ideaWright Home

Forward →
←Back

Dao Intro

1-9   10-18   19-27   28-36   37-45   46-54   55-63   64-72  

Laotze
Dao De Jing

English Version by Bob Gonzalez

SEVENTY-THREE
One who needs to display courage risks death.
One who is content to contain courage ensures life.
Either way is both good and bad.
Heaven's preference is unknowable. The sage also finds this difficult.
The Way of Heaven never struggles yet always wins,
remains silent yet always responds, is not summoned yet always arrives,
never worries yet skillfully plans.
Heaven's net is vast and wide-meshed. Even-so, it loses nothing.

SEVENTY-FOUR
When people do not fear death, of what use is the threat of death?
Suppose people did fear death and offenders could be caught and executed.
Who would dare?
There is a master executioner who kills.
To try to take the place of this master is like trying to carve wood for the master carpenter.
Those who try to carve wood for the master carpenter rarely escape cutting their own hands.

SEVENTY-FIVE
The people are starving because rulers consume them in taxes.
That is why the people are starving.
The people are unruly because rulers do too much. That is why the people are unruly.
The people take death lightly because rulers live life excessively.
That is why the people take death lightly.
It is only by taking death lightly that life becomes valuable.

SEVENTY-SIX
At birth, we are soft and gentle. At death, we are hard and stiff.
All things such as grass and trees are supple and soft when living,
withered and dry when dead.
Therefore, hard and stiff are like death, soft and gentle are like life.
An inflexible army never wins. A tree that doesn't bend will break.
The hard and great fall. The soft and gentle rise.

SEVENTY-SEVEN
The Way of Heaven is like bending a bow. The high is lowered, the low is raised.
The excess is reduced, the lacking is supplied.
The Way of Heaven reduces the excess and supplies the lacking.
Humankind is not so. It reduces the lacking to supply the excess.
Who has enough left over to offer to all under Heaven? Only those of the Way.
Thus the sage benefits without demanding gratitude,
accomplishes without taking credit, and has no desire to show off.

SEVENTY-EIGHT
Under Heaven, nothing is softer or more supple than water.
But for attacking the hard and strong, it has no equal.
All the world knows that supple overcomes hard, yet no one practices it.
Thus the sage says,
"One who accepts the blame of the nation is hailed as ruler of the land.
One who bears the country's burdens is fit to rule the world."
Straight words seem crooked.

SEVENTY-NINE
Even when a great quarrel is settled, some resentment remains. How can this be made good?
Thus sages keep their part of the agreement but do not insist the other parties do so.
Those of excellence take care of their part.
Those without excellence are concerned about the other parties fulfilling their part.
The Way of Heaven has no preference but it always works through those of excellence.

EIGHTY
Let the community be filled with few people.
If they have tools and weapons, let them lay idle.
Because they take death seriously, they will not be anxious to move away.
If they have ships and carriages, they will abandon them.
If they have weapons and armor, they will find them useless.
Let people return to reckoning with knotted cords.
Let them enjoy their food, delight in their clothing,
be happy with their homes and content with their way of living.
Even though neighboring communities can see one another
and hear each other's dogs bark and roosters crow,
yet each will leave the other alone while it grows old and dies.

EIGHTY-ONE
True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true.
The good do not argue. Who argues is not good.
The wise are not clever. The clever are not wise.
Sages do not hoard.
The more they do for others, the more their lives are enriched.
The more they give to others, the more they receive.
The Way of Heaven benefits without harm.
The way of sages is to act without competing.

Forward →
←Back

1-9   10-18   19-27   28-36   37-45   46-54   55-63   64-72  

Dao Intro
ideaWright Home

© Copyright 1995 by Bob Gonzalez