Laozi

An abridg­ment of the Dao­de­jing. Verse references such as 2:3 indicate the original source of the text, but donʼt imply a full quotation.

1:1 The Way that can be put in­to words is not the con­stant Way.

2:1 As soon as eve­ry­one in the world knows beau­ty as beau­ty, there is al­ready ug­li­ness. 2 As soon as eve­ry­one knows good as good, there is bad.

2:3 Be­ing and non­be­ing pro­duce each oth­er; 4 dif­fi­cult and easy com­plete each oth­er; 5 long and short shape each oth­er; 6 high and low fill each oth­er; 7 note and voice har­mo­nize with each oth­er; 8 front and back fol­low each oth­er: 9 these are con­stant.

2:10 There­fore, the sage dwells in the work of nonforced ac­tion, 11 and practices word­less teach­ing. 12 All things a­rise, but he does­nʼt start them; 13 he acts on their be­half, but does­nʼt make them de­pend­ent; 14 he succeeds, but does­nʼt dwell on it. 15 Itʼs on­ly be­cause he does­nʼt dwell on it, that it does­nʼt leave.

3:1 By not el­e­vat­ing the wor­thy, you keep the peo­ple from con­ten­tion. 2 By not valuing rare treasures, you keep the peo­ple from steal­ing. 3 By not displaying what is de­sir­a­ble, you keep the peo­ple from con­fu­sion.

3:4 There­fore, the sage governs by clear­ing the peopleʼs minds, but fill­ing their bellies; weakening their am­bi­tions, but strength­en­ing their bones.

3:5 He con­stant­ly keeps the peo­ple with­out cun­ning and with­out desires 6 so that the in­tel­lec­tu­als wonʼt dare to med­dle. 7 Act with­out forc­ing, then eve­ry­thing is governed prop­er­ly.

7:5 The sage puts him­self in the back­ground yet finds him­self in the fore­ground; 6 puts him­self out of mind yet finds him­self cared for. 7 Is­nʼt it be­cause heʼs self­less that 8 heʼs able to achieve his self-interest?

8:1 The highest good is like wa­ter. 2 Waterʼs good­ness is that it benefits all things, 3 yet it strives to dwell in the places that the crowd hates, 4 there­fore it co­mes close to the Way.

8:6 In a dwell­ing, its good­ness is lo­ca­tion; 7 in a mind, depth; 8 in giv­ing, be­ing like Heav­en; 9 in speak­ing, sin­cer­i­ty; 10 in gov­ern­ment, or­der; 11 in han­dling af­fairs, abil­i­ty; 12 in ac­tion, time­li­ness.

8:13 Be­cause there is no con­ten­tion, there is no blame.

9:1 If you hold and over­fill a cup, itʼs not as good as stop­ping short. 2 If you ham­mer and over­sharp­en a blade, you canʼt main­tain it for long. 3 If gold and jade fill your rooms, no one is able to pro­tect it. 4 If sta­tus and wealth lead to ar­ro­gance, you bring dis­as­ter up­on your­self.

9:5 When the work is done, with­draw; this is the Way of Heav­en.

11:1 Thir­ty spokes come to­geth­er at one hub, 2 but itʼs the emp­ti­ness in­side the hub that makes it use­ful to the cart. 3 We form clay in­to a pot, 4 but itʼs the emp­ti­ness in­side that makes the clay pot use­ful. 5 We chis­el out doors and windows to make a room, 6 but itʼs the emp­ti­ness in­side that makes the room use­ful.

11:7 There­fore, what is pres­ent brings ben­e­fit, 8 but what is ab­sent makes it use­ful.

15:1 In an­tiq­ui­ty, those who were good at the Way 2 were sub­tle, won­der­ful, mys­te­ri­ous, pen­e­trat­ing, and too deep to know. 3 Be­cause they canʼt be known, weʼre forced to de­scribe their ap­pear­ance: 4 Hes­i­tant, as if cross­ing a riv­er in win­ter. 5 A­lert, as if fearing the neighbors on all sides. 6 Sol­emn, like a visiting guest. 7 Yield­ing, like ice about to melt. 8 Gen­u­ine, like un­carved wood. 9 O­paque, like mud­dy wa­ter. 10 Vast, like a val­ley.

15:11 If mud­dy wa­ter is still, it grad­u­al­ly be­comes clear. 12 If some­thing at rest is moved, it grad­u­al­ly co­mes to life.

17:1 With the very best rulers, those be­low on­ly know that the rulers ex­ist, 2 the next best are the rulers they love and praise, 3 next are the rulers they fear, 4 and the worst are the rulers they de­spise.

17:7 When the task is ac­com­plished and the work is done, all the com­mon peo­ple say, “We did it our­selves.”

18:1 Itʼs when the great Way is aban­doned that be­nev­o­lence and right­eous­ness ap­pear. 2 Itʼs when learn­ing and clev­er­ness e­merge that the great hy­poc­ri­sy ap­pears. 3 Itʼs when fam­i­ly re­la­tion­ships are not har­mo­ni­ous that fil­ial pi­e­ty and pa­ren­tal com­pas­sion ap­pear. 4 Itʼs when the coun­try is con­fused and cha­ot­ic that up­right officials ap­pear.

19:5 Dem­on­strate plain­ness, em­brace sim­plic­i­ty, have lit­tle self­ish­ness and few desires.

22:1 Bent over then pre­served whole; 2 crook­ed then straight; 3 hol­low then filled; 4 worn out then renewed; 5 hav­ing lit­tle then sat­is­fied; 6 hav­ing much then con­fused. 7 There­fore, the sage holds to the one and be­comes shep­herd to the world.

22:8 He does­nʼt pro­mote him­self, so heʼs ac­knowl­edged. 9 He does­nʼt dis­play him­self, so he shines bright­ly. 10 He does­nʼt brag about him­self, so he has mer­it. 11 Heʼs not boast­ful, so he can en­dure. 12 Itʼs on­ly be­cause he does­nʼt con­tend that no one can con­tend with him.

23:1 Itʼs nat­u­ral to speak rare­ly. 2 A vi­o­lent wind does­nʼt last all morn­ing. 3 A tor­ren­tial rain does­nʼt last all day. 5 If heav­en and earth canʼt sus­tain it for long, how much less can man?

24:1 He who blows hard canʼt stand. 2 He who promotes him­self is­nʼt ac­knowl­edged. 3 He who displays him­self does­nʼt shine bright­ly. 5 He who brags about him­self has no mer­it. 6 He who boasts about him­self wonʼt en­dure. 8 These are so de­spised that e­ven those who want things donʼt abide them.

27:1 A skill­ful trav­el­er leaves no ruts or tracks. 2 A skill­ful speak­er makes no slips or gaffes. 3 A skill­ful count­er needs no tallies or papers.

27:6 The sage is al­ways skill­ful at sav­ing peo­ple, and nev­er aban­dons any­one; 7 with things, he nev­er aban­dons val­u­a­ble prop­er­ty.

27:9 Skill­ful peo­ple are the teachers of skill­ful peo­ple; 10 un­skilled peo­ple are the raw ma­te­ri­als of skill­ful peo­ple. 11 He who does­nʼt val­ue his teach­er and cher­ish his raw ma­te­ri­als is great­ly con­fused, no mat­ter how clev­er he is.

29:1 Those who want to take the world and rule it, 2 I see that they wonʼt suc­ceed. 3 The world is a sa­cred ves­sel, 4 and it canʼt be ruled. 5 Those who rule it ru­in it. 6 Those who hold it lose it.

29:7 Itʼs the na­ture of things that some lead and some fol­low, 8 some blow hot and some blow cold, 9 some are strong and some are weak, 10 some cul­ti­vate and some de­te­ri­o­rate. 11 There­fore the sage avoids extremes, ar­ro­gance, and ex­trav­a­gance.

30:1 Those with the Way who as­sist the rul­er donʼt use the force of arms to con­quer the world; 2 such methods would on­ly back­fire. 3 Wher­ev­er armies camp, brambles and thorns will grow.

30:5 A skill­ful lead­er achieves results then stops, 6 and does­nʼt use the oc­ca­sion to sieze pow­er. 7 He achieves results with­out ar­ro­gance. 8 He achieves results with­out prais­ing his deeds. 9 He achieves results with­out boasting. 10 He achieves results on­ly as a last re­sort.

31:1 The mil­i­tary is an om­i­nous in­stru­ment. 2 Itʼs so de­spised that e­ven those who want things donʼt abide it.

31:5 The mil­i­tary is an om­i­nous in­stru­ment, 6 so on­ly use it as a last re­sort; 7 with calm de­tach­ment is best. 8 Donʼt glo­ri­fy it; 9 to glo­ri­fy it would be to de­light in kill­ing peo­ple. 10 He who delights in kill­ing peo­ple canʼt achieve his am­bi­tions in the world. 16 When many peo­ple have been killed, 17 weep for them with sor­row. 18 When the war has been won, treat it like a fu­ner­al cer­e­mo­ny.

33:1 He who knows others is in­tel­li­gent; 2 he who knows him­self is en­light­ened. 3 He who overcomes others is force­ful; 4 he who overcomes him­self is pow­er­ful. 5 He who knows con­tent­ment is rich.

34:1 The Way floats and drifts; 2 it can go left or right. 4 When the task is ac­com­plished and the work is done, it claims no cred­it.

34:5 All things turn to it 6 and yet it does­nʼt act as their mas­ter, 8 so it can be called a small thing.

34:9 All things turn to it 10 and yet it does­nʼt act as their mas­ter, 11 so it can be called a great thing.

34:12 Thatʼs why the sage is able to ac­com­plish great things: 13 he does­nʼt try to do great things, there­fore he ac­com­plishes great things.

35:3 Com­ing to you, the world suffers no harm, but finds safe­ty and peace.

35:4 Pass­ing travelers will stop for mu­sic and food. 5 But if the Way were de­scribed, 6 it would seem in­sip­id and with­out fla­vor. 7 When you look at it, itʼs not suf­fi­cient to be seen; 8 when you lis­ten to it, itʼs not suf­fi­cient to be heard; 9 yet when you use it, it canʼt be exhausted.

36:1 If you want to shrink some­thing, 2 it must first be ex­pand­ed; 3 if you want to weak­en some­thing, 4 it must first be strength­ened; 5 if you want to leave some­thing, 6 it must first be joined; 7 if you want to take some­thing a­way, 8 it must first be giv­en.

38:1 A man of su­pe­ri­or vir­tue does­nʼt cling to vir­tue, 2 there­fore he has true vir­tue. 5 A man of su­pe­ri­or vir­tue acts with­out force, 6 and with­out an a­gen­da.

38:16 Af­ter los­ing the Way there is vir­tue; 17 af­ter los­ing vir­tue there is be­nev­o­lence; 18 af­ter los­ing be­nev­o­lence there is right­eous­ness; 19 af­ter los­ing right­eous­ness there is pro­pri­e­ty.

38:20 As for pro­pri­e­ty, itʼs a thin ve­neer of loy­al­ty and sin­cer­i­ty, 21 and the be­gin­ning of dis­or­der.

38:24 There­fore, a tru­ly great man dwells in the thick sub­stance, 25 not in the thin ve­neer; 26 in the fruit, not in the flow­er.

43:1 The softest, most pli­a­ble thing in the world 2 runs rough­shod over the hardest, most sol­id thing in the world. 3 That which has no sub­stance enters in­to that which has no openings. 4 Thatʼs how I know the benefits of nonforced ac­tion.

43:5 Teachings that use no words, 6 and the benefits of nonforced ac­tion: 7 few in the world can un­der­stand them.

44:4 Ex­ces­sive at­tach­ment co­mes at great cost, 5 and great ac­cu­mu­la­tion leads to heavy loss. 6 There­fore, know­ing con­tent­ment avoids dis­grace, 7 and know­ing when to stop avoids dan­ger; 8 thus you can en­dure for a long time.

46:1 When the world has the Way, 2 fi­ne hors­es are rel­e­gat­ed to fer­ti­liz­ing the fields. 3 When the world lacks the Way, 4 warhorses are bred just out­side the city walls.

46:5 There is no greater crime than de­sire; 6 no greater dis­as­ter than be­ing dis­con­tent; 7 no greater fault than want­ing more. 8 There­fore, the sat­is­fac­tion that co­mes from be­ing con­tent is last­ing sat­is­fac­tion.

47:1 You donʼt have to go out the door to know the world. 2 You donʼt have to peek out the win­dow to know the Way of Heav­en. 3 The far­ther you go, the less you know.

47:4 There­fore the sage does­nʼt trav­el but knows; 5 does­nʼt look, but discerns; 6 and does­nʼt do, but succeeds.

48:1 He who pursues learn­ing gains some­thing each day. 2 He who hears the Way loses some­thing each day. 3 He loses, and loses again, un­til he acts with­out force. 4 He acts with­out force and yet noth­ing is left un­done.

48:5 If you want to rule the world, con­stant­ly a­void in­ter­fer­ing with it. 6 If you in­ter­fere, youʼre un­fit to rule the world.

49:1 The sage con­stant­ly has no mind of his own. 2 He takes the mind of the peo­ple as his mind.

49:3 Heʼs good to good peo­ple 4 and al­so good to bad peo­ple, 5 thus he gains in good­ness. 6 He trusts trust­wor­thy peo­ple 7 and al­so trusts un­trust­wor­thy peo­ple, 8 thus he gains in trust.

53:1 If I had the least bit of knowl­edge, 2 I would walk on the great Way 3 and my on­ly fear would be straying from it. 4 The great Way is very much lev­el, 5 but peo­ple very much pre­fer moun­tain trails.

53:6 The court is full of splen­dor, 7 but the fields are full of weeds, 8 and the granaries are full of noth­ing; 9 their clothes are em­broi­dered and col­or­ful, 10 their belts have sharp swords, 11 theyʼre stuffed with food, 12 and have mon­ey and pos­ses­sions in ex­cess: 13 this is called rob­bery, 14 and rob­bery is cer­tain­ly not the Way.

56:1 Those who know it, donʼt talk about it; 2 those who talk about it, donʼt know it.

57:1 Gov­ern the state with jus­tice, 2 de­ploy the mil­i­tary with sur­prise, 3 and take the world with­out in­ter­fer­ence. 4 How do I know this? From the fol­low­ing:

57:5 The world has many pro­hi­bi­tions and taboos, 6 and yet the peo­ple are full of pov­er­ty. 7 The peo­ple have many ben­e­fi­cial tools, 8 and yet the state and fam­i­ly are in­creas­ing­ly faint. 9 Peo­ple have many clev­er tricks, 10 and yet strange things in­creas­ing­ly hap­pen. 11 The laws are in­creas­ing­ly pub­li­cized, 12 and yet there are many thieves and robbers.

57:13 There­fore, in the words of the sage: 14 “I act with­out force, and the peo­ple trans­form them­selves. 15 I en­joy qui­et, and the peo­ple cor­rect them­selves. 16 I donʼt intefere, and the peo­ple pros­per them­selves. 17 I have no desires, and the peo­ple sim­pli­fy them­selves.”

58:5 Good for­tune perch­es on mis­for­tune; 6 mis­for­tune lurks be­neath good for­tune. 7 Who knows where it will end?

58:8 Noth­ing is ob­vi­ous. 9 Ob­vi­ous again be­comes sur­pris­ing; 10 good again be­comes mon­strous. 11 The peo­ple have been con­fused for a long time.

59:1 In governing the peo­ple and serv­ing Heav­en, 2 there is noth­ing like fru­gal­i­ty. 3 On­ly with fru­gal­i­ty can you sub­mit ear­ly. 4 Sub­mit­ting ear­ly is called re­peat­ed­ly ac­cu­mu­lat­ing vir­tue. 5 If you re­peat­ed­ly ac­cu­mu­late vir­tue, then there is noth­ing you canʼt over­come.

62:2 The Way is the treas­ure of a good man, 3 and the shel­ter of a bad man.

62:6 E­ven if a man is bad, how can you aban­don him?

62:7 At the emperorʼs cor­o­na­tion, 9 of­fer­ing jade discs brought in by a team of hors­es 10 is not as good as sit­ting still and of­fer­ing this Way.

62:11 Why was this Way so val­u­a­ble to the an­cients? 12 Is­nʼt it said, “Those who seek, with this will ob­tain, 13 and those who have guilt, with this will es­cape”? 14 There­fore itʼs the most val­u­a­ble thing in the world.

63:1 Act with­out forc­ing, 2 serve with­out in­ter­fer­ing, 3 sa­vor the fla­vor­less, 4 con­sid­er the small as great and the few as many, 5 re­spond to re­sent­ment with vir­tue.

63:6 Plan for some­thing dif­fi­cult while itʼs still easy. 7 Deal with some­thing great while itʼs still small. 8 The dif­fi­cult things of the world start off easy. 9 The great things of the world start off small. 10 There­fore, the sage nev­er does great things, 11 and thus he is able to ac­com­plish great things.

63:12 He who makes promises light­ly is sure to have lit­tle trust, 13 and he who treats many things as easy is sure to have many difficul­ties. 14 There­fore, the sage treats things as dif­fi­cult, 15 and thus, in the end, noth­ing is dif­fi­cult.

64:1 Itʼs easy to hold whatʼs at rest. 2 Itʼs easy to plan for what has­nʼt be­gun. 3 Itʼs easy to break what is brit­tle. 4 Itʼs easy to scat­ter what is ti­ny. 5 Deal with it be­fore it happens; 6 man­age it be­fore itʼs cha­ot­ic.

64:7 A tree thatʼs thick e­nough to em­brace rises from a ti­ny shoot. 8 A ter­race thatʼs nine stories tall rises from a heap of earth. 9 A wall thatʼs three hun­dred yards high begins at the ground be­neath your feet.

64:10 Those who rule it ru­in it. 11 Those who hold it lose it. 12 There­fore, the sage rules noth­ing and thus ruins noth­ing. 13 He holds on to noth­ing and thus loses noth­ing.

64:14 Peo­ple u­su­al­ly fail in their endeavors on the verge of suc­cess. 15 There­fore we say, “If youʼre as care­ful at the end as you are at the be­gin­ning, 16 youʼll have no fail­ure.”

64:17 The sage desires not to de­sire, 18 and does­nʼt val­ue goods that are hard to ob­tain; 19 he learns not to study, 20 and returns to what the mul­ti­tude has passed over. 21 He could help all things to be nat­u­ral, 22 but dares not do it.

66:1 The rivers and lakes are able to be the kings of the valleys 2 be­cause of their skill at be­ing low. 4 There­fore, want­ing to be above the peo­ple, the sage must speak to them hum­bly from be­low; 5 want­ing to be be­fore the peo­ple, he must put him­self be­hind them. 6 There­fore, he dwells above them yet the peo­ple donʼt feel that heʼs a bur­den. 7 He dwells be­fore them yet the peo­ple donʼt feel that heʼs an ob­struc­tion. 8 Eve­ry­one in the world delights in pro­mot­ing him and nev­er tires of him.

66:9 Itʼs be­cause he does­nʼt con­tend 10 that no one in the world can con­tend with him.

67:4 I con­stant­ly have three treasures which I hold and treas­ure: 5 the first is com­pas­sion, 6 the second is fru­gal­i­ty, 7 the third is not dar­ing to be pre­em­i­nent in the world. 8 Itʼs be­cause of com­pas­sion that I can be cou­ra­geous; 9 itʼs be­cause of fru­gal­i­ty that I can be gen­er­ous; 10 itʼs be­cause of not dar­ing to be pre­em­i­nent in the world that I can be head of all things.

67:11 Now, aban­don­ing com­pas­sion to be cou­ra­geous, 12 aban­don­ing fru­gal­i­ty to be gen­er­ous, 13 aban­don­ing the rear to be in front: 14 this is courting death.

68:1 A skill­ful war­ri­or does­nʼt show his might. 2 A skill­ful fight­er does­nʼt get an­gry. 3 A skill­ful vic­tor does­nʼt en­gage his en­e­my. 4 A skill­ful em­ploy­er places him­self be­low others.

73:1 Those who are brave in dar­ing will die; 2 those who are brave in cau­tion will live. 3 In these two cases, one is ben­e­fi­cial and the oth­er is harm­ful. 4 Who un­der­stands why Heav­en hates what it does?

73:6 The Way of Heav­en does­nʼt fight yet wins skill­ful­ly, 7 does­nʼt speak yet responds skill­ful­ly, 8 is­nʼt summoned yet co­mes on its own, 9 is at ease yet plans skill­ful­ly.

73:10 The net of Heav­en is vast; it has a coarse mesh yet noth­ing slips through.

75:1 The peo­ple starve be­cause those above con­sume too much in taxes. 2 The peo­ple re­bel be­cause those above in­ter­fere. 3 The peo­ple scoff at death be­cause those above de­mand so much from life.

76:1 While liv­ing, a man is sup­ple and soft, 2 but once dead, he is hard and rig­id. 3 While liv­ing, all things, grasses, and trees are sup­ple and crisp, 4 but once dead, they are withered and dry.

76:5 There­fore it is said: those who are hard and rig­id are the followers of death; 6 those who are sup­ple and soft are the followers of life. 7 There­fore, a rig­id ar­my wonʼt win, 8 and a rig­id tree will snap.

77:1 The Way of Heav­en is like an arch­er draw­ing his bow. 2 If itʼs too high, he presses down; if itʼs too low, he lifts up; 3 if there is ex­cess, he reduces it; 4 if there is not e­nough, he adds to it. 5 The Way of Heav­en is al­so to re­duce what has ex­cess and add to what does­nʼt have e­nough.

77:6 The Way of man is dif­fer­ent: 7 he reduces what does­nʼt have e­nough and offers it to that which has ex­cess.

77:8 Who can have ex­cess and of­fer it to Heav­en? 9 On­ly he who has the Way.

77:10 There­fore, the sage takes actions with­out claiming the results; 11 he succeeds with­out dwell­ing on it; 12 sim­i­lar­ly, he does­nʼt de­sire to make a dis­play of his wor­thi­ness.

79:1 When har­mo­ny is made af­ter great re­sent­ment, 2 there is al­ways some re­sent­ment remaining. 3 How can this be con­sid­ered good? 4 There­fore, the sage keeps his part of the con­tract, but makes no demands on the oth­er par­ty.

79:7 The Way of Heav­en has no fa­vor­ites, 8 itʼs con­stant­ly on the side of the good man.

80:1 Let there be a small state with few peo­ple. 2 Let them have pow­er­ful tools and not use them. 3 Let the peo­ple take death se­ri­ous­ly and not mi­grate far a­way. 4 There are boats and vehicles but no rea­son to ride them. 5 There are ar­mor and weapons but no rea­son to pa­rade them. 6 Let the peo­ple keep their records with knot­ted string again. 7 Their food is sweet, 8 their clothes are beau­ti­ful, 9 their homes are se­cure, 10 and their cus­toms are en­joy­a­ble.

80:11 Neigh­bor­ing states can see each oth­er, 12 they can hear each otherʼs dogs and roosters, 13 yet the peo­ple grow old and die 14 with­out any deal­ings be­tween each oth­er.

81:1 Cred­i­ble words arenʼt el­o­quent; 2 el­o­quent words arenʼt cred­i­ble. 3 The skill­ful arenʼt polymaths; 4 those who are polymaths arenʼt skill­ful. 5 Those who know arenʼt learn­ed; 6 the learn­ed donʼt know.

81:7 The sage ac­cu­mu­lates noth­ing. 8 The more he does for others, the greater his pos­ses­sions. 9 The more he gives to others, the greater his abun­dance.

81:10 There­fore, the Way of Heav­en is to ben­e­fit with­out harming. 11 The Way of the sage is to act with­out contending.

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