{
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    "endpoint": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/17-chapter-17.json"
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  "work": {
    "slug": "tao-te-ching",
    "name": "Tao Te Ching"
  },
  "parents": [],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 17,
    "slug": "17-chapter-17",
    "title": "Chapter 17 — The Best Ruler",
    "of": 81,
    "words": 103,
    "text": "## Chapter 17\n\n\nIn the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there\nwere (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised\nthem. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.\nThus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers)\na want of faith in them ensued (in the people).\n\nHow irresolute did those (earliest rulers) appear, showing (by\ntheir reticence) the importance which they set upon their words!\nTheir work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the\npeople all said, 'We are as we are, of ourselves!'",
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  }
}