WHEN a wise scholar hears the Tao,
He practises it diligently.
When a mediocre scholar hears the Tao,
He wavers between belief and unbelief.
When a worthless scholar hears the Tao,
He laughs boisterously at it.
But if such a one does not laugh at it,
The Tao would not be the Tao!

 The wise men of old have truly said:
 

The bright Way looks dim. The progressive Way looks retrograde. The smooth Way looks rugged. High Virtue looks like an abyss. Great whiteness looks spotted. Abundant Virtue looks deficient. Established Virtue looks shabby. Solid Virtue looks as though melted. Great squareness has no corners. Great talents ripen late. Great sound is silent Great form is shapeless

The Tao is hidden and nameless;
Yet it alone knows how to render help and to fulfill
 

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TAO gave birth to One,
One gave birth to Two,
Two gave birth to Three,
Three gave birth to all the myriad things.

All the myriad things carry the Yin on their backs and
 hold the Yang in their embrace,
Deriving their vital harmony from the proper blending
 of the two vital Breaths.

What is more loathed by men than to be "helpless,"
 "little," and "worthless"?
And yet these are the very names the princes and barons
 call themselves.

Truly, one may gain by losing;
And one may lose by gaining.

What another has taught let me repeat:
"A man of violence will come to a violent end."
Whoever said this can be my teacher and my father.
 
 

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THE softest of all things
Overrides the hardest of all things.
Only Nothing can enter into no-space.
Hence I know the advantages of Non-Ado.

Few things under heaven are as instructive as
 the lessons of Silence,
Or as beneficial as the fruits of Non-Ado.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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As for your name and your body, which is the dearer?
As for your body and your wealth, which is the
 more to be prized?
As for gain and loss, which is the more painful?

Thus, an excessive love for anything will cost you dear
 in the end.
The storing up of too much goods will entail a heavy
 loss.

To know when you have enough is to be immune from
 disgrace.
To know when to stop is to be preserved from perils.
Only thus can you endure long.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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THE greatest perfection seems imperfect,
And yet its use is inexhaustible.
The greatest fullness seems empty,
And yet its use is endless.

The greatest straightness looks like crookedness.
The greatest skill appears clumsy.
The greatest eloquence sounds like stammering.

Restlessness overcomes cold,
But calm overcomes heat.

The peaceful and serene
Is the Norm of the World.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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WHEN the world is in possession of the Tao,
The galloping horses are led to fertilize the fields
 with their droppings.
When the world has become Taoless,
War horses breed themselves on the suburbs.

There is no calamity like not knowing what is enough.
There is no evil like covetousness.
Only he who knows what is enough will always have
enough.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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WITHOUT going out of your door,
You can know the ways of the world.
Without peeping through your window,
You can see the Way of Heaven.
The farther you go,
The less you know.

Thus, the Sage knows without travelling,
Sees vithout looking,
And achieves without Ado.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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LEARNING consists in daily accumulating;
The practice of Tao consists in daily diminishing.

Keep on diminishing and diminishing,
Until you reach the state of Non-Ado.
No-Ado, and yet nothing is left undone.

To win the world, one must renounce all.
If one still has private ends to serve,
One will never be able to win the world.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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THE Sage has no interests of his own,
But takes the interests of the people as his own.
He is kind to the kind;
He is also kind to the unkind:
For Virtue is kind.
He is faithful to the faithful;
He is also faithful to the unfaithful:
For Virtue is faithful.

In the midst of the world, the Sage is shy and
 self-effacing.
For the sake of the world he keeps his heart in its
 nebulous state.
All the people strain their ears and eyes:
The Sage only smiles like an amused infant.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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WHEN one is out of Life, one is in Death. The
companions of life are thirteen; the companions
of Death are thirteen; and, when a living person moves
into the Realm of Death, his companions are also thir-
teen. How is this? Because he draws upon the resources
of Life too heavily.

It is said that he who knows well how to live meets
no tigers or wild buffaloes on his road, and comes out
from the battle-ground untouched by the weapons of
war. For, in him, a buffalo would find no butt for his
horns, a tiger nothing to lay his claws upon, and a
weapon of war no place to admit its point. How is this?
Because there is no room for Death in him.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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TAO gives them life,
Virtue nurses them,
Matter shapes them,
Environment perfects them.
Therefore all things without exception worship Tao and
 do homage to Virtue.
They have not been commanded to worship Tao and do
 homage to Virtue,
But they always do so spontaneously.

It is Tao that gives them life:
It is Virtue that nurses them, grows them, fosters them,
 shelters them, comforts them, nourishes them, and
 covers them under her wings.
To give life but to claim nothing,
To do your work but to set no store by it,
To be a leader, not a butcher,
This is called hidden Virtue.
 
 
 
 

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ALL-under-Heaven have a common Beginning.
This Beginning is the Mother of the world.
Having known the Mother,
We may proceed to know her children.
Having known the children,
We should go back and hold on to the Mother.
In so doing, you will incur no risk
Even though your body be annihilated.

Block all the passages!
Shut all the doors!
And to the end of your days you will not be worn out.
Open the passages!
Multiply your activities!
And to the end of your days you will remain helpless.

To see the small is to have insight.
To hold on to weakness is to be strong.
Use the lights, but return to your insight.
Do not bring calamities upon yourself.
This is the way of cultivating the Changeless.
 

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IF only I had the tiniest grain of wisdom,
I should walk in the Great Way,
And my only fear would be to stray from it.

The Great Way is very smooth and straight;
And yet the people prefer devious paths.

The court is very clean and well garnished,
But the fields are very weedy and wild,
And the granaries are very empty!
They wear gorgeous clothes,
They carry sharp swords,
They surfeit themselves with food and drink,
They possess more riches than they can use!
They are the heralds of brigandage!
As for Tao, what do they know about it?
 
 
 
 
 
 

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WHAT is well planted cannot be uprooted.
What is well embraced cannot slip away.
Your descendants will carry on the ancestral sacrifice for
 generations without end.

Cultivate Virtue in your own person,
And it becomes a genuine part of you.
Cultivate it in the family,
And it will abide.
Cultivate it in the community,
And it will live and grow.
Cultivate it in the state,
And it will flourish abundantly.
Cultivate it in the world,
And it vill become universal.

Hence, a person must be judged as person;
A family as family;
A community as community;
A state as state;
The world as world.

How do I know about the world?
By what is within me.
 

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ONE who is steeped in Virtue is akin to the
 new-born babe.
Wasps and poisonous serpents do not sting it,
Nor fierce beasts seize it,
Nor birds of prey maul it.
Its bones are tender, its sinews soft,
But its grip is firm.
It has not known the union of the male and the female,
Growing in its wholeness, and keeping its vitality in its
 perfect integrity.
It howls and screams all day long without getting hoarse,
Because it embodies perfect harmony.

 To know harmony is to know the Changeless.
To know the Changeless is to have insight.

 To hasten the growth of life is ominous.
To control the breath by the will is to overstrain it.
To be overgrown is to decay.
All this is against Tao,
And whatever is against Tao soon ceases to be.
 

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HE who knows does not speak.
He who speaks does not know.

Block all the passages!
Shut all the doors!
Blunt all edges!
Untie all tangles!
Harmonize all lights!
Unite the world into one whole!
This is called the Mystical Whole,
Which you cannot court after nor shun,
Benefit nor harm, honour nor humble.

Therefore, it is the Highest of the world.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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You govern a kingdom by normal rules;
You fight a war by exceptional moves;
But you win the world by letting alone.
How do I know that this is so?
By what is within me!

The more taboos and inhibitions there are in the world,
The poorer the people become.
The sharper the weapons the people possess,
The greater confusion reigns in the realm.
The more clever and crafty the men,
The oftener strange things happen.
The more articulate the laws and ordinances,
The more robbers and thieves arise.

Therefore, the Sage says:
I do not make any fuss, and the people transform
 themselves.
I love quietude, and the people settle down in their
 regular grooves.
I do not engage myself in anything, and the people
 grow rich.
I have no desires, and the people return to
 Simplicity.
 

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WHERE the ruler is mum, mum,
The people are simple and happy.
Where the ruler is sharp, sharp,
The people are wily and discontented.

Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on,
Good fortune is what bad fortune hides in.
Who knows the ultimate end of this process?
Is there no norm of right?
Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal,
And what is auspicious soon turns ominous.
Long indeed have the people been in a quandary.

 Therefore, the Sage squares without cutting,
 carves vfithout disfiguring,
 straightens without straining,
 enlightens without dazzling.
 
 
 
 
 

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 IN governing a people and in serving Heaven,
There is nothing like frugality.
To be frugal is to return before straying.
To return before straying is to have a double reserve
 of virtue.
To have a double reserve of virtue is to overcome
 everything.
To overcome everything is to reach an invisible height.
Only he who has reached an invisible height can have
 a kingdom.
Only he who has got the Mother of a kingdom can
 last long.
This is the way to be deep-rooted and firm-planted
 in the Tao,
The secret of long life and lasting vision.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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RULING a big kingdom is like cooking a small fish.
When a man of Tao reigns over the world, demons
have no spiritual powers. Not that the demons have no
spiritual powers, but the spirits themselves do no harm
to men. Not that the spirits do no harm to men, but the
Sage himself does no harm to his people. If only the
ruler and his people would refrain from harming each
other, all the benefits of life would accumulate in the
kingdom.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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