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THE TAO TE CHING,
OR
THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
by Lao Tzu
translated by James Legge
(Edited by Zee Sing*)
Selection 15
When a reconciliation is effected between two parties after a
great animosity, there is sure to be a grudge remaining in the mind
of the one who was wrong. And how can this be beneficial to the
other?
Therefore to guard against this, the sage keeps the left-hand
portion of the record of the engagement, and does not insist on
the
speedy fulfilment of it by the other party. So, he who has the
attributes of the Tao regards only the conditions of the
engagement, while he who has not those attributes regards only the
conditions favourable to himself.
In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always
on the side of the good man.
In a little state with a small population, I would so order it,
that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or
a
hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make
the
people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove
elsewhere to avoid it.
Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion
to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they
should have no occasion to don or use them.
I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords instead
of the written characters.
They should think their coarse food sweet; their plain clothes
beautiful; their poor dwellings places of rest; and their common
simple ways sources of enjoyment.
There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices
of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us,
but I
would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any
intercourse with it.
Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those
who are skilled in the Tao do not dispute about it; the
disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know the Tao are not
extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.
The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more that he
expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more
that
he gives to others, the more does he have himself.
With all the sharpness of the Way of Heaven, it injures not; with
all the doing in the way of the sage he does not strive.
Selection 1, 2,
3, 4,
5, 6,
7, 8,
9, 10,
11, 12,
13, 14,
15
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*Because the Legge translation is
rather old, it has been edited slightly to update the language to
a more contemporary standard.
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