{
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    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/39-chapter-39.json"
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  "work": {
    "slug": "tao-te-ching",
    "name": "Tao Te Ching"
  },
  "parents": [],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 39,
    "slug": "39-chapter-39",
    "title": "Chapter 39 — Attaining the One",
    "of": 81,
    "words": 240,
    "text": "## Chapter 39\n\n\nThe things which from of old have got the One (the Tao) are--\n\nHeaven which by it is bright and pure;\nEarth rendered thereby firm and sure;\nSpirits with powers by it supplied;\nValleys kept full throughout their void\nAll creatures which through it do live\nPrinces and kings who from it get\nThe model which to all they give.\n\nAll these are the results of the One (Tao).\n\nIf heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend;\nIf earth were not thus sure, 'twould break and bend;\nWithout these powers, the spirits soon would fail;\nIf not so filled, the drought would parch each vale;\nWithout that life, creatures would pass away;\nPrinces and kings, without that moral sway,\nHowever grand and high, would all decay.\n\nThus it is that dignity finds its (firm) root in its (previous)\nmeanness, and what is lofty finds its stability in the lowness (from\nwhich it rises). Hence princes and kings call themselves 'Orphans,'\n'Men of small virtue,' and as 'Carriages without a nave.' Is not this\nan acknowledgment that in their considering themselves mean they see\nthe foundation of their dignity? So it is that in the enumeration of\nthe different parts of a carriage we do not come on what makes it\nanswer the ends of a carriage. They do not wish to show themselves\nelegant-looking as jade, but (prefer) to be coarse-looking as an\n(ordinary) stone.",
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    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}