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This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.
Chapter Six
Lao Zi was a mysterious man.
There is a legendary story about his birth.
As recorded in a history book,
it said that Lao Zi's mother
ate a plum and got pregnant.
And it's said that he wasn't delivered after 9 months of pregnancy,
but his mother delivered him after 81 years.
And his mother delivered him by cutting off her left armpit.
Therefore, when he was born,
he was look like an old man.
The virtue of contentment
Which is more precious, honour of life?
Which is more valuable, possessions or life?
Which is worse - to have reputation and wealth or loss of life?
So to crave too much for reputation,
you would have to pay a high price.
To hoard too much wealth would be to incur serious loss.
To be contented with what you have, you would not suffer humiliation.
To be able to stop at the right time, no danger would befall you.
It is better to cherish our bodies
and not pursue fame and gains excessively.
It is not worthwhile to gain honour
and wealth at the expense of your life.
Discontentment leads to social disorder
The cause of war is mostly because of
the invaders' ambitions.
Discontent results in invasion and damages of lives.
It brings unlimited disasters.
Lao Zi pointed out the disaster brought by the ambitious ruler.
He advised the rulers should not against Tao.
The tinkerer who applies force will spoil things.
He said, if the world keeps on having wars,
it's against Tao, famines inevitably follow in the wake of great wars.
Even the female horses have to give birth in war field.
It reflected that the continuous wars
at his time had a rebounding effect.
When Tao prevails in the world,
People are contented and all countries co-exist in peace.
When there is no war, horses reared for the battlefield
Are instead used for ploughing the field.
When Tao does not prevail in the world,
people tend to fight for reputation and gains.
And there is constant warfare between one country and another.
All horses have to be deployed to fight in the battlefield.
Even the mares have to give birth in the battlefield.
My state's territory is too small;
that in the neighbouring state is vast.
It's big enough! Don't be greedy!
No! No! it's too small!
Invade the neighbouring country and seize its territory.
No disaster in the world is greater than discontentment.
No sin in the world is greater than greed.
Therefore only contentment can give you permanent satisfaction.
If everyone knows what contentment is,
the world would be a peaceful place.
Knowing the universe
The theory of everything
is not found in a faraway place;
it is right in our mind.
If you can look within and have self-awareness,
end desires and give up self-interest,
you will understand the ways of the world
even if you have not stepped out of your house.
You can understand the law of nature
even if you have not looked out of the window.
The farther you go,
the less you know.
So a sage does not go far away,
yet he is able to understand the things of the world.
Without interference,
things can grow spontaneously.
The depths of our mind are as translucent as a mirror.
Once must end self-interest and desire,
remove mental obstacles so as to know the world.
The cultivation of Tao
In the pursuit of knowledge, day by day, something is acquired.
My knowledge has improved tremendously.
In the pursuit of Tao,
there is daily emptying of the mind's consciousness until there is nothingness.
My desires have greatly diminished.
If you are able to curb misbehaviour,
there's nothing that you cannot do.
To rule a country, one must have solitude without disturbance.
If the administration is full of rules and regulations,
then it is not qualified to rule the country.
Learning can only improve your knowledge and increase your desire,
thereby giving rise to hypocrisies and worries.
The cultivation of Tao, in diminishing knowledge and desire,
makes your mind pure and clear,
And free from worries.
The impartiality of the sage
The sage has no prejudices.
He accepts without mental barriers the views of all the populace.
I treat good people with goodness;
I also treat bad people with goodness.
In this way, people can be taught to return to goodness.
I treat trustworthy people with kindness;
I also treat untrustworthy people with kindness.
In this way, everybody will be trustworthy.
When the sage is on the throne, he ends his self-interest,
making his subjects simple and thrifty.
They listen to the sage's speeches with full attention.
The sage treats them lovingly as if they are infants.
An ideal monarch ends his self-interest.
He does not set the standard of good and evil with his subjective values.
He treats all the people with kindness and sincerity.
The preservation of life
About one-third of the people can live a long life.
About one-third of the people die young.
Those who can live a long life
but die prematurely through their own faults also make up about one-third.
Why is this so?
Because they are treated too well and they over-indulge in enjoyment.
It is said that a person who knows how to safeguard his life
would never be attacked by rhinoceroses and tigers
while walking in the deep jungle.
In a war,
he would not be wounded by weapons.
A rhinoceros may be fierce,
but it is unable to use its horns on him.
A tiger may be fierce and strong,
but it cannot put its claws on him.
They may have the sharpest weapons,
but the soldiers are not able to use these weapons to harm him.
What are the reasons?!
Because a person who knows how to live a proper life
would never go to a place where he is at risk of being killed.
In our daily life,
there are uncountable agents of destruction,
such as *** temptation, the lure of money,
squandering of wealth, debauchery, and other evil deeds.
If we are not cautious even for a moment, disaster will befall us.
If we can maintain a calm and steady mind,
behave properly and carefully and do not compete to be the winner,
no harm will befall us.
Beyond honour and disgrace
The wise man is aware that the nature of Tao is insubstantial and mysterious,
so he acts diligently without talking too much.
A person who prattles all the time does not have the faintest idea of what Tao is.
Do not show one's ability and problems can be avoided
Do not show off one's brilliance
and live in harmony with the ordinary people.
This is the state of mystic unity which is the highest standard of Tao.
Simplify your mind, purify the desire,
neither be too close to others nor be too distant from them.
In this way,
honour or shame will neither be able to move nor to harm you.
To cultivate oneself to reach such a state
is to be the greatest among men.
Sagehood is the ability to temper your sharpness,
simplify your problems, mask your brightness,
behave normally like the masses yet reach the state of mystic unity
--- the highest state of ma
There is a legend about the name of Lao Zi.
In an ancient book, Master Gao wrote that...
Lao Zi's mother delivered him under a plum tree.
When he was just born, he could talk.
He pointed at the tree and asked his mother to name him Li.
Therefore, he was named Li Er.
There was another saying,
it's said that he was born to be an old man.
So he was named Lao Zi, meaning Old Man.
Chapter Seven
The harsher the laws, the rifer is the banditry.
But one thing is for sure, Lao Zi was appreciated by many emperors.
In the early West Han Dynasty,
Lao Zi's thought influenced the rulers so much.
They executed the theory of Lao Zi.
So the society recovered soon after years of wars.
It proved the merits of Lao Zi's thoughts.
The art of government
To rule a country with pure and quiet methods.
To apply stratagems in warfare.
To administer the world with
the policy of non-interference towards the populace.
How do I know the above-mentioned facts?
The following incidents will provide the answers.
The more you forbid, the poorer the populace will become.
It is prohabited to protest,
It is prohabited to discuss.
The greater the power of the government,
the more trumoil there will be in the nation.
The more the ruler's strategies,
the more often evil deeds will occur.
Send troops to attack the neigh-bouring country!
Yes, Your Highness!
The harsher the laws, the rifer is the banditry.
So the sage says,
“I abide by non-action and the people do things on their own initiative;
I esteem quietude and the people follow the proper path spontaneously;
I don't interfere and the people prosper by themselves;
I have no desires and the people naturally return to the good and simple// life."