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'(25)

If you do good among your descendants, in after generations, there shall be one who will attain to the Imperial dignity. (B.M.)

(26)

Confucius said, "The flowing progress of virtue is more rapid than the transmission of imperial orders by stages and couriers." (B.M.)

SECTION II

SELECTIONS FROM LAO TZU'S CANON OF REASON AND VIRTUE

(1)

Not exalting worth keeps people from rivalry. Not prizing what is difficult to obtain keeps people from committing theft. Not contemplating what kindles desire keeps the heart unconfused. Therefore the holy man when he governs empties the people's hearts but fills their souls. He weakens their ambitions but strengthens their backbones. Always he keeps the people unsophisticated and without desire. He causes that the crafty do not dare to act. When he acts with non-assertion there is nothing ungoverned.

(2)

Superior goodness resembleth water. Water in goodness benefiteth the ten thousand things, yet it quarreleth not. Because it dwells in places which the multitude of men shun, therefore it is near unto the eternal Reason.

For a dwelling goodness chooses the level. For a heart goodness chooses commotion. When giving, goodness chooses benevolence. In words, goodness chooses faith. In government goodness chooses order. In business goodness chooses ability. In its motion goodness chooses timeliness. It quarreleth not. Therefore, it is not rebuked.

(3)

He who sustains and disciplines his soul and embraces unity cannot be deranged. Through attention to his vitality and inducing tenderness he can become like a little child. By purify

ing, by cleansing and profound intuition he can be free from faults.

In loving the people and administering the country he can practise non-assertion. Opening and closing the gates of heaven he can be like a mother-bird: bright, and white, and penetrating the four quarters, he can be unsophisticated. He quickens them and feeds them. He quickens but owns not. He acts but claims not. He excels but rules not. This is called profound virtue.

(4)

Where great sages are (in power), the subjects do not notice their existence. Where there are lesser sages, the people are attached to them; they praise them. Where still lesser ones are, the people fear them; and where still lesser ones are, the people despise them. For it is said:

"If your faith be insufficient, verily, you will receive no faith."

How reluctantly sages consider their words! Merit they accomplish; deeds they perform; and the hundred families think: "We are independent; we are free."

(5)

When the great Reason is obliterated, we have benevolence and justice. Prudence and circumspection appear, and we have much hypocrisy. When family relations no longer harmonise, we have filial piety and paternal love. When the country and the clans decay through disorder, we have loyalty and allegiance.

(6)

Abandon your saintliness; put away your prudence; and the people will gain a hundredfold!

Abandon your benevolence; put away your justice; and the people will return to filial devotion and paternal love!

Abandon your scheming; put away your gains; and thieves and robbers will no longer exist.

These are the three things for which we deem culture insufficient. Therefore it is said:

"Hold fast to that which will endure,

Show thyself simple, preserve thee pure,
Thy own keep small, thy desires poor."

(7)

He who with Reason assists the master of mankind will not with arms conquer the empire. His methods (are such as) invite requital.

Where armies are quartered briars and thorns grow. Great wars unfailingly are followed by famines. A good man acts resolutely and then stops. He ventures not to take by force. He is resolute but not boastful; resolute but not haughty; resolute but not arrogant; resolute because he cannot avoid it; resolute but not violent.

Things thrive and then grow old. This is called un-Reason. Un-Reason soon ceases.

(8)

Reason always practises non-assertion, and there is nothing that remains undone.

If princes and kings could keep Reason, the ten thousand things would of themselves be reformed. While being reformed they would yet be anxious to stir; but I would restrain them by the simplicity of the Ineffable.

"The simplicity of the unexpressed
Will purify the heart of lust.

Where there's no lust there will be rest,
And all the world will thus be blest."

Superior virtue is un-virtue. Therefore it has virtue. Inferior virtue never loses sight of virtue. Therefore it has no virtue. Superior virtue is non-assertion and without pretension. Inferior virtue asserts and makes pretensions.

Superior benevolence acts but makes no pretensions.

Superior justice acts and makes pretensions. The superior propriety acts and when no one responds to it, it stretches its arms and enforces its rules. Thus one loses Reason and then virtue appears. One loses benevolence and then justice appears. One loses justice and then propriety appears. The rules of propriety are the semblance of loyalty and faith, and the beginning of disorder.

(9)

With rectitude one governs the state; with craftiness one leads the army; with non-diplomacy one takes the empire. How do I know that it is so? Through Reason.

The more restrictions and prohibitions are in the empire, the poorer grow the people. The more weapons the people have, the more troubled is the state. The more there is cunning and skill, the more startling events will happen. The more mandates and laws are enacted, the more there will be thieves and robbers.

Therefore the holy man says: I practise non-assertion, and the people of themselves reform. I love quietude, and the people of themselves become righteous. I use no diplomacy, and the people of themselves become rich. I have no desire, and the people of themselves remain simple.

(10)

In governing the people and in attending to heaven there is nothing like moderation. As to moderation, it is said that it must be an early habit. If it is an early habit, it will be richly accumulated virtue. If one has richly accumulated virtue, then there is nothing that cannot be overcome. If there is nothing that cannot be overcome, then no one knows his limits. If no one knows his limits, one can possess the country. If one possesses the mother of the country (viz., moderation), one can thereby last long. This is called having deep roots and a firm stem. To long life and lasting comprehension this is the Way.

Govern a great country as you would fry small fish: (neither gut nor scale them).

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