The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics-3
3. Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under
heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao!
4. Therefore the (ruling) sage acts without claiming the results as his;
he achieves his merit and does not rest (arrogantly) in it:—he does
not wish to display his superiority.
78. 1. There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and
yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that
can take precedence of it;—for there is nothing (so effectual) for
which it can be changed.
2. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the
weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.
3.
Therefore a sage has said,
'He who accepts his state's reproach,
Is hailed therefore its altars' lord;
To him who bears men's direful woes
They all the name of King accord.'
4. Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.
79. 1. 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)?
2. 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.
3. In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on
the side of the good man.
80. 1. 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).
2. 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.
3. I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead of
the written characters).
4. 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.
5. 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.
81. 1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.