stanza stringlengths 301 2.54k | commentary stringlengths 165 1.37k ⌀ | title stringlengths 5 26 | meaning stringlengths 23 1.08k ⌀ | chapter int64 1 81 |
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nature doesn't make long speeches. a whirlwind doesn't last all morning. a cloudburst doesn't last all day. who makes the wind and rain? heaven and earth do. if heaven and earth don't go on and on, certainly people don't need to. the people who work with tao are tao people, they belong to the way. people who work with ... | in the second verse the word shih, u201closs,u201d gives trouble to all the translators. waley calls it u201cthe reverse of the poweru201d and u201cinefficacy,u201d and waley's interpretations are never to be ignored. all the same, i decided to take it not as the opposite of the way and the power, but as a kind of shad... | nothing and not | null | 23 |
you can't keep standing on tiptoe or walk in leaps and bounds. you can't shine by showing off or get ahead by pushing. self-satisfied people do no good, self-promoters never grow up. such stuff is to the tao as garbage is to food or a tumor to the body, hateful. the follower of the way avoids it. you can't keep standin... | my version of the first four lines of the second verse doesn't follow any of the scholarly translations, and is quite unjustified, but at least, unlike them, it makes sense without horrible verbal contortions. | proportion | null | 24 |
there is something that contains everything. before heaven and earth it is. oh, it is still, unbodied, all on its own, unchanging, all-pervading, ever-moving. so it can act as the mother of all things. not knowing its real name, we only call it the way. if it must be named, let its name be great. greatness means going ... | in all the texts, the fourth verse reads: so they say: u201cthe way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and the king is great. four greatnesses in the world, and the king is one of them.u201d yet in the next verse, which is the same series in reverse order, instead of u201cthe kingu201d it's u201cthe peopleu201d... | imagining mystery | i'd like to call the u201csomethingu201d of the first line a lumpu2014an unshaped, undifferentiated lump, chaos, before the w ord, before form, before change. inside it is time, space, everything; in the womb of the way. the last words of the chapter, tzu jan, i render as u201cwhat is.u201d i was tempted to say, u201ct... | 25 |
heavy is the root of light. still is the master of moving. so wise souls make their daily march with the heavy baggage wagon. only when safe in a solid, quiet house do they lay care aside. how can a lord of ten thousand chariots let his own person weigh less in the balance than his land? lightness will lose him his fou... | i follow the ma wang tui text for the third verse, which fits the theme much better than the non-sequitur standard text, u201camid fine sights they sit calm and aloof.u201d the syntax of the ma wang tui also clarifies the last verse, relating it to the last verse of chapter 13. | power of the heavy | i take heaviness to be the root matters of daily life, the baggage we bodily beings have to carry, such as food, drink, shelter, safety. if you go charging too far ahead of the baggage wagon you may be cut off from it; if you treat your body as unimportant you risk insanity or inanity. the first two lines would make a ... | 26 |
good walkers leave no track. good talkers don't stammer. good counters don't use their fingers. the best door's unlocked and unopened. the best knot's not in a rope and can't be untied. so wise souls are good at caring for people, never turning their back on anyone. they're good at looking after things, never turning t... | the first two lines of the third verse say that the not-good are the t'zu: u201cthe capitalu201d (carus, or u201cthe chargeu201d (feng-english, or u201cthe stock in tradeu201d (waley, or u201cthe raw materialu201d (henricks of the good. lafargue has u201cthe less excellent are material for the excellent,u201d and gibbs... | skill | the hidden light and the deep mystery seem to be signals, saying u201cthink about thisu201du2014about care for what seems unimportant. in a teacher's parental care for the insignificant student, and in a society's respect for mothers, teachers, and other obscure people who educate, there is indeed illumination and a pr... | 27 |
knowing man and staying woman, be the riverbed of the world. being the world's riverbed of eternal unfailing power is to go back again to be newborn. knowing light and staying dark, be a pattern to the world. being the world's pattern of eternal unerring power is to go back again to boundlessness. knowing glory and sta... | u201cthe naturalu201d and u201cnatural woodu201d are the same word, p' u, which i talked about in the note to chapter 19. given the amount of cutting up and carving that goes on in the last verse (which seems a kind of footnote to the first three, wereally seem to be talking about wood. chinese lends itself to puns, an... | turning back | is done without cutting.the simplicity of lao tzu's language can present an almost impenetrable density of meaning. the reversals and paradoxes in this great poem are the oppositions of the yin and yangu2014male/female, light/dark, glory/modestyu2014but the u201cknowing and beingu201d of them, the balancing act, result... | 28 |
those who think to win the world by doing something to it, i see them come to grief. for the world is a sacred object. nothing is to be done to it. to do anything to it is to damage it. to seize it is to lose it. under heaven some things lead, some follow, some blow hot, some cold, some are strong, some weak, some are ... | the phrase t'ien hsia occurs only in the first verse, where i translate it u201cthe world.u201d i begin the second verse with the literal translation of it, u201cunder heaven.u201d i wanted the phrase in the poem as a reminder that the world of these extremesu2014of hot and cold, weakness and strength, gain and lossu20... | not doing | for lao tzu, u201cmoderation in all thingsu201d isn't just a bit of safe, practical advice. to lose the sense of the sacredness of the world is a mortal loss. to injure our world by excesses of greed and ingenuity is to endanger our own sacredness. | 29 |
a taoist wouldn't advise a ruler to use force of arms for conquest; that tactic backfires. where the army marched grow thorns and thistles. after the war come the bad harvests. good leaders prosper, that's all, not presuming on victory. they prosper without boasting, or domineering, or arrogance, prosper because they c... | null | not making war | this first direct statement of lao tzu's pacifism is connected in thought to the previous poem and leads directly to the next. the last verse is enigmatic: u201cthings flourish then perishu201du2014how can this supremely natural sequence not be the way? i offer my understanding of it in the note on the page with chapte... | 30 |
even the best weapon is an unhappy tool, hateful to living things. so the follower of the way stays away from it. w eapons are unhappy tools, not chosen by thoughtful people, to be used only when there is no choice, and with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment. to enjoy using weapons is to enjoy killing people, and t... | i have omitted certain lines included by the translators who are my sources and guides. in all the texts, the second verse begins: a courteous person in peacetime honors the left, in wartime, the right. and the last verse begins: in celebrations the left is the place of honor, in mourning the right is the place of hono... | against war | null | 31 |
the way goes on forever nameless. uncut wood, nothing important, yet nobody under heaven dare try to carve it. if rulers and leaders could use it, the ten thousand things would gather in homage, heaven and earth would drop sweet dew, and people, without being ordered, would be fair to one another. to order, to govern, ... | null | sacred power | the second verse connects the uncut, the uncarved, the unusable, to the idea of the unnamed presented in the first chapter: u201cname's the mother of the ten thousand things.u201d you have to make order, you have to make distinctions, but you also have to know when to stop before you've lost the whole in the multiplici... | 32 |
knowing other people is intelligence, knowing yourself is wisdom. overcoming others takes strength, overcoming yourself takes greatness. contentment is wealth. boldly pushing forward takes resolution. staying put keeps you in position. to live till you die is to live long enough. knowing other people is intelligence, k... | this chapter sounds like polonius, incontrovertible but banal, until the last verse, which is a doozer. here are some other versions of the last six words, sss erh pu wang che shou: carus (word for word: u201c[who] dies / yet / not / perishes, / the-one / is- long-lived [immortal].u201d carus's free translation: u201co... | kinds of power | null | 33 |
the great way runs to left, to right, the ten thousand things depending on it, living on it, accepted by it. doing its work, it goes unnamed. clothing and feeding the ten thousand things, it lays no claim on them and asks nothing of them. call it a small matter. the ten thousand things return to it, though it lays no c... | null | perfect trust | null | 34 |
hold fast to the great thought and all the world will come to you, harmless, peaceable, serene. w alking around, we stop for music, for food. but if you taste the way it's flat, insipid. it looks like nothing much, it sounds like nothing much. and yet you can't get enough of it. hold fast to the great thought and all t... | null | humane power | null | 35 |
what seeks to shrink must first have grown; what seeks weakness surely was strong. what seeks its ruin must first have risen; what seeks to take has surely given. this is called the small dark light: the soft, the weak prevail over the hard, the strong. there is a third stanza in all the texts: fish should stay underwa... | w ei mingu2014this phrase in the first line of the second verse (and the chapter titleu2014is tricky: carus (word for word: u201cthe secret's / explanationu201d; carus's free translation: u201cexplanation [ i.e., enlightenment] of the secretu201dfeng-english: u201cperception of the nature of thingsu201d gibbs-cheng: u2... | the small dark light | or, more literally, u201cthe state's sharp weapons ought not to be shown to the people.u201d this machiavellian truism seems such an anticlimax to the great theme stated in the first verses that i treat it as an intrusion, perhaps a commentator's practical example of u201cthe small dark light.u201d | 36 |
the way never does anything, and everything gets done. if those in power could hold to the way, the ten thousand things would look after themselves. if even so they tried to act, i'd quiet them with the nameless, the natural. in the unnamed, in the unshapen, is not wanting. in not wanting is stillness. in stillness all... | the words in the first verse i translate as u201cthe nameless, the naturalu201d and in the next verse as u201cthe unnamed, the unshapenu201d are the same four words: wu ming chih p'u; more literally, u201cthe naturalness of the unnamed.u201d u201cthe unnamedu201d is a key phrase in the first chapter and elsewhere, as ... | over all | here the themes of not doing and not wanting, the unnamed and the unshapen, recur together in one pure legato. it is wonderful how by negatives and privatives lao tzu gives a sense of serene, inexhaustible fullness of being. | 37 |
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 t... | the series here is of familiar confucian principles: jen, li, i u2014u201cgood, humane, human-hearted, altruisticu201d; u201crighteous, moral, ethicalu201d; u201claws, rites, rules, law and order.u201d but lao tzu reverses and subverts the confucian priorities. chien shih in the fourth verse is u201cpremature knowledge... | talking about power | abide in the kernel not the husk,in the fruit not the flower, letting the one go, keeping the other. a vast, dense argument in a minumum of words, this poem lays out the taoist values in steeply descending order: the way and its power; goodness (humane feeling; righteousness (morality; andu2014a very distant lastu2014o... | 38 |
those who of old got to be whole: heaven 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 ... | y i, u201cone, the one, unity, singleness, integrity,u201d is here translated as u201cwhole, wholeness.u201dwaley explains the last two verses as comments on the first three, but their relevance is pretty tenuous. the last verse is very difficult and the translations are various and ingenious. henricks reads the ma wan... | integrity | null | 39 |
return is how the way moves. w eakness is how the way works. heaven and earth and the ten thousand things are born of being. being is born of nothing. return is how the way moves. w eakness is how the way works. heaven and earth and the ten thousand things are born of being. being is born of nothing. | null | by no means | null | 40 |
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... | i moved the line about perfect whiteness down to keep the three lines about power together, in parallel structure with the three lines about the way. in the last line of the second verse (and in chapters 21 and 35 i translate hsiang as u201cthought.u201d the word connotes u201cform, shape, image, ideau201d waley explai... | on and off | null | 41 |
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 themselve... | in the sixth line, does the word fu mean u201ccarry on one's backu201d or u201cturn one's back onu201d? lafargue is the only translator i found that made the second choice. i don't follow him because i don't think the u201cten thousand thingsu201d would or can make the mistake of turning their backs on the yin to embra... | children of the way | beginning with a pocket cosmology, this chapter demonstrates the u201cinterplay of energyu201d of yin and yang by showing how low and high, winning and losing, destruction and self-destruction, reverse themselves, each turning into its seeming opposite. | 42 |
what's softest in the world rushes and runs 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 doingu2014 not many people understand it. what's softest in the world rushes and runs over what's hardest in the world. the imma... | null | water and stone | null | 43 |
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. which is nearer, name or self? which is d... | the intense, succinct, beautiful language of the first verses of a poem is sometimes followed by a verse or two in a more didactic tone, smaller in scope, and far more prosaic. i believe some of these verses are additions, comments, and examples, copied into the manuscripts so long ago that they became holy writ. they ... | fame and fortune | null | 44 |
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 comfortabl... | null | real power | null | 45 |
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. when the world's on the way, they use horses to haul manure... | null | wanting less | null | 46 |
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. you don't have to go out the door to know what goes on... | the last line, literally u201cnot do, yet accomplish,u201d is a direct statement of one of the fundamental themes of the book. when i came up with a slightly mealy version of it (u201cdoesn't do, but it's doneu201d j. p. seaton reminded me that u201cdoing without doing is doing, not not doing.u201d | looking far | we tend to expect great things from u201cseeing the worldu201d and u201cgetting experience.u201d a roman poet remarked that travelers change their sky but not their soul. other poets, untraveled and inexperienced, emily brontu00eb and emily dickinson, prove lao tzu's point: it's the inner eye that really sees the world... | 47 |
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. studying and learning daily you grow larger. following the way dai... | shi (my u201cfuss,u201d carus's u201cdiplomacyu201d is translated by lafargue as u201cwork,u201d by lau as u201cmeddling,u201d by waley and feng-english as u201cinterference,u201d by henricks as u201cconcern,u201d by gibbs-cheng as u201cact for gain.u201d | unlearning | the word shi in the second stanza, my u201cfuss,u201d is troublesome to the translators. carus's quite legitimate translation of it is u201cdiplomacy,u201d which would give a stanza i like very much: to run things, be undiplomatic. no diplomat is fit to run things. | 48 |
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.... | following some of carus's interpretations, the first lines of the third verse might be read, u201cwise souls live in the world carefully, handling it carefully, making their mind universal.u201d i can't make much sense of any of the other versions except henricks's beautiful reading: as for the sage's presence in the w... | trust and power | the next to last line is usually read as saying that ordinary people watch and listen to wise people. but lao tzu has already told us that most of us wander on and off the way and don't know a sage from a sandpile. and surely the quiet taoist is not a media pundit. similarly, the last line is taken to mean that the wis... | 49 |
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... | those who read shih yu san as u201cthirteen,u201d rather than as u201cthree out of ten,u201dmake better sense of the difficult first verse. the thirteen u201ccompanions of lifeu201d (waley, henricks, which i translate u201corgans,u201d may be physical, the limbs and passages and cavities of the bodyu2014or physio/psych... | love of life | null | 50 |
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 ... | null | nature, nurture | null | 51 |
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 turn 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 th... | the last two lines of the first verse are the same as the last two lines of chapter 16. i wonder if some of these repetitions were insertions by people studying and copying the book, who were reminded of one poem by another and noted down the relevant lines. they are indeed relevant here, but they don't fit with perfec... | back to the beginning | this chapter on the themes of return and centering makes circles within itself and throughout the book, returning to phrases from other poems, turning them round the center. a center which is everywhere, a circle whose circumferenceis infinite... | 52 |
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 ... | null | insight | so much for capitalism. | 53 |
being full of power is like being a baby. scorpions don't sting, tigers don't attack, 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... | gibbs and cheng, finding both the language and the message u201cdiscordant with the teachings of lao tzu,u201d won't even discuss this chapter. waley's reading saves it, but the listing u201cself, family, community, country, empire/worldu201d (a conventional series in ancient chinese thought, and the list of rules and ... | the sign of the mysterious | as a model for the taoist, the baby is in many ways ideal: totally unaltruistic, not interested in politics, business, or the proprieties, weak, soft, and able toscream placidly for hours without wearing itself out (its parents are another matter. the baby's unawareness of poisonous insects and carnivorous beasts means... | 54 |
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 i... | null | some rules | i follow waley's interpretation of this chapter. it is tao that plants and keeps; the various kinds of power belong to tao; and finally in myself i see the tao of self, and so on. | 55 |
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... | another repetition: the first four lines of the second verse are the same as the second verse of chapter 4. they carry a different weight here. i vary mytranslation of them in the fourth line to make it connect to the next. hsuan t'ung, u201cthe deep samenessu201d: hsuan is u201cdeepu201d or u201cmysteriousu201d; t'ung... | mysteries of power | null | 56 |
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, th... | the phrase u201chow do i know? by this,u201d has become a kind of tag by its third repetition; but as waley points out, it still implies intuitive knowing, beyond reasonu2014knowing the way. the words i translate u201cexpertsu201d literally mean u201csharp weapons,u201d but the term implies u201cpundits, know-it-alls.u... | being simple | a strong political statement of the central idea of wu wei , not doing, inaction. my u201cmonstrousu201d is literally u201cnew.u201d new is strange, and strange is uncanny. new is bad. lao tzu is deeply and firmly against changing things, particularly in the name of progress. he would make an iowa farmer look flighty. ... | 57 |
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 unfortu... | waley points out that words in the last verse, with such meanings as u201csquare, right, angular,u201d are typical confucian virtues. henricks remarks that all these words and operations refer to carpentry. the verse is about how to cut the uncut wood without cutting it. | living with change | in the first verse, the words u201cdull and confusedu201d and u201csharp and keenu201d are, as waley points out, the words used in chapter 20 to describe the taoist and the non-taoists. in the last verse most translators say the taoist is square but doesn't cut, shines but doesn't dazzle. waley says that this misses th... | 58 |
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 lon... | se, my u201cgather spirit,u201d is variously translated u201cfrugality,u201d u201cmoderation,u201d u201crestraint,u201d u201cbeing sparing,u201d or, by waley, u201claying up a store.u201d evidently the core idea is that of saving. the chapter is usually presented in the manual-for-princes mode. waley makes sense out of... | staying on the way | null | 59 |
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 souls come to harm. and so, neither harming the other, these powers will come together in unity. rule a ... | null | staying put | thomas jefferson would have liked the first stanza. u201ctroubled spiritsu201d are kwei, ghosts, not bad in themselves but dangerous if they possess you. waley reads the second stanza as a warning to believers in realpolitik : a ruler u201cpossessedu201d by power harms both the people and his own soul. taking it as cou... | 60 |
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... | the first seven lines continue the themes of u201csamenessu201d or assimilation, and of u201cbeing woman,u201d u201cbeing water,u201d the uses of yin. from there on, the language goes flat, and may be interpolated commentary. there's an even feebler fourth verse: a big country needs more people, a small one needs more ... | lying low | null | 61 |
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 ... | the first and last verses hang together; the two middle verses are difficult and rather incoherent. waley says the enigmatic second verse refers to sophists and sages who went about selling their u201cfine wordsu201d to the highest bidder, like ourpop gurus and tv pundits. | the gift of the way | i think the line of thought throughout the poem has to do with true reward as opposed to dishonorable gain, true giving as opposed to fake goods. | 62 |
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... | null | consider beginnings | waley says that this charmingly complex chapter plays with two proverbs. u201crequite injuries with good deedsu201d is the first. the word te, here meaning goodness or good deeds, is the same word lao tzu uses for the power of theway. (u201cpower is goodness,u201d he says in chapter 49. so, having neatly annexed the go... | 63 |
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... | i think the advice about being careful at the end of an undertaking was added, perhaps to balance the advice that the right time to act is before the beginning. it confuses the argument a bit, and i put it in parentheses. the line i give as u201cturn back to what people overlookedu201d is rendered by lafargue as u201ct... | mindful of little things | null | 64 |
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 a... | a dictator and his censors might all too easily cite from this chapter. a democrat might agree that the more people know, the harder they are for a ruler to governu2014since the more they know, the better they are at governing themselves. anyone might agree that an intellectual agenda pursued without reality-checking i... | one power | where shall we find a ruler wise enough to know what to teach and what to withhold? u201conce upon a time,u201d maybe, in the days of myth and legend, as a pattern, a model, an ideal? the knowledge and the ignorance or unknowing lao tzu speaks of may or may not refer to what we think of as education. in the last stanza... | 65 |
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 misleadi... | null | lowdown | one of the things i love in lao tzu is his good cheer, as in this poem, which while giving good counsel is itself a praise and enjoyment of the spirit of yin, the water-soul that yields, follows, eludes, and leads on, dancing in the hundred valleys. | 66 |
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 ... | null | three treasures | the first two verses of this chapter are a joy to me. the three final verses are closely connected in thought to the next two chapters, which may be read as a single meditation on mercy, moderation, and modesty, on the use of strength, on victory and defeat. | 67 |
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... | null | heaven's lead | a piece of sound tactical advice (practiced by the martial arts, such as aikido, and by underground resistance and guerrilla forces, which leads to a profound moral warning. the prize thrown away by the aggressor is compassion. the yielder, the griever, the mourner, keeps that prize. the game is loser take all. | 68 |
my words are so easy to understand, so easy to follow, and yet nobody in the world understands or follows them. w ords 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. my words are so easy to understand, ... | null | being obscure | null | 70 |
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. 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'... | i follow henricks in choosing the ma wang tui text, which has a double negative in the second line. most other texts have u201cnot knowing knowing is sickness.u201d | the sick mind | what you know without knowing you know it is the right kind of knowledge. any other kind (conviction, theory, dogmatic belief, opinion isn't the right kind, and if you don't know that, you'll lose the way. this chapter is an example of exactly what lao tzu was talking about in the last oneu2014obscure clarity, well-con... | 71 |
when we don't fear what we should fear we are in fearful danger. w e 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. when w... | i take the liberty of reading this chapter as a description of what we, we ordinary people, should fear. the usual reading is in the manual-for-princes mode. in that case u201cwhat should be fearedu201d is the ruler, the rightful authority, and the advice that follows is evidently directed to that ruler. it's certainly... | the right fear | null | 72 |
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 judgment 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 eas... | null | daring to do | null | 73 |
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 plac... | i follow the ma wang tui text, but make very free with the word henricks renders as u201cconstant [in their behavior].u201d if i understand henricks' version, it says that if people were consistent in behaving normally and in fearing death, and if death were the penalty for abnormal behavior, nobody would dare behave ... | the lord of slaughter | to lao tzu, not to fear dying and not to fear killing are equally unnatural and antisocial. who are we to forestall the judgment of heaven or nature, to usurp the role of u201cthe executioneru201d? u201cthe lord of slaughteru201d is waley's grand translation. | 74 |
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. people a... | null | greed | how many hundreds of years ago was this book written? and yet still this chapter must be written in the present tense. | 75 |
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 unde... | null | hardness | in an age when hardness is supposed to be the essence of strength, and even the beauty of women is reduced nearly to the bone, i welcome this reminder that tanks and tombstones are not very adequate role models, and that to be alive is to be vulnerable. | 76 |
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: it takes from tho... | null | the bow | this chapter is equally relevant to private relationships and to political treaties. its realistic morality is based on a mystical perception of the fullness of the way. | 77 |
let there be a little country without many people. let them have tools 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 mig... | to dismiss this utopia as simply regressivist or anti-technological is to miss an interesting point. these people have labor-saving machinery, ships and land vehicles, weapons of offense and defense. they u201chave them and don't use them.u201d i interpret: they aren't used by them. w e're used, our lives shaped and co... | freedom | waley says this endearing and enduring vision u201ccan be understood in the past, present, or future tense, as the reader desires.u201d this is always true of the vision of the golden age, the humane society. christian or cartesian dualism, the division of spirit or mind from the material body and world, existed long b... | 80 |
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 wit... | this last poem is self-reflexive, wrapping it all up tight in the first verse, then opening out again to praise the undestructive, uncompetitive generosity of the spirit that walks on the way. to my mind, the best reason for following the ma wang tui text in reversing the order of the books is that the whole thing end... | telling it true | null | 81 |
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