User:Coconaut/dao

1 Language and Perception

Dao that can be asserted in words
 * Not the absolute Dao-in-itself

Phenomenon that can be confined in names
 * Not the absolute phenomenon-in-itself

Nothingness
 * Named beginning of universe

Haveness
 * Named mother of all objects

Thus

Be always in nothingness
 * If you desire to perceive the Dao's wonder

Always in haveness
 * If you desire to discover the bounds of phenomena

Having same origin
 * Yet appear differently

Both mysterious in nature
 * Mystery of all mysteries
 * Source of all wonders

2 Values and The Difference

We all know


 * Beauty as it is
 * because there is ugliness
 * Good as it is
 * because there is evil

Therefore
 * Haveness and nothingness co-create
 * Difficult and easy co-accomplish
 * Long and short contrast
 * High and low incline against each other
 * Music and voice harmonize
 * Front and back accompany

Hence
 * An ideal political leader manages with nothingness

Teaching without fuss

Dao moves the universe
 * Without halt

Creates
 * Without domination

Acts
 * Without publicity

Success
 * Without making merit

Only no merit is claimed
 * The merit never ends

3 Flaunt no

Ideal political leader
 * Flaunts no saints
 * People stop fighting for names

Treasure no rare merchandises
 * People rob not

Desire no eager end
 * People bewilder not

Therefore

His government
 * Clears people's mind off ideologies
 * Fills their stomachs
 * Weakens their ambitions
 * Strengthens their bones
 * Makes them ignorant of trickery
 * Lest some abuse their cleverness

With these principles of nothingness
 * Be there no ungovernable

4 The Null Dao Dao, null

Used; never overflows

Profound, like root of all

Its concealment
 * Make us doubt about its existence

I do not know its source

Presumably
 * Forefather of the gods

5 The Selfless Universe and The Boundless Dao

The heaven and earth are not romantic
 * Treats everything impartially like straw dogs

Likewise

Ideal political leader is not romantic
 * Treating all people like straw dogs

Dao


 * Being nothingness in heaven and earth


 * like bellows

Empty
 * Yet produces endlessly

The more it works
 * The more results it gets

Too many words/laws
 * Lead to unproductivity swiftly

Rather act in nothingness

6 The Ultimate Creator

Valley spirit never dies.
 * the unknown first mother,

whose gate is the root
 * from which grew heaven and earth.

It is dimly seen
 * always present.

Use it
 * it will never fail.

7 Selflessness and Sustainability

The universe
 * Sustainable

As it does not exist for itself
 * Therefore long-lived

Likewise

The ideal political leader leaves behind self-interests
 * Stands tall in front

Forgets his own body
 * Collectively survival

Are not these due to his selflessness

The net result
 * His self-fulfillment

8 The Best Practices are Like Water The Best practices are like water

Water
 * Good at nurturing the nature instead of exploiting
 * Lives in places where people disgusted
 * Thus
 * Approaching Dao


 * Live on useful ground
 * Mind with proper depth
 * Deal with others gently and kind
 * Speak with proper truthfulness
 * In ruling, be just
 * In work be competent
 * Act in proper timing

No exploitation; no hates

9 Withdraw oneself after success

Pouring till overflown
 * Rather stop before filled

Overly sharpened
 * Quickly blunted

Full house of gold and jades
 * Never seen well kept forever

Flaunt of one's fortune
 * Looking for troubles

Withdraw oneself after success
 * Way of nature

10 Self-criticism

Embrace the one and only Dao
 * With entire heart and soul
 * Can you keep it without going astray?

Concentrate life's energy
 * Can you be like a baby?

Clear your mind of ideology and primal vision
 * Probe around
 * Can it be flawless?

Be patriotic and govern the people
 * Can you be in nothingness

Open and close your senses
 * Can you be in quietness

Can one empty the mind and fill it with the brightness of wisdom and learn to step back from this knowledge? Can one give life and grow life
 * and yet claim no possession?

Can one supervise and benefit others
 * yet exercise no authority and rely on no pride?

This is what is called the mysterious virtue.

11 The Use of Nothingness ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Thirty spokes center to one hub
 * As there is nothingness in the hub
 * We have the use of vehicle

Kneading clay into vessels
 * As there is nothingness
 * We have the use of vessel

Shaping door and windows for a room
 * As there is nothingness
 * We have the use of room

Thus
 * Haveness turns into benefit
 * Nothingness turns into usefulness

-

---

Temptations of a colorful world blind people

Delicacies solicit more flavors

Hustle-bustles cause deafness

Hunting on the rampage
 * People's hearts bedevil

Rare merchandises
 * Bring about greedy searches

Thus
 * The ideal political leader cares more about people's stomach than

enjoyments

Gives and takes

-

---

Grace and disgrace
 * Alarming

Worry of adversity
 * As well as oneself

Why are grace and disgrace alarming

In the eyes of the world
 * Favor is good
 * Disfavor bad

The favored
 * Worry about losing favor

The disfavored
 * Worry about adversity

Thus
 * Grace and disgrace
 * Alarming

What is worrying of adversity
 * As well as oneself

Adversity
 * As I am self-centred

If I am selfless
 * What adversity I have

Therefore
 * One who willing to sacrifice himself for the people
 * Can have mandate of the world
 * One who loves to sacrifice himself for the people
 * Can entrust the world in him

-

---

Look
 * See not

Listen
 * Hear not

Touch
 * Sense not

These three aspects cannot be exhausted
 * Mingle as one in Dao

No light above
 * No darkness beneath

Extending endlessly
 * Indescribable
 * Ultimately formless

Formless form
 * So to speak
 * No materialistic appearance and dim

Greet
 * See not its face

Follow
 * See not its back

Get Hold of the old Dao
 * Rein current haveness

Know the ancient sustainable source
 * Comply with the law of Dao

-

---

Ancient pilgrim of Dao
 * Subtle
 * Mysteriously proficient
 * Fathomless

As fathomless
 * Describe barely

Prudential
 * As if stepping on winter stream
 * Afraid of interference from neighbours

Courteous
 * Like a guest

Yielding
 * Like melting ice

Simple
 * As if naive

Hollow
 * Like caves

Opaque
 * Like muddy pools

Who can be chaordic
 * with calmness turning crystalline

Who can be peaceful in long term movement
 * While showing vitality progressively

Those who keep Dao in them
 * No complacency

As no complacency
 * They can be hidden
 * Showing off not

-

---

Be in nothingness to extreme

Be in quietness wholeheartedly

All objects interact

I observe their repeating laws
 * Go back to their origin in turn
 * Then in quietness

So to speak
 * Named constant Dao

Repeat universally

Knowing these
 * Enlightened

Act without enlightenment of the constant Dao
 * Assuming high risk

Knowing constants
 * Accommodated

Accommodated
 * Civil

Civil
 * Wholistic

Wholistic
 * Comply with law of the universe

Comply with law of the universe
 * Following Dao

Following Dao
 * Sustainable

Thus
 * No hazards in life

-

---

First class leader
 * People know not his existence

Second
 * Close to the people
 * Praised

Next
 * The people afraid of him

Last
 * The people abuse him

Lack of truthfulness
 * Begets no trustworthy

Be at ease
 * Treasure your words

After all achievements
 * Let people say
 * "We are like this naturally."

-

---

Wherever the great Dao is forsaken
 * There is political romanticism

Wherever wisdom is publicized
 * There is hypocrisy

Wherever relatives are in alienation
 * There are piety and kindness

Wherever a nation is in chaos
 * There are loyal subjects

-

---

Stop flaunting sage and saint
 * People have hundred times benefit

Forsake political romanticism
 * People have piety and kindness back naturally

Relinquish opportune benefits
 * Robbers and thieves vanish

These three aspects
 * If propagate with word games
 * Show all sorts of defects

Thus
 * Provide the people with options
 * Let them
 * show their true selves
 * Embrace indigenuity
 * Short of egotism
 * Lack of greed

-

---

The best knowledge leads no anxiety

Impose them with compliment or disgrace
 * How far is in between

Attach them with the feel of good or bad
 * What difference does it makes

What others afraid of cannot be ignored

How desolate
 * The Dao's wastefulness

People push by in the crowd
 * Like having feasts
 * Like ascending lookout towers

I live alone in insipidity
 * Like never seen any sign
 * Like an infant never been boyish
 * Like slack astray

People have swelling confidence
 * I seem incompetent

What a mind of fool I have

Others look smart
 * I seem muddle-headed

Others appear attentive
 * I appear could not care less

I can be a sea in placidity
 * Or perpetually drifting wind

Others show talents
 * I seem superficially childish
 * I am different
 * Consuming mother of the universe dearly

-

---

Countenance of the hollow De
 * Reflects only Dao

How indeterminately vague
 * Yet phenomena within

How vaguely indeterminate
 * Yet substance within

How profoundly dusky
 * Yet sperms of creation within

Highly real the sperms
 * Certain messages within

Its phenomena manifested since time immemorial
 * For us to review the beginning of all things

How do I perceive the beginning of all things
 * With these

-

---

Defect
 * Perfect

Inflection
 * Straightened

Hollow
 * Filled

Spoiled
 * Renewed

Less
 * Content

Excessive
 * Confused

Thus
 * The ideal political leader
 * Embraces the integrated Dao as paradigm

No self-glorifying
 * Thus illuminate

No self-approbation
 * Thus prominent

No brag
 * Thus praiseworthy

No arrogant
 * Thus sustain

No rivalry
 * No rival in the world

How can the good old principle of "defect makes perfect"
 * Be just empty talk

Have faith in it wholeheartedly

-

---

Few words/law
 * Be natural

Blasting wind survive not the morning
 * A brash last not whole day

Who set these
 * Heaven and earth

Even the heaven and earth last not
 * How can a human

Thus


 * The taoist operator
 * Has Dao-like manner
 * One who has the De
 * Has De-like manner
 * One who loses both
 * Has loser-like manner


 * Those identify with the Dao
 * The Dao is glad to have them
 * Those identify with the De
 * The De is glad to have them
 * Those who lose both
 * The "loser" is glad to have them


 * Lack of truthfulness
 * Begets no trustworthy

-

---

Lifted heels
 * Lose firm foothold

Run in big steps
 * Travel not far

Self-glorify
 * Edify none

Self-conceite
 * Unprominent

Brag
 * Unpraiseworthy

Arrogant
 * Unsustainable

For Dao
 * These are leftovers
 * Superfluous demeanors
 * Even those alienated may detest them

Thus
 * Daoists abstain from them

-

---

An existence
 * Intermingled

Before the universe
 * It be

Serene and formless

Aloof and everlasting

Moving infinitely

Be it mother of the universe

As my ignorant of its name
 * Inadequately named it Dao
 * Barely describe it as great


 * Great thus omnipresent
 * Omnipresent thus infinite
 * Infinite thus rotary

Dao
 * Great

Universe
 * Great

Earth
 * Great

Human
 * Great

Four greatness in the universe
 * Human is one of them
 * Human
 * Rely on earth
 * Earth
 * Rely on Universe
 * Universe
 * Rely on Dao
 * Dao
 * Rely on nature

-

---

Heaviness
 * Root of flightiness

Calmness
 * Leader of fickleness

Thus
 * The ideal political leader
 * Advances without leaving burden
 * Though in glory
 * Deal with it detachedly

As a leader of many advanced troops
 * How can he be fickle with his self-interests

Flighty loses root

Fickleness loses leadership

-

---

Good travel leaves no trace

Good speech makes no mistake

Good count utilize no calculator

Good confinement has no lock and latch
 * Yet unable to open

Good bond apply no rope and knot
 * Yet loosen not

Thus
 * The ideal political leader
 * Good at saving people
 * No one left behind
 * Good at saving goods
 * Nothing left behind

Inherit enlightenment
 * So to speak

Thus
 * The Good
 * Be mentor of the no-good
 * The No-good
 * Be lessons of the good
 * Valued not the mentor
 * Or heeded not the lessons
 * Though clever
 * Yet muddleheaded

The primary knacks
 * So to speak

-

---

Know its "masculine"
 * Hold on to "feminine"
 * Be conjunction of the world

Be the conjunction of the world
 * Conform to De without deviation
 * Revert to natural state of infant

Know its "white"
 * Hold on to its "black"
 * Be a paragon of the world

Abide by The De constantly without error
 * Return to The Eternal Dao

Know its grace
 * Hold on to its disgrace
 * Be the vale of the world

Adhere to The De till content
 * Resume nature

Lose the nature
 * Alienate into tools

The ideal political leader knows how to use them
 * Becomes leader of all ministers

The great/complex systems
 * Reductionistic not

-

---

Generals who wish to seize power
 * And do something "worthwhile"

I reckon they run out of alternatives

Power is like magical weapon
 * Shall not act upon

Those act upon
 * Vitiate it

Those lay hand on
 * Lose it

All creatures
 * Advance
 * Or follow
 * Breath cold
 * Or puff warm
 * Strong
 * Or weak
 * Increase
 * Or perish

Thus
 * The ideal political leader eliminates
 * Excess
 * Extravagance
 * Extreme

-

---

A Daoist adviser
 * Flaunt no superiority to the world with forces

Long term implications it has Wherever armed divisions camped
 * Thorns and brambles clustered

After grand scale military conflicts
 * Lean years ensued

Good strategists
 * Content with efficacy
 * Tough no more

Effected
 * No arrogance
 * No brag
 * No pride

War
 * Inevitable aftermath

Achieved ends
 * Violence no more

All creatures aged after turning strong
 * Disregard Dao
 * So to speak

Disregard Dao
 * Die an earlier death

-

---

Weapons
 * Cursed merchandise

Even those alienated may detest

Thus
 * Daoist
 * Dance not with them

Gentlemen
 * Treasure daily peaceful life
 * Regard armed mobilization as ominous

Weapons
 * Cursed merchandise
 * Not tools for gentlemen
 * Use only when run out of alternatives

Better be indifferent of fame and gain Victory
 * No beauty

Those glorify it with passion
 * Amuse in massacre

Those amuse in massacre
 * Let the world prevent his will to power

Left
 * Luck

Right
 * Ill omen

Sub-lieutenant
 * Stays in the left

Commander in Chief
 * Stays in the right

Words
 * Express in obsequial manner

Killed many
 * Mourn in person with grief

Deal victory like a funeral

-

---

Dao
 * Everlasting
 * Nameless
 * Unadorned in nature

Seems inappreciable
 * Yet the world cannot turn it under subordination

If rulers keep it
 * All creatures submit themselves voluntarily

Sky and earth interact
 * For timely rainfalls

No commands from the people
 * Yet balance naturally

Primordial systems have appearances

Once appeared
 * Limits be known

Know the limits
 * Be no hazards

Dao relates to the world
 * Like sea relates to rivers and ravines

-

---

Understand others
 * Wise

Self-understood
 * Enlightened

Transcend over others
 * Strong

Self-transcend
 * Real power

Content
 * Rich

Diligent Daoist
 * Great expectation

Lose not dominion of Dao
 * Sustainable

Died no dead
 * Real longevity

-

---

The great Dao floods freely
 * Be it left or right

All things born in Dao
 * Yet utter not a word

Accomplished
 * Yet no name in haveness

Clothes and nurtures all things
 * Yet no domination

No greed
 * So to speak
 * Inappreciable

All things vested in
 * Yet no domination
 * So to speak
 * Its greatness

As no self-glorifying
 * Thus its greatness complete

-

---

Uphold the great phenomena
 * The whole world follows

If the followers be not hurt
 * Calm
 * Harmony
 * Peace

Entertain with delicacy
 * Passerby stop over

Yet the exit of Dao
 * Wishy-washy and flavorless

Look
 * Hard to see

Hear
 * Hard to listen

Use
 * Never exhausted

-

---

Want to integrate
 * Must overspread them on purpose

Want to weaken
 * Must strengthen them on purpose

Want to abolish
 * Must vitalize them on purpose

Want to dispossess
 * Must provide them on purpose

Inappreciably enlightened
 * So to speak

Rather be gentle and tender
 * Than hard and strong

Fishes better stay in deep water

The best weapons of a nation
 * Keep from exhibition

-

---

Dao always acts with nothingness
 * Yet everything done

If rulers could keep it
 * All creatures self-transformed

If self-transformed
 * Yet desire of acting (feigning)
 * I will restrain them with nameless ingenuousness

Restrained with the nameless ingenuousness
 * They will have no greed

No greed and peaceful
 * The world will self-adjust

-

---

The best De
 * Does not look like "De"
 * Thus be "Deistic"

The inferior De
 * The look of "De"
 * Yet "Deistic" not

The best De
 * Acts in nothingness
 * Achieves nothing

The inferior De
 * Acts in nothingess
 * Achieves something

The best propriety
 * Acts
 * Achives nothing

The best righteousness acts
 * Achives something

The best propriety
 * Acts yet no response
 * Thus stretch out the arms of power
 * Coerce the people to act

Thus
 * Lost Dao
 * Then be De
 * Lost De
 * Then be propriety
 * Lost propriety
 * Then righteous
 * Lost righteous
 * Then be propriety

So called propriety
 * Thinness of faithfulness
 * Chief of conflicts

Prophesy/fortelling
 * Extravagant for Dao
 * Beginning of foolhardy

Thus a great leader
 * Stays with the thickness (the best De)
 * Stays out of the thinness
 * Keeps the real

Keeps out of the extravagance

Thus gives and takes

-

---

There were those attained The One long ago

The sky attained The One
 * Turned clear

The earth attained The One
 * Turned tranquil

Gods attained The One
 * Turned efficacious

The valley attained The One Filled Creatures attained The One Survived Leaders attained The One Turned paragon of the world

Dao caused these

Fearfully
 * Should the sky fail be clear
 * Broken apart
 * Should the earth fail be tranquil
 * Abolish
 * Should gods fail be efficacious
 * Disappear
 * Should valley fail be filled
 * Run dry
 * Should creature fail to survive
 * Vanish
 * Should leader failed be upright
 * Topple over


 * Dignity
 * Based on humbleness
 * High
 * Founded on low

Many leaders proclaim themself
 * Aloof
 * Unromantic
 * Proud

Are these based on disennobleness
 * Are they not

Thus
 * The best reputation is no reputation
 * Be not jade in a riot of colors
 * Be solid stone

-

---

Circulation
 * Movement of Dao

Gentleness/tenderness
 * Usefulness of Dao

All objects
 * From haveness

Haveness
 * From nothingness

-

---

The best warriors heard Dao
 * Practice diligently

Mediocre warriors heard Dao
 * Indifferent

Worst warriors heard Dao
 * Laugh out loud

No ridicules
 * Not qualify as Dao

Thus

These well-established words

Clear Dao
 * Seems obscure

Advancing Dao
 * Seems retreating

Smooth Dao
 * Seems bumpy

Best De
 * Seems like valley

Abundant De
 * Seems inadequate

Diligent De
 * Seems truant

Solid De
 * Seems hollow

Greatest clearness
 * Seems filthy

Biggest square
 * Have no angles

Great device
 * Accomplishes late

Loudest
 * Hardly heard

Greatest phenomenon
 * formless

Hidden Dao
 * Nameless

Dao alone
 * The best in giving and accomplishing

-

---

Dao gave birth to One

One to Two

Two to Three

Three to others

All objects
 * Bear Yin
 * Embrace Yang
 * Harmonize with air of hollowness

The people detest
 * Alone
 * Aloof
 * Proud

The ideal political leader claims himself as such

Thus all objects
 * Gain from damage
 * Damage from gain

What the other taught
 * I teach too

Strong and violent
 * Die no natural death

I see this as father of all teachings

-

---

The softest in the world
 * Run through the hardest

Nothingness infiltrate into the seamless

From these
 * I realize advantages of acting in nothingness

The advantage of wordless teaching and nothingness
 * Few equals in the world

-

---

Name and life
 * Which comes first

Life and materials
 * Which be more precious

Gain and lost
 * Which ill

Obsession must lead to huge waste

More treasure more lost

Thus
 * Contentment
 * Disgrace not
 * Knowing limits
 * Hazards not

Sustainable

-

---

The greatest success seems flawed
 * Its pragmaticality never ends

The greatest fulfillment seems empty
 * Its pragmaticality inexhaustible

The straightest seems inflected

The skillest seems clumsy

The greatest debater seems awkward

The calm transcends over fickleness

The cold transcends over heat

Calm and serene
 * Upright of the world

-

---

When the world has Dao
 * Horses are driven to plow farms

When the world has Dao not
 * Ponies born in rural battlefields

Nothing more disastrous than insatiability

Nothing more blameworthy than obsession Thus
 * Contentment of being contented
 * Contentment that long last

-

---

Never stepped out of door
 * Yet known the world

Never looked over window
 * Yet seen the natural Dao

The further one goes
 * Acquires fewer knowledge

Thus
 * The ideal political leader
 * Travels not
 * Yet well-informed
 * Sees not
 * Yet enlightened
 * Acts not
 * Yet succeeded

-

---

Absorbing knowledge
 * Increasing daily

Practicing Dao
 * Decreasing daily

Decreasing and decreasing
 * Till act in nothingness

Act in nothingness
 * Yet everything done

Take from the world
 * Should make no troubles

If there are troubles
 * Worthy not of getting from the world

-

---

The ideal political leader always has heart of nothingness
 * Minds only the people's mind

The good
 * I treat him good

The No-good
 * I also treat him good

"De"-ify good

The faithful
 * I treat him with faithfulness

Unfaithful
 * I also treat him with faithfulness

"De"-ify faithfulness

In the world
 * The ideal political leader seems pulling in his horns
 * Deal with the world
 * Heart in nothingness

People observe with ears and eyes
 * The ideal political leader cares about them like their own children

-

---

Born out of life
 * Died into earth

Long-lived
 * Three out of ten

Short-lived
 * Three out of ten

Could have long-lived
 * Yet stepped into fatal land
 * Also three out of ten

Why

As they lived extravagant lives

Ever heard of those good at survival

On their ways uphill
 * Never met rhinoceros or tigers

Enlisted
 * Never hurt by weapons

Rhinoceros
 * No target to thrust with its horn

Tiger
 * No victim to ply with its claws

Enemy
 * No way to penetrate with his sword

Why

As for him
 * No fatal land

-

---

Dao generates
 * De nurtures

Things form
 * Trends accomplish

Thus All creatures
 * Honor the Dao
 * Glorify the De

Dao's honor and De's glory
 * From having no predestination
 * Natural always

Thus
 * Dao generates
 * De nurtures
 * Grows and educates
 * Fulfills and ripens
 * Nourishes and protects

Creates without domination

Acts without publicity

Succeed without making merit

So to speak
 * Mysterious De

-

---

The world has a beginning
 * Be it the Mother

Once has the Mother
 * To know her Son
 * Revert back to abide by the Mother

No hazards in life

Block off channels of greed
 * Close off the exit
 * No toils in life

Open up channels of greed
 * Aid the business
 * No cure in life

See the inappreciable
 * Named enlightenment

Keep the flexible
 * Named powerful

Make use of its light
 * Revert to enlightenment
 * Left no disaster to oneself

So to speak
 * Inherit the Eternal

-

---

Supposedly
 * I somewhat know
 * Walk along the Great Way
 * Fear only going astray

The Great Way
 * Quite smooth
 * Yet people like side roads

Officialdom corrupts

Farm lands desolate

Warehouses vacant

But those in power
 * Clothe flowery
 * Rattle sharp swords
 * Eat and drink till surfeit
 * Squander wealth and property excessively

Named bandit chieftains
 * Opposed to Dao

-

---

Good building
 * Uproots not

Good grip
 * Looses not

Descendants appreciate their merits
 * Never stop worshipping them

Practice physically
 * De real

Practice at home
 * De abundant

Practice down town
 * De long last

Practice in state
 * De fulfilled

Practice in the world
 * De ubiquitous

Observe self with the self's context

Observe home with the homey context

Observe state with the stately context

Observe world with the worldly context How do I manage to know the world as such

With these

-

---

Those be abundant with De
 * Analogous to a baby

Poisonous insects and snakes
 * Wound not

Birds and beasts of prey
 * Fight not

Bones weak and tendons flexible
 * Yet hold firmly

Not yet learn of intercourse
 * Yet has erections
 * As his potency

Cry whole day
 * Yet bring no throaty
 * As his harmony

Know harmony
 * Constant

Know the constant
 * Enlightened

Benefit health
 * Auspicious

Controlling Qi4 (pneuma)
 * Strong

Things aged after strengthened

Adhere not to Dao
 * So to speak

Adhere not to Dao
 * Die an earlier death

-

---

The wise
 * Define not Dao in words

Define Dao in words
 * Wise not

Dao
 * Diminishes sharpness
 * Resolves conflicts
 * Soften brightness
 * Collaborate earthly life
 * Mysterious collaboration
 * So to speak

There
 * Unattainable
 * Intimate
 * Thus alienated
 * Unattainable
 * Benefit
 * Thus harm
 * Unattainable
 * Precious
 * Thus inferior

Thus the world treasures it

-

---

Govern a state with the upright Dao

Mobilize army with oddity

Win the world with peace

How do I know these
 * With these

More taboos
 * Poorer the people

More people own ferocious weapons
 * More unsettled the state

More people have trickery
 * Tricky goods turn superabundant

More laws we reveal
 * More robbers and thieves in jail

Thus

The ideal political leader asserts
 * I act in nothingness
 * The people self-transform
 * I love meditation
 * The people self-adjust
 * I remain in peace
 * The people self-prosper

I have no greed
 * The people turn unadorned

-

---

If administration unruffled
 * The people turn unadorned

If administration overly watchful
 * The people turn deficient

Blessings lean on adversaries
 * Adversaries ambush blessings

Who knows the ends of the adversaries or blessings
 * No certainty in them

Certainty can turn odd
 * Good can turn evil

People have delusion of these since long ago Thus

The ideal political leader
 * In square
 * Slashes not with angles
 * Sharp edges
 * Scratches not
 * Straight
 * Runs riot not
 * Beam
 * Glare not

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Management or service
 * No comparable to reserve

Only with reserve
 * Thus obey Dao earlier

Obey Dao earlier
 * Emphasize on accumulating De

Accumulating De
 * No unbeatable

No unbeatable
 * Can own a nation

Can own a nation
 * Sustainable

Deep-rooted
 * So to speak
 * Dao of long-live and eternal

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Govern a great nation
 * Akin to cooking undersized seafood

Rule with Dao
 * Ghosts will lose their power

Not only ghosts will lose godhood
 * God also hurts no people

Not only God hurts no people
 * The ideal political leader also hurt no people

Thus no hurting of each other De interacts

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Great nation should flow downward as confluence of the world

Be it feminine in nature

Female often won over male with its calmness
 * Humble with calmness

Thus

Great nation be humble to small nation
 * Win over small nation

Small nation be humble to great nation
 * Win over great nation

Either be humble to win over
 * Or be humble yet win over

Great nation wants only to dominate
 * Small nation submits only for protection

Win-win

Great nation should humble

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Dao
 * Secret of all things
 * Treasure of good people
 * Valuable of those no-goods

Words of comeliness
 * Procure honor

Acts of charm
 * Grow followers

Though no-good
 * How can Dao abandons them

When ordain the Son of Heaven
 * Ascertain three kingships

Though there are large jades as offering
 * Preceding four-horse chariot
 * No better than sitting in Dao

Why did ancient people treasure this Dao
 * Were not because of getting what pleaded
 * Condemned pardoned

Thus treasure by the world

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Act in nothingness

Work in peace

Taste in flavorlessness

Magnify the small
 * Amplify the little

Return animosity with De

Masterminding complex from easy

Managing great projects from small

The most complex work in the world must start from easy

The greatest project in the world must start from small

Thus the ideal political leader never exagerates his actions
 * Yet his greatness complete

Make light of promises
 * Few have faith

Regard things as easy
 * Troubles come

The ideal political leader see more of complexity
 * Thus no difficulty

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When stable
 * Easy to hold down

Before signs appear
 * Easy to resolve

When fragile
 * Easy to break up

When small
 * Easy to dispel

Act when nothing yet happen
 * Manage before disorder appears

Arms-full tree
 * Set out from hairlike twig

Tower of nine stories
 * Erects from a shallow basket of soil

Travel of thousand miles
 * Begins from a footstep

People's works often fail when success at hand

Be attentive from beginning to the end
 * Fail not

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Ancient proficient Daoist
 * Never tried to illuminate people on everything
 * But make them lack of trickiness

The people are hard to govern
 * As they have much trickiness

Thus govern with trickiness
 * Misfortune of the nation

Govern not with trickiness
 * Blessing of a nation

Know both of these
 * Paradigm

Always comprehend the paradigm
 * Mysterious De

The mysterious De
 * Profound and far-reaching

In opposite with those alienated
 * Till yielding to the great Dao

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Rivers and seas
 * Rulers of all valleys
 * As they stay lowly
 * Thus be rulers of all valleys

Hence
 * If an ideal political leader needs be atop of the people
 * Must humble himself in his language
 * Needs be ahead of the people
 * Must leave his interests behind

Thus be the ideal political leader
 * Atop of the people
 * Yet the people feel no burden
 * Ahead of the people
 * And the people get no hurt

Thus the world elect him without reluctance

Only no willingness to fight
 * That none of the world can fight you

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The people commented
 * Dao I spoke of
 * Immeasurable
 * Seems too good to be true

As Dao
 * Immeasurable
 * Thus be not as "good" as one can imagine

If Dao
 * As "good" as one can imagine
 * Something too trivial to mention long ago

I have 3 treasures that I keep dearly

First
 * Be kind

Second
 * Be economical

Third
 * Dare not make up the first in the world

Kind thus can be brave

Economical thus can be expanded

Dare not make up the first in the world
 * Thus be leader of all

The people nowadays
 * Abandon kindness but aggression
 * Abandon economy but expansion
 * Abandon last but first

Doom

Kindness
 * Turns victory
 * Strengthens defence

When the nature wants to save a person
 * Protects him with kindness

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Best general
 * Resorts not to violence

Best fighter
 * Angers not

Best winner
 * Fights not with the enemy

Best manager
 * Humble

So to speak

Indisputable De
 * Employing human resource
 * Matching up with the nature

Ancient ultimate concern

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A strategist remarked

I dare not be the host but the guest

Dare not advance an inch but retreat a yard

So to speak

Act no action

Raise no arm

Capture no enemy

Hold no weapon

Nothing more disastrous than no equal

No equal almost lose (aforementioned) treasures

Thus when two equals encounter
 * The kind one win

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My words
 * Quite easy to understand
 * Quite easy to practice

Yet in the world
 * Few understand
 * Few practice

My words have source
 * My practices have ground

The world
 * Ignorant
 * Thus comprehend not of me

Fewer acquaintances of me
 * More precious I am

Thus the ideal political leader wears coarse clothing
 * Yet has precious jades inside

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Knowing of not known
 * Best

Not knowing of not known
 * Faulty

The ideal political leader has no such fault

As he fault the fault

Thus has no fault of such

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When the people fear not of authority
 * The great power (of the people) shall arrive

Therefore government
 * Constrain not the people's livings
 * Oppress not their life

Only no oppression
 * No revolt from the people

Thus ideal political leader
 * Self-aware
 * Self-glorify not
 * Self-esteem
 * Self-signify not

Thus gives and takes

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Brave in hazards
 * Die

Brave in hazard-not
 * Survive

Both may benefit or harm

About those cursed by the nature
 * Who know their reasons

The Dao of nature
 * No fight
 * Yet good at victory
 * No words
 * Yet good at reply
 * No calls
 * Yet come along
 * Seemingly slack
 * Yet good at plotting
 * The web of Nature is boundless
 * Sparse yet never lost

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If people afraid not of death
 * Why threaten them with death

To induce people afraid of death

Once there is oddity
 * Arrest and punish accordingly
 * Who will dare it again?

Always

Executioner in operation

Those do for the Executioner the task of killing
 * Like hewing for logging master

For amateurs who hew for logging master
 * Few of their hands never get hurt

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Hunger of the people
 * From over taxation of those in power
 * Thus hunger

Hard govern people
 * From acts in haveness of those in power
 * Thus hard to govern

Trivia death of the people
 * From the thick lives of those in power
 * Thus trivial of death

Those act not for themselves
 * Much better than those self-signify

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Humans begin life gentle and tender
 * Turn hard and rigid in death

Plants begin life gentle and fragile
 * Wither and dry up in death

Thus gentle and tender are living types
 * Hard and rigid are dying types

Headstrong army
 * May not win a battle

Hard wood
 * Normally cut down

Strong and bulky
 * Low

Gentle and tender
 * The highest ranked

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Dao of the Nature
 * Akin to string a bow
 * Repress if too high
 * Raise if too low
 * Reduce it if excessive
 * Supplement if fall short

Dao of the nature
 * Reduces excessive
 * Supplement insufficient

Dao of mortals are different
 * Supplement excessive
 * Reduce insufficient

Who can reduce the excessive
 * And supplement the insufficient
 * Only Daoist

Thus ideal political leader
 * Acts without publicity
 * Succeeds without making merit
 * Desires not to show sageness

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None
 * More gentle and tender than water

None
 * Better in breaching strongholds

None can replace it

Gentleness can overcome strong
 * Tenderness can overcome hardness

None
 * Ignorant of these in the world
 * Yet few practice

Thus the ideal political leader stated
 * Bearer of a nation's humiliation
 * Leader of society
 * Bearer of a nation's ill omen
 * King of the world

Right words
 * Paradoxical

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Mediate deadly animosity
 * Must have residual hatred

React hatred with De
 * To what degree is proper

Thus ideal political leader
 * Be grantor
 * Exploits no people

With De
 * Grantor

Without De
 * Tax collector

Dao of the Nature
 * Favor none
 * Yet always bless those with proper De

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---

Downsize the nation
 * Lessen the people

Let them have arms
 * Yet use not

Let them give weight to death
 * And move not far

Though there are vessels and vehicles
 * No ways to ride on

Though there are weapons and armors
 * No place to display

Let them utilize the old-fashion recording method

Give taste to their foods

Beautify their clothes

Pacify their livings

Delight their cultures

Neighboring nations watch over each other
 * Noise of chicken and dogs mixing
 * Yet the people never visit each other

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Words of faithful
 * Not beautiful

Words of beautiful
 * Not faithful

The good
 * Argue not

The arguer
 * Proper not

The expert
 * Knows not wide knowledge

All-rounded
 * Expert not

The ideal political leader
 * Accumulate not for himself
 * Insomuch he cares about others as he benefits
 * Insomuch he gives as he gains

Dao of the nature
 * Sharp yet hurt not

Dao of the ideal political leader
 * Acts without fighting