don't accept stupidity
we won't act stupidly.
So, wise souls know but don't show themselves,
look after but don't prize themselves,
letting the one go, keeping the other.
*
73. Daring to do
Brave daring leads to death.
Brave caution leads to life.
The choice can be the right one
or the wrong one.
Who will interpret
the judgement of heaven?
Even the wise soul
finds it hard.
The way of heaven
doesn't compete
yet wins handily,
doesn't speak
yet answers fully,
doesn't summon
yet attracts.
It acts
perfectly easily.
The net of heaven
is vast, vast,
wide-meshed,
yet misses nothing.
*
74. The Lord of Slaughter
When normal, decent people don't fear death,
how can you use death to frighten them?
Even when they have a normal fear of death,
who of us dare take and kill the one who doesn't?
When people are normal and decent and death-fearing,
there's always an executioner.
To take the place of that executioner
is to take the place of the great carpenter.
People who cut the great carpenter's wood
seldom get off with their hands unhurt.
*
75. Greed
People are starving.
The rich gobble taxes,
that's why people are starving.
People rebel.
The rich oppress them,
that's why people rebel.
People hold life cheap.
The rich make it too costly,
that's why people hold it cheap.
But those who don't live for the sake of living
are worth more than the wealth-seekers.
*
76. Hardness
Living people
are soft and tender.
Corpses are hard and stiff.
The ten thousand things,
the living grass, the trees,
are soft, pliant.
Dead, they're dry and brittle.
So hardness and stiffness
go with death;
tenderness, softness,
go with life.
And the hard sword fails,
the stiff tree's felled.
The hard and great go under.
The soft and weak stay up.
*
77. The bow
The Way of heaven
is like a bow bent to shoot:
its top end brought down,
its lower end raised up.
It brings the high down,
lifts the low,
takes from those who have,
gives to those who have not.
Such is the Way of heaven.
taking from people who have,
giving to people who have not.
Not so the human way:
ot takes from those who have not
to fill up those who have.
Who has enough to fill up everybody?
Only those who have the Way.
So the wise
do without claiming,
achieve without asserting,
wishing not to show their worth.
*
78. Paradoxes
Nothing in the world
is as soft, as weak, as water;
nothing else can wear away
the hard, the strong,
and remain unaltered.
Soft overcomes hard,
weak overcomes strong.
Everybody knows it,
nobody uses the knowledge.
So the wise say:
By bearing common defilements
you become a sacrificer at the altar of earth;
by bearing common evils
you become a lord of the world.
Right words sound wrong.
*
79. Keeping the contract
After a great enmity is settled
some enmity always remains.
How to make peace?
Wise sould keep their part of the contract
and don't make demands on others.
People whose power is real fulfill their obligations;
people whose power is hollow insist on their claims.
The Way of heaven plays no favorites.
It stays with the good.
*
80. Freedom
Let there be a little country without many people.
Let them have toold that do the work of ten or a hundred,
and never use them.
Let them be mindful of death
and disinclined to long journeys.
They'd have ships and carriages,
but no place to go.
They'd have armor and weapons,
but no parades.
Instead of writing,
they might go back to using knotted cords.
They'd enjoy eating,
take pleasure in clothes,
be happy with their houses,
devoted to their customs.
*
81. Telling it true
True words aren't charming,
charming words aren't true.
Good people aren't contentious,
contentious people aren't good.
People who know aren't learned,
learned people don't know.
Wise souls don't hoard;
the more they do for others the more they have,
the more they give the richer they are.
The Way of heaven profits without destroying.
Doing without outdoing
is the Way of the wise.
The next little country might be so close
the people could hear cocks crowing
and dogs barking there,
but they'd get old and die
without ever having been there.
-- End of Book 2.
Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin