Publication Note
These records preserve the current line pairings as provisional witnesses. They are designed to be refined by later FOL work where English lines split, group, expand, or condense the Chinese source.
De Jing 1 / Received Chapter 38
1.1Highest virtue does not make a show of virtue; therefore it has virtue.
1.2Lower virtue never lets go of virtue; therefore it has no virtue.
1.3Highest virtue acts without contrivance and without motive.
1.4Lower virtue acts, and has a motive for acting.
1.5Highest benevolence acts, yet without motive.
1.6Highest righteousness acts, and has a motive for acting.
1.7Highest ritual acts, and when no one responds, it bares its arms and pulls them along.
1.8Thus, when the Way is lost, there is virtue; when virtue is lost, there is benevolence; when benevolence is lost, there is righteousness; when righteousness is lost, there is ritual.
1.9Ritual is the thinning of loyalty and trust, and the beginning of disorder.
1.10Foreknowledge is the flower of the Way, and the beginning of folly.
1.11Therefore the great person dwells in the thick, not in the thin.
1.12Dwells in the real, not in the flower.
1.13Therefore he leaves that and takes this.
De Jing 2 / Received Chapter 39
2.1Those of old who attained the One:
2.2Heaven attained the One and became clear.
2.3Earth attained the One and became still.
2.4Spirit attained the One and became numinous.
2.5The valley attained the One and became full.
2.6The ten thousand things attained the One and were born.
2.7Lords and kings attained the One and became upright under heaven.
2.8Carried to the limit: if heaven were not clear, it would fear splitting.
2.9If earth were not still, it would fear erupting.
2.10If spirit were not numinous, it would fear exhaustion.
2.11If the valley were not full, it would fear depletion.
2.12If the ten thousand things were not born, they would fear extinction.
2.13If lords and kings were not noble and high, they would fear collapse.
2.14Therefore the noble takes the lowly as its root; the high takes the low as its foundation.
2.15For this reason lords and kings call themselves orphaned, solitary, and unworthy.
2.16Is this not taking the lowly as the root?
2.17Is it not?
2.18Thus, seeking many praises brings no praise.
2.19Do not wish to glitter like jade; be rough and solid like stone.
De Jing 3 / Received Chapter 40
De Jing 4 / Received Chapter 41
4.1When the highest kind of scholar hears the Way, he practices it diligently.
4.2When the middle kind of scholar hears the Way, it seems present and seems absent.
4.3When the lowest kind of scholar hears the Way, he laughs loudly at it.
4.4If it were not laughed at, it would not be enough to be the Way.
4.5Thus established sayings have it:
4.6The bright Way seems dim.
4.7Advancing in the Way seems like retreat.
4.8The level Way seems uneven.
4.9Highest virtue seems like a valley.
4.10Great whiteness seems stained.
4.11Broad virtue seems insufficient.
4.12Established virtue seems slack.
4.13Plain truth seems changeable.
4.14The great square has no corners.
4.15The great vessel is completed late.
4.16The great sound is rarely heard.
4.17The great image has no form.
4.18The Way is hidden and nameless.
4.19Only the Way is good at lending and completing.
De Jing 5 / Received Chapter 42
5.1The Way gives birth to one.
5.2One gives birth to two.
5.3Two gives birth to three.
5.4Three gives birth to the ten thousand things.
5.5The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang; through blending breath they make harmony.
5.6What people dislike are “orphaned,” “solitary,” and “unworthy,” yet kings and lords use these as their titles.
5.7Thus things may be diminished and yet increased, or increased and yet diminished.
5.8What others teach, I also teach:
5.9The violent and overbearing do not die their natural death.
5.10I will take this as the father of my teaching.
De Jing 6 / Received Chapter 43
De Jing 7 / Received Chapter 44
7.1Name or body: which is nearer?
7.2Body or possessions: which is more?
7.3Gain or loss: which is the greater illness?
7.4Therefore excessive love must bring great cost.
7.5Much storing up must bring heavy loss.
7.6Know contentment and you will not be disgraced; know when to stop and you will not be endangered.
7.7Thus you can last long.
De Jing 8 / Received Chapter 45
8.1Great completion seems incomplete, yet its use is not worn out.
8.2Great fullness seems empty, yet its use is inexhaustible.
8.3Great straightness seems bent.
8.4Great skill seems clumsy.
8.5Great eloquence seems hesitant.
8.6Restlessness overcomes cold; stillness overcomes heat.
8.7Clear stillness is the right order under heaven.
De Jing 9 / Received Chapter 46
9.1When the world has the Way, racing horses are retired to fertilize the fields.
9.2When the world lacks the Way, war-horses are bred in the suburbs.
9.3No disaster is greater than not knowing contentment.
9.4No fault is greater than desire for gain.
9.5Therefore the contentment of knowing contentment is lasting contentment.
De Jing 10 / Received Chapter 47
De Jing 11 / Received Chapter 48
11.1In pursuing learning, one increases daily.
11.2In pursuing the Way, one decreases daily.
11.3Decrease and decrease again, until one reaches nonaction.
11.4Through nonaction, nothing is left undone.
11.5To take the world, always use noninterference.
11.6When one has business and schemes, one is not enough to take the world.
De Jing 12 / Received Chapter 49
12.1The sage has no constant mind; he takes the minds of the people as his mind.
12.2To the good, I am good.
12.3To the not-good, I am also good.
12.4This is the goodness of virtue.
12.5To the trustworthy, I am trustworthy.
12.6To the untrustworthy, I am also trustworthy.
12.7This is the trust of virtue.
12.8The sage in the world gathers all into one heart; the people all fix their eyes and ears on him, and the sage treats them all as children.
De Jing 13 / Received Chapter 50
13.1Going out is life; entering is death.
13.2Followers of life are three in ten.
13.3Followers of death are three in ten.
13.4People who live but move toward the place of death are also three in ten.
13.5Why is this?
13.6Because they thicken life too much.
13.7I have heard that one who is good at preserving life travels on land and does not meet rhinoceros or tiger, enters an army and is not struck by weapons.
13.8The rhinoceros has nowhere to thrust its horn; the tiger has nowhere to place its claws; the weapon has nowhere to admit its blade.
13.9Why is this?
13.10Because he has no place of death.
De Jing 14 / Received Chapter 51
14.1The Way gives them birth; virtue nourishes them.
14.2Matter gives them form; circumstance completes them.
14.3Therefore the ten thousand things all honor the Way and value virtue.
14.4The honor of the Way and the value of virtue are not commanded; they are always naturally so.
14.5Thus the Way gives them birth and virtue nourishes them.
14.6It grows them, raises them, settles them, matures them, feeds them, and shelters them.
14.7It gives birth but does not possess; acts but does not rely on it; leads but does not rule.
14.8This is called mysterious virtue.
De Jing 15 / Received Chapter 52
15.1The world has a beginning; it is the mother of the world.
15.2Having found the mother, one knows the children.
15.3Having known the children, return to guard the mother, and to the end of the body there is no danger.
15.4Block the openings, close the doors, and to the end of life there is no toil.
15.5Open the openings and multiply affairs, and to the end of life there is no rescue.
15.6Seeing the small is called clarity; guarding softness is called strength.
15.7Use its light, return again to its clarity, and leave no calamity for the body; this is practicing constancy.
De Jing 16 / Received Chapter 53
16.1If I had even the smallest knowledge, I would walk on the great Way and fear only straying.
16.2The great Way is very level, yet the people love bypaths.
16.3The court is swept clean, while the fields are overgrown and the granaries empty.
16.4They wear patterned silks, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, and have wealth in excess.
16.5This is called robbery and boasting.
16.6It is not the Way.
De Jing 17 / Received Chapter 54
17.1What is well planted is not uprooted.
17.2What is well embraced does not slip away.
17.3Descendants will offer sacrifices without interruption.
17.4Cultivate it in the body, and its virtue is true.
17.5Cultivate it in the family, and its virtue is abundant.
17.6Cultivate it in the village, and its virtue grows.
17.7Cultivate it in the state, and its virtue is rich.
17.8Cultivate it under heaven, and its virtue is universal.
17.9Therefore observe body by body, family by family, village by village, state by state, and the world by the world.
17.10How do I know the world is so? By this.
De Jing 18 / Received Chapter 55
18.1One who contains virtue in thickness is like a newborn child.
18.2Wasps, scorpions, snakes, and vipers do not sting him; fierce beasts do not seize him; birds of prey do not strike him.
18.3His bones are weak and his sinews soft, yet his grip is firm.
18.4He does not yet know the joining of male and female, yet his potency is whole; this is the utmost of essence.
18.5He cries all day and does not become hoarse; this is the utmost of harmony.
18.6Knowing harmony is called constancy; knowing constancy is called clarity.
18.7Increasing life is called auspicious excess; the heart forcing the breath is called strength.
18.8When things are strong, they grow old; this is called contrary to the Way, and what is contrary to the Way ends early.
De Jing 19 / Received Chapter 56
19.1Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.
19.2Block the openings, close the doors, blunt the sharpness, untangle the knots.
19.3Soften the light, become one with the dust.
19.4This is called mysterious sameness.
19.5Therefore it cannot be obtained by closeness or distance, by benefit or harm, by honor or lowliness.
19.6Therefore it is honored under heaven.
De Jing 20 / Received Chapter 57
20.1Govern the state with uprightness.
20.2Use surprise in warfare.
20.3Take the world through noninterference.
20.4How do I know this is so? By this:
20.5The more prohibitions under heaven, the poorer the people become.
20.6The more sharp tools the people have, the more confused the state becomes.
20.7The more clever skills people have, the more strange things arise.
20.8The more laws and commands are displayed, the more thieves and bandits there are.
20.9Therefore the sage says: I practice nonaction, and the people transform themselves.
20.10I love stillness, and the people correct themselves.
20.11I have no affairs, and the people enrich themselves.
20.12I have no desires, and the people become simple of themselves.
De Jing 21 / Received Chapter 58
21.1When government is dull and restrained, the people are simple and honest.
21.2When government is sharp and searching, the people are deficient and divided.
21.3Misfortune is where fortune leans; fortune is where misfortune hides.
21.4Who knows their limit?
21.5There is no fixed correctness.
21.6Correctness returns to become strangeness; goodness returns to become the uncanny.
21.7The confusion of people has indeed lasted a long time.
21.8Therefore the sage is square but does not cut, sharp but does not wound, straight but does not indulge, bright but does not dazzle.
De Jing 22 / Received Chapter 59
22.1In governing people and serving heaven, nothing is like frugality.
22.2Only frugality is called early submission.
22.3Early submission is called heavy accumulation of virtue.
22.4With heavy accumulation of virtue, nothing cannot be overcome.
22.5When nothing cannot be overcome, no one knows the limit.
22.6When no one knows the limit, one can possess the state.
22.7Possessing the mother of the state, one can endure long.
22.8This is called deep roots and a firm base, the Way of long life and lasting vision.
De Jing 23 / Received Chapter 60
23.1Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish.
23.2When one approaches the world with the Way, its spirits are not uncanny.
23.3It is not that its spirits are not uncanny; their uncanniness does not harm people.
23.4It is not only that their spirits do not harm people; the sage also does not harm people.
23.5When the two do not harm each other, virtue returns and gathers there.
De Jing 24 / Received Chapter 61
24.1A great state is the lower stream.
24.2It is the meeting place of the world, the female of the world.
24.3The female always overcomes the male by stillness; through stillness she takes the lower place.
24.4Therefore, if a great state lowers itself before a small state, it takes the small state.
24.5If a small state lowers itself before a great state, it is taken by the great state.
24.6Thus some lower themselves in order to take, and some lower themselves and are taken.
24.7The great state wants no more than to gather and nourish people; the small state wants no more than to enter and serve people.
24.8When both obtain what they want, the greater should be below.
De Jing 25 / Received Chapter 62
25.1The Way is the hidden storehouse of the ten thousand things.
25.2It is the treasure of good people and the protection of people who are not good.
25.3Beautiful words can buy honor; honored conduct can add to a person.
25.4As for people who are not good, why abandon them?
25.5Therefore, when the Son of Heaven is enthroned and the three ministers are appointed, though one may have jade disks presented before four-horse teams, it is better to sit and advance this Way.
25.6Why did the ancients value this Way?
25.7Did they not say: those who seek may obtain, and those with guilt may be spared?
25.8Therefore it is honored under heaven.
De Jing 26 / Received Chapter 63
26.1Act through nonaction.
26.2Manage affairs through noninterference.
26.3Taste what has no taste.
26.4Make the small great and the few many.
26.5Repay resentment with virtue.
26.6Plan the difficult while it is easy; do the great while it is small.
26.7The difficult affairs under heaven must begin in what is easy; the great affairs under heaven must begin in what is small.
26.8Therefore the sage never acts as great, and so can accomplish greatness.
26.9Light promises must have little trust; much ease must have much difficulty.
26.10Therefore the sage treats things as difficult, and so in the end has no difficulty.
De Jing 27 / Received Chapter 64
27.1What is at rest is easy to hold.
27.2What has not yet shown signs is easy to plan for.
27.3What is brittle is easy to dissolve.
27.4What is minute is easy to scatter.
27.5Act before it exists; govern before there is disorder.
27.6A tree that fills the arms grows from a tiny sprout.
27.7A nine-story terrace rises from heaps of earth.
27.8A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath the feet.
27.9Those who contrive it ruin it; those who grasp it lose it.
27.10Therefore the sage does not contrive, and so has no ruin; does not grasp, and so has no loss.
27.11People, in pursuing affairs, often ruin them when they are almost complete.
27.12Be careful at the end as at the beginning, and there will be no ruined affairs.
27.13Therefore the sage desires not to desire and does not value goods hard to obtain; learns not to learn and returns to what the masses have passed by, assisting the naturalness of the ten thousand things without daring to interfere.
De Jing 28 / Received Chapter 65
28.1Those of old who were good at practicing the Way did not use it to enlighten the people, but to keep them simple.
28.2The people are hard to govern because they have much cleverness.
28.3Therefore to govern a state with cleverness is the thief of the state.
28.4Not to govern a state with cleverness is the blessing of the state.
28.5Knowing these two is also a model.
28.6Always knowing the model is called mysterious virtue.
28.7Mysterious virtue is deep, far-reaching, and returns with things; only then does it arrive at great accord.
De Jing 29 / Received Chapter 66
29.1Rivers and seas can be kings of the hundred valleys because they are good at staying below them; therefore they can be kings of the hundred valleys.
29.2Thus, if the sage wants to be above the people, he must speak as though below them.
29.3If he wants to be before the people, he must place himself behind them.
29.4Therefore the sage dwells above, yet the people do not feel burdened; dwells before, yet the people do not feel harmed.
29.5Therefore all under heaven gladly support him and do not tire of him.
29.6Because he does not contend, no one under heaven can contend with him.
De Jing 30 / Received Chapter 67
30.1Everyone under heaven says my Way is great, yet seems unlike anything.
30.2Precisely because it is great, it seems unlike anything.
30.3If it resembled something, it would long ago have become small.
30.4I have three treasures, which I hold and protect.
30.5The first is compassion.
30.6The second is frugality.
30.7The third is not daring to be first under heaven.
30.8Because of compassion, one can be brave.
30.9Because of frugality, one can be broad.
30.10Because of not daring to be first under heaven, one can become chief of all vessels.
30.11Now, to abandon compassion and yet be brave, to abandon frugality and yet be broad, to abandon being behind and yet put oneself first: this is death.
30.12With compassion in battle, one wins.
30.13With compassion in defense, one is firm.
30.14When heaven is about to save someone, it protects him with compassion.
De Jing 31 / Received Chapter 68
31.1One good at being a warrior is not martial.
31.2One good at fighting is not angry.
31.3One good at defeating an enemy does not engage him.
31.4One good at using people places himself below them.
31.5This is called the virtue of not contending; this is called the strength of using people; this is called matching heaven, the ancient utmost.
De Jing 32 / Received Chapter 69
32.1In using troops there is a saying:
32.2I do not dare act as host, but act as guest.
32.3I do not dare advance an inch, but retreat a foot.
32.4This is called marching without marching, baring arms without arms, throwing down without an enemy, holding weapons without weapons.
32.5No disaster is greater than taking the enemy lightly.
32.6Taking the enemy lightly nearly loses my treasure.
32.7Therefore, when opposing armies meet, the one who grieves wins.
De Jing 33 / Received Chapter 70
33.1My words are very easy to know and very easy to practice.
33.2Yet no one under heaven can know them, and no one can practice them.
33.3Words have an ancestor; affairs have a ruler.
33.4It is precisely because people do not know this that they do not know me.
33.5Those who know me are few; those who follow me are honored.
33.6Therefore the sage wears coarse cloth and holds jade within.
De Jing 34 / Received Chapter 71
De Jing 35 / Received Chapter 72
35.1When the people do not fear awe, great awe arrives.
35.2Do not crowd their dwelling places.
35.3Do not weary them in their lives.
35.4Only because you do not weary them are they not weary of you.
35.5Therefore the sage knows himself but does not display himself.
35.6He loves himself but does not exalt himself.
35.7Therefore he leaves that and takes this.
De Jing 36 / Received Chapter 73
36.1Bravery in daring leads to killing.
36.2Bravery in not daring leads to life.
36.3Of these two, one may benefit and one may harm.
36.4What heaven hates, who knows the reason?
36.5Therefore even the sage finds it difficult.
36.6The Way of heaven does not contend and yet is good at winning; does not speak and yet is good at answering; is not summoned and yet comes of itself; is spacious and yet good at planning.
36.7Heaven's net is vast and wide; sparse, yet it loses nothing.
De Jing 37 / Received Chapter 74
37.1If the people do not fear death, how can death be used to frighten them?
37.2If the people were always made to fear death, and those who acted strangely could be seized and killed, who would dare?
37.3There is always an executioner who kills.
37.4To kill in place of the executioner is like chopping in place of the master carpenter.
37.5Those who chop in place of the master carpenter rarely avoid injuring their own hands.
De Jing 38 / Received Chapter 75
38.1The people are hungry because those above eat too much in taxes; therefore they are hungry.
38.2The people are hard to govern because those above are too active; therefore they are hard to govern.
38.3The people take death lightly because they seek life too thickly; therefore they take death lightly.
38.4Only those who do not act for the sake of life are wiser than those who value life.
De Jing 39 / Received Chapter 76
39.1When people are alive, they are soft and weak; when they die, they are stiff and strong.
39.2When grasses and trees are alive, they are soft and tender; when they die, they are dry and withered.
39.3Therefore the stiff and strong are followers of death; the soft and weak are followers of life.
39.4Thus a strong army does not win; a strong tree is cut down.
39.5The strong and great occupy the lower place; the soft and weak occupy the higher place.
De Jing 40 / Received Chapter 77
40.1The Way of heaven is like drawing a bow.
40.2What is high is pressed down; what is low is raised up.
40.3What has excess is diminished; what is insufficient is supplemented.
40.4The Way of heaven diminishes excess and supplements insufficiency.
40.5The way of people is not so: it diminishes insufficiency to offer to excess.
40.6Who can have excess and offer it to the world? Only one who has the Way.
40.7Therefore the sage acts without relying on it, completes the work without dwelling on it, and does not wish to display worthiness.
De Jing 41 / Received Chapter 78
41.1Nothing under heaven is softer and weaker than water.
41.2Yet for attacking the hard and strong, nothing can surpass it; nothing can replace it.
41.3The weak overcomes the strong; the soft overcomes the hard.
41.4No one under heaven fails to know this, yet no one can practice it.
41.5Therefore the sage says: One who receives the state's filth is called lord of the soil and grain; one who receives the state's misfortune is called king under heaven.
41.6Straight words seem reversed.
De Jing 42 / Received Chapter 79
42.1When a great resentment is reconciled, some resentment must remain.
42.2How can this be considered good?
42.3Therefore the sage holds the left-hand tally and does not demand payment from others.
42.4One with virtue attends to the tally; one without virtue attends to collection.
42.5The Way of heaven has no favorites; it is always with the good person.
De Jing 43 / Received Chapter 80
43.1Let the state be small and the people few.
43.2Though there are tools tenfold and hundredfold, let them not be used.
43.3Let the people value death and not migrate far.
43.4Though there are boats and carriages, there is nowhere to ride them.
43.5Though there are armor and weapons, there is nowhere to display them.
43.6Let the people return to knotting cords and using them.
43.7Let them find their food sweet, their clothing beautiful, their homes peaceful, and their customs joyful.
43.8Neighboring states can see one another; the sounds of roosters and dogs can be heard across the border.
43.9Yet the people grow old and die without visiting one another.
De Jing 44 / Received Chapter 81
44.1Trustworthy words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not trustworthy.
44.2The good do not argue; those who argue are not good.
44.3Those who know are not broadly learned; the broadly learned do not know.
44.4The sage does not accumulate.
44.5Having used what he has for others, he has still more himself.
44.6Having given what he has to others, he has still more himself.
44.7The Way of heaven benefits and does not harm.
44.8The Way of the sage acts and does not contend.