Tao Te Ching

The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying Way; The names that can be named are not […]

It is because every one under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty, That the idea of ugliness exists. And equally if

If we stop looking for “persons of superior morality” (hsien) to put in power, There will be no more jealousies

The Way is like an empty vessel That yet may be drawn from Without ever needing to be filled. It

Heaven and Earth are ruthless; To them the Ten Thousand things are but as straw dogs. The Sage too is

The Valley Spirit never dies. It is named the Mysterious Female. And the doorway of the Mysterious Female Is the

Heaven is eternal, the Earth everlasting. How come they to be so? It is because they do not foster their

The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures; Yet

Stretch a bow to the very full, And you will wish you had stopped in time; Temper a sword-edge to

Can you keep the unquiet physical-soul from straying, Hold fast to the Unity, and never quit it? Can you, when

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing

The fives colours confuse the eye, The fives sounds dull the ear, The five tastes spoil the palate. Excess of

Favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness; High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.” What does it

Because the eye gazes but can catch no glimpse of it, It is called elusive. Because the ear listens but

Of old those that were the best officers of Court Had inner natures subtle, abstruse, mysterious, penetrating, Too deep to

Push far enough towards the Void, Hold fast enough to Quietness, And of the ten thousand things none but can

Of the highest the people merely know that such a one exists; The next they draw near to and praise.

It was when the Great Way declined That human kindness and morality arose; It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared

Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, And the people will be benefited a hundredfold. Banish human kindness, discard morality, And the people

Between wei and o What after all is the difference? Can it be compared to the difference between good and

Such the scope of the All-pervading Power. That it alone can act through the Way. For the Way is a

“To remain whole, be twisted!” To become straight, let yourself be bent. To become full, be hollow. Be tattered, that

To be always talks is against nature. For the same reason a hurricane never lasts a whole morning, Nor a

‘He who stands on tip-toe, does not stand firm; He who takes the longest strides, does not walk the fastest.”

There was something formless yet complete, That existed before heaven and earth; Without sound, without substance, Dependent on nothing, unchanging,

As the heavy must be the foundation of the light, So quietness is lord and master of activity. Truly, “A

Perfect activity leaves no track behind it; Perfect speech is like a jade-worker whose tool leaves no mark. The perfect

“He who knows the males, yet cleaves to what is female Because like a ravine, receiving all things under heaven,”

Those that would gain what is under heaven by tampering with it – I have seen that they do not

He who by Tao purposes to help a ruler of men Will oppose all conquest by force of arms; For

Fine weapons are none the less ill-omened things. (People despise them, therefore, Those in possession of the Tao do not

Tao is eternal, but has no fame (name); The Uncarved Block, though seemingly of small account, Is greater than anything

To understand others is to have knowledge; To understand oneself is to be illumined. To conquer others needs strength; To

Great Tao is like a boat that drifts; It can go this way; it can go that. The ten thousand

He who holding the Great From goes about his work in the empire Can go about his, yet do no

What is in the end to be shrunk Must first be stretched. Whatever is to be weakened Must begin by

Tao never does; Yet through it all things are done. If the barons and kings would but possess themselves of

The man of highest “power” does not reveal himself as a possessor of “power”; Therefore he keeps his “power”. The

As for the things that from of old have understood the Whole — The sky through such understanding remains limpid,

In Tao the only motion is returning; The only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the

When the man of highest capacities hears Tao He does his best to put it into practice. When the man

Tao gave birth to the One; The One gave birth successively to two things, Three things, up to ten thousand.

What is of all things most yielding Can overwhelm that which is of all things most hard. Being substanceless it

Fame or one’s own self, which matters to one most? One’s own self or things bought, which should count most?

What is most perfect seems to have something missing; Yet its use is unimpaired. What is most full seems empty;

When there is Tao in the empire The galloping steeds are turned back to fertilize the ground by their droppings.

Without leaving his door He knows everything under heaven. Without looking out of his window He knows all the ways

Learning consists in adding to one’s stock day by day; The practice of Tao consists in “subtracting day by day,

The Sage has no heart of his own; He uses the heart of the people as his heart. Of the

He who aims at life achieves death. If the “companions of life” are thirteen, So likewise are the “companions of

Tao gave them birth; The “power” of Tao reared them, Shaped them according to their kinds, Perfected them, giving to

That which was the beginning of all things under heaven We may speak of as the “mother” of all things.

He who has the least scrap of sense, Once he has got started on the great highway has nothing to

What Tao plants cannot be plucked, What Tao clasps, cannot slip. By its virtue alone can one generation after another

The impunity of things fraught with the “power” May be likened to that of an infant. Poisonous insects do not

Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know. Black the passages, Shut the doors, Let all

“Kingdoms can only be governed if rules are kept; Battles can only be won if rules are broken.” But the

When the ruler looks repressed the people will be happy and satisfied; When the rule looks lively and self-assured the

You cannot rule men nor serve heaven unless you have laid up a store; This “laying up a store” means

Ruling a large kingdom is indeed like cooking small fish. They who by Tao all that is under heaven Did

A large kingdom must be like the low ground towards which all streams flows down. It must be a point

Tao in the Universe is like the south-west corner in the house. It is the treasure of the good man,

It acts without action, does without doing, Finds flavour in what is flavourless, Can make the small great and the

“What stays still is easy to hold; Before there has been an omen it is easy to lay plans. What

In the days of old those who practiced Tao with success did not, By means of it, Enlighten the people,

How did the great rivers and seas get their kingship Over the hundred lesser streams? Through the merit of being

Every one under heaven says that our Way is greatly like folly. But it is just because it is great,

The best charioteers do not rush ahead; The best fighters do not make displays of wrath. The greatest conqueror wins

The strategists have the sayings: “When you doubt your ability to meet the enemy’s attack, Take the offensive yourself” And

My words are very easy to understand And very easy to put into practice. Yet no one under heaven understands

“To know when one does not know is best. To think one knows when one does not know is a

Never mind if the people are not intimidated by your authority. A Mightier Authority will deal with them in the

He whose braveness lies in daring, slays. He whose braveness lies in not daring , gives life. Of these two,

The people are not frightened of death. What then is the use of trying to intimidate them with the death-penalty?

The people starve because those above them eat too much tax-grain. That is the only reason why they starve. The

When he is born, man is soft and weak; In death he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures

Heaven’s way is like the bending of a bow. When a bow is bent the top comes down and the

Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water; But when it attacks things hard and resistant there is

(To requite injuries with good deeds.) To allay the main discontent, But only in a manner that will certainly produce

Given a small country with few inhabitants, He could bring it about that through There should be among the people

True words are not fine-sounding; Fine-sounding words are not true. The good man does not prove by argument; The he