{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "tao-te-ching", "name": "Tao Te Ching", "stream": "indian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "scripture", "tradition": "Daoist", "author": null, "year_approx": -400, "note": "Laozi's 81-chapter foundational text of Daoism, c. 6th c. BCE. James Legge's translation (Sacred Books of the East vol. 39, 1891). FMC groups Laozi/Buddha/Confucius as the threefold sixth-century-BCE wisdom-impulse.", "books_slug": "laozi--tao-te-ching", "books_slugs": null, "has_project_translation": false, "steiner_loci": [] }, "parents": [], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "01-chapter-1", "title": "Chapter 1 — The Eternal Tao", "words": 127, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/01-chapter-1/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/01-chapter-1.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao", "blurb": "The opening teaching: the Way as nameless source. The named is mother of the ten thousand things; the nameless is origin of heaven and earth. The two emerge together yet are differently named." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "02-chapter-2", "title": "Chapter 2 — The Self-Contained Sage", "words": 227, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/02-chapter-2/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/02-chapter-2.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Beauty and ugliness arise together", "blurb": "All opposites are mutually-arising. The sage acts without striving, teaches without speech, accomplishes without claiming credit — and so the accomplishment endures." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "03-chapter-3", "title": "Chapter 3 — Keeping the People at Rest", "words": 122, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/03-chapter-3/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/03-chapter-3.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Not exalting talent, not coveting goods", "blurb": "Statecraft by non-stimulation. Empty their minds and fill their bellies; weaken their ambitions and strengthen their bones. Practise non-action and nothing remains ungoverned." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "04-chapter-4", "title": "Chapter 4 — The Unfathomable Source", "words": 100, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/04-chapter-4/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/04-chapter-4.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Empty yet inexhaustible", "blurb": "The Tao as bottomless well — older than any image of God, ancestor of all things. Used yet never filled, dim yet ever-present." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "05-chapter-5", "title": "Chapter 5 — Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane", "words": 101, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/05-chapter-5/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/05-chapter-5.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Treating the ten thousand things as straw dogs", "blurb": "Heaven and earth are impartial; the sage is impartial. Between heaven and earth, the space is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustible, moved yet ever-producing." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "06-chapter-6", "title": "Chapter 6 — The Mysterious Female", "words": 52, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/06-chapter-6/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/06-chapter-6.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Valley Spirit never dies", "blurb": "The Tao as Mysterious Female — gate from which heaven and earth emerge. Gossamer-fine, used without exhaustion." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "07-chapter-7", "title": "Chapter 7 — Selfless Endurance", "words": 95, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/07-chapter-7/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/07-chapter-7.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Heaven and earth endure because they do not live for themselves", "blurb": "The sage puts the self last and so the self comes first; treats the body as outside and so the body is preserved. Through selflessness, self is fulfilled." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "08-chapter-8", "title": "Chapter 8 — Highest Good Like Water", "words": 128, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/08-chapter-8/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/08-chapter-8.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Water benefits all yet contends not", "blurb": "The supreme good resembles water: nourishing without striving, dwelling in places others disdain. In place of contention is the heart of the Tao." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "09-chapter-9", "title": "Chapter 9 — Knowing When to Stop", "words": 84, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/09-chapter-9/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/09-chapter-9.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Better to stop short than to fill to the brim", "blurb": "A vessel filled overflows; a blade sharpened too keen will not hold. To withdraw when the work is done is the Way of heaven." }, { "num": 10, "slug": "10-chapter-10", "title": "Chapter 10 — Embracing the One", "words": 162, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/10-chapter-10/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/10-chapter-10.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Holding body and soul in unity", "blurb": "Can you embrace the One and not let go? Can you make your breath soft as an infant's? Cleanse the inner vision, give birth without possessing, act without expecting — this is mysterious virtue (xuán dé)." }, { "num": 11, "slug": "11-chapter-11", "title": "Chapter 11 — The Use of Emptiness", "words": 88, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/11-chapter-11/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/11-chapter-11.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Thirty spokes meet at one hub", "blurb": "Clay shaped into a vessel is useful because of the empty space; doors and windows are useful because of what is not there. Existence gives shape, but non-being makes useful." }, { "num": 12, "slug": "12-chapter-12", "title": "Chapter 12 — Belly Over Eye", "words": 86, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/12-chapter-12/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/12-chapter-12.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The five colors blind the eye", "blurb": "Sensory excess deranges the senses; rare goods derange behaviour. The sage attends to the belly (essential nature), not the eye (surface desire)." }, { "num": 13, "slug": "13-chapter-13", "title": "Chapter 13 — Favor and Disgrace", "words": 177, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/13-chapter-13/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/13-chapter-13.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Honor great trouble as you honor the body", "blurb": "Favor and disgrace alike disturb. Great trouble comes from having a body. He who values the world as himself can be entrusted with the world." }, { "num": 14, "slug": "14-chapter-14", "title": "Chapter 14 — Seeing the Invisible", "words": 184, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/14-chapter-14/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/14-chapter-14.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Looked at, not seen — that is the formless", "blurb": "The Way that has no shape, no sound, no substance — yet is unbroken. To trace its origin: this is grasping the thread of the Tao." }, { "num": 15, "slug": "15-chapter-15", "title": "Chapter 15 — The Ancient Masters", "words": 183, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/15-chapter-15/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/15-chapter-15.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Cautious as one crossing a stream in winter", "blurb": "The ancient adepts — subtle, mysterious, profound beyond knowing — described only by what they resembled. They emptied themselves and so could be renewed." }, { "num": 16, "slug": "16-chapter-16", "title": "Chapter 16 — Return to the Root", "words": 196, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/16-chapter-16/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/16-chapter-16.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "All things rise; the sage watches their return", "blurb": "Attain ultimate emptiness; hold firm to stillness. The ten thousand things flourish then return to root. Return to root is stillness; stillness is the constant; knowing the constant is enlightenment (míng)." }, { "num": 17, "slug": "17-chapter-17", "title": "Chapter 17 — The Best Ruler", "words": 103, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/17-chapter-17/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/17-chapter-17.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "When the work is done, the people say: we did it ourselves", "blurb": "The highest ruler is barely known to exist; the next is loved and praised; the next is feared; the next is despised. Trust forgone breeds no trust. The sage rules so quietly that the people credit themselves." }, { "num": 18, "slug": "18-chapter-18", "title": "Chapter 18 — When the Tao Is Lost", "words": 55, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/18-chapter-18/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/18-chapter-18.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Humaneness arises when the great Way is forgotten", "blurb": "When the great Tao is forgotten, humaneness and righteousness arise; when wisdom emerges, great hypocrisy follows; when family ties decay, filial piety is proclaimed." }, { "num": 19, "slug": "19-chapter-19", "title": "Chapter 19 — Renouncing Cleverness", "words": 97, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/19-chapter-19/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/19-chapter-19.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Abandon sageliness, discard wisdom", "blurb": "Renounce learning and the people will benefit a hundredfold; renounce humaneness as virtue and filial piety returns. Hold the uncarved block; lessen desire." }, { "num": 20, "slug": "20-chapter-20", "title": "Chapter 20 — Alone, Differing From Others", "words": 232, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/20-chapter-20/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/20-chapter-20.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "I alone seem foolish; I alone am nourished by the mother", "blurb": "Between yes and no — how slight the difference. Between good and evil — how much greater. The sage stands apart, drifting like an infant who cannot yet smile, alone in being fed by the Mother." }, { "num": 21, "slug": "21-chapter-21", "title": "Chapter 21 — The Form of Great Virtue", "words": 120, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/21-chapter-21/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/21-chapter-21.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Tao is elusive yet contains essence", "blurb": "The greatest virtue follows the Tao alone. Elusive and impalpable — yet within there is form, substance, essence (jīng), and truth (zhēn)." }, { "num": 22, "slug": "22-chapter-22", "title": "Chapter 22 — Yielding to Be Whole", "words": 124, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/22-chapter-22/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/22-chapter-22.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Bent and so straight; empty and so full", "blurb": "Yield and remain whole; bend and remain straight; empty and become full; wear out and be renewed. The sage embraces the One and becomes a model for the world." }, { "num": 23, "slug": "23-chapter-23", "title": "Chapter 23 — Sparing Speech", "words": 193, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/23-chapter-23/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/23-chapter-23.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "A whirlwind does not last a morning", "blurb": "Nature uses few words. A whirlwind cannot last; a rainstorm cannot last. He who follows the Tao becomes one with the Tao; he who loses it becomes one with loss." }, { "num": 24, "slug": "24-chapter-24", "title": "Chapter 24 — Excess", "words": 98, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/24-chapter-24/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/24-chapter-24.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "He who tiptoes does not stand firm", "blurb": "Standing on tiptoe one does not stand firm; striding one does not walk. Self-display does not shine; self-justification does not endure. To one who has the Tao, these are unwanted excess." }, { "num": 25, "slug": "25-chapter-25", "title": "Chapter 25 — The Four Great", "words": 164, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/25-chapter-25/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/25-chapter-25.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Tao models itself on what is so of itself", "blurb": "Something formed before heaven and earth. Silent, solitary — I name it Tao. Tao is great, heaven is great, earth is great, the king is great. The king follows earth; earth follows heaven; heaven follows Tao; Tao follows what is so of itself (zìrán)." }, { "num": 26, "slug": "26-chapter-26", "title": "Chapter 26 — Gravity and Lightness", "words": 86, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/26-chapter-26/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/26-chapter-26.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Heavy is the root of light", "blurb": "Heavy is the root of light; stillness is master of haste. The sage on a long journey never separates from his baggage-cart of gravity. To act lightly is to lose the root." }, { "num": 27, "slug": "27-chapter-27", "title": "Chapter 27 — Following the Way Without Trace", "words": 187, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/27-chapter-27/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/27-chapter-27.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "A good traveler leaves no track", "blurb": "A good traveler leaves no tracks; a good speaker makes no error; a good counter uses no tallies. The sage saves people and rejects none, saves things and rejects none — this is following the inner light." }, { "num": 28, "slug": "28-chapter-28", "title": "Chapter 28 — Knowing the Male, Keeping the Female", "words": 160, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/28-chapter-28/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/28-chapter-28.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Knowing white, keeping black", "blurb": "Know the masculine, hold to the feminine — become the world's valley. Know the bright, hold to the dark — become the world's pattern. Return to the uncarved block (pǔ)." }, { "num": 29, "slug": "29-chapter-29", "title": "Chapter 29 — Letting the World Be", "words": 107, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/29-chapter-29/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/29-chapter-29.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The world is a sacred vessel; you cannot improve it", "blurb": "He who would seize the world and act upon it — I see he cannot succeed. The world is a sacred vessel; whoever acts on it spoils it. The sage avoids extremes, avoids extravagance, avoids excess." }, { "num": 30, "slug": "30-chapter-30", "title": "Chapter 30 — Against Force of Arms", "words": 160, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/30-chapter-30/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/30-chapter-30.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Where armies camp, briars and thorns grow", "blurb": "He who uses the Tao to assist a ruler does not employ arms to coerce the world. The outcome of force is recoil. Achieve results without boasting, without pride, without violence." }, { "num": 31, "slug": "31-chapter-31", "title": "Chapter 31 — Arms as Instruments of Ill-Omen", "words": 206, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/31-chapter-31/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/31-chapter-31.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "He who delights in killing cannot win the world", "blurb": "Arms are instruments of ill-omen; the sage uses them only when there is no choice. Victory should be mourned, not celebrated. He who delights in killing cannot achieve his purpose in the world." }, { "num": 32, "slug": "32-chapter-32", "title": "Chapter 32 — The Nameless Uncarved Block", "words": 146, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/32-chapter-32/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/32-chapter-32.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Though small, the world cannot subjugate it", "blurb": "The Tao is eternal nameless. Small as the uncarved block (pǔ), yet no one can subjugate it. When rulers can hold it, the ten thousand things will of themselves submit; heaven and earth will unite to send sweet dew." }, { "num": 33, "slug": "33-chapter-33", "title": "Chapter 33 — Self-Knowledge", "words": 71, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/33-chapter-33/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/33-chapter-33.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened", "blurb": "He who knows others has knowledge; he who knows himself has wisdom. He who overcomes others has strength; he who overcomes himself has true power. He who dies but does not perish has eternal life." }, { "num": 34, "slug": "34-chapter-34", "title": "Chapter 34 — The Great Tao Flows", "words": 133, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/34-chapter-34/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/34-chapter-34.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "All things turn to it, yet it claims no mastery", "blurb": "The great Tao flows everywhere, left and right. The ten thousand things depend on it for life, and it does not refuse them. It clothes and feeds the ten thousand things and does not claim to be their master." }, { "num": 35, "slug": "35-chapter-35", "title": "Chapter 35 — Holding the Great Image", "words": 83, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/35-chapter-35/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/35-chapter-35.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Tao's flavor is bland, almost tasteless", "blurb": "Hold the great image (dà xiàng) and the world will come. They come and suffer no harm; great peace prevails. Music and food make the passer-by stop. The Tao spoken — bland, without flavor — yet inexhaustible in use." }, { "num": 36, "slug": "36-chapter-36", "title": "Chapter 36 — Subtle Light", "words": 100, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/36-chapter-36/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/36-chapter-36.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "To shrink something, first expand it", "blurb": "What is to be shrunk must first be expanded; what is to be weakened must first be strengthened. This is called subtle illumination (wēi míng). The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong." }, { "num": 37, "slug": "37-chapter-37", "title": "Chapter 37 — Doing Nothing, Leaving Nothing Undone", "words": 89, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/37-chapter-37/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/37-chapter-37.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Tao acts not, yet nothing is left undone", "blurb": "The Tao does nothing yet leaves nothing undone. If rulers could hold it, the ten thousand things would transform of themselves. Transformed yet desiring action — restrained by the uncarved block of namelessness." }, { "num": 38, "slug": "38-chapter-38", "title": "Chapter 38 — Higher Virtue", "words": 271, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/38-chapter-38/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/38-chapter-38.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Higher virtue is not virtuous, and therefore has virtue", "blurb": "Opens the Te (Virtue) book. Higher virtue does not aim at virtue and so has virtue. Lower virtue never lets go of virtue and so has none. When the Tao is lost, virtue arises; then humaneness; then righteousness; then ritual — the husk of faith and the beginning of disorder." }, { "num": 39, "slug": "39-chapter-39", "title": "Chapter 39 — Attaining the One", "words": 240, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/39-chapter-39/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/39-chapter-39.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Heaven attained the One and became clear", "blurb": "Heaven attained the One and became clear; earth attained the One and became stable; gods attained the One and became spiritual; the valley attained the One and became full; the ten thousand things attained the One and lived; the king attained the One and the world followed." }, { "num": 40, "slug": "40-chapter-40", "title": "Chapter 40 — Returning and Weakness", "words": 41, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/40-chapter-40/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/40-chapter-40.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Returning is the movement of the Tao", "blurb": "Returning (fǎn) is the movement of the Tao; weakness is the function of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being; being is born of non-being." }, { "num": 41, "slug": "41-chapter-41", "title": "Chapter 41 — Hearing the Way", "words": 204, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/41-chapter-41/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/41-chapter-41.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Hearing of the Tao, the highest student practises it", "blurb": "When the highest student hears of the Tao he practises it; the average is half-hearted; the lowest laughs aloud — and if he did not laugh, it would not be the Tao. Hidden, nameless — yet only the Tao alone nourishes and completes." }, { "num": 42, "slug": "42-chapter-42", "title": "Chapter 42 — Tao Gives Birth to One", "words": 126, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/42-chapter-42/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/42-chapter-42.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "One gives birth to two, two to three, three to the ten thousand things", "blurb": "Tao gave birth to One; One to Two; Two to Three; Three to the ten thousand things. The ten thousand things carry yin and embrace yang; through the breath of vital union (chōng qì) they reach harmony." }, { "num": 43, "slug": "43-chapter-43", "title": "Chapter 43 — The Softest Overcomes the Hardest", "words": 58, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/43-chapter-43/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/43-chapter-43.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Non-being penetrates where there is no space", "blurb": "The softest in the world overcomes the hardest. Non-being (wú) penetrates that which has no space. This is how I know the benefit of non-action. Wordless teaching, benefit through non-action — few in the world attain it." }, { "num": 44, "slug": "44-chapter-44", "title": "Chapter 44 — Fame or Self", "words": 84, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/44-chapter-44/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/44-chapter-44.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Fame or self — which is more dear?", "blurb": "Fame or self — which is more dear? Self or possessions — which more valuable? Gain or loss — which more painful? Therefore: excessive love brings great cost; hoarding leads to great loss. Knowing contentment, one avoids disgrace; knowing when to stop, one avoids danger." }, { "num": 45, "slug": "45-chapter-45", "title": "Chapter 45 — Great Perfection Seeming Defective", "words": 64, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/45-chapter-45/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/45-chapter-45.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Great fullness seems empty; great straightness seems crooked", "blurb": "Great perfection seems defective; its use is never exhausted. Great fullness seems empty; its use is never drained. Great straightness seems crooked; great skill seems awkward; great eloquence seems halting." }, { "num": 46, "slug": "46-chapter-46", "title": "Chapter 46 — Knowing Sufficiency", "words": 74, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/46-chapter-46/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/46-chapter-46.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "No greater calamity than not knowing sufficiency", "blurb": "When the world has the Tao, horses are returned to manure the fields. When the world lacks the Tao, war-horses are bred in the borderlands. No greater calamity than not knowing sufficiency; no greater fault than wanting to acquire." }, { "num": 47, "slug": "47-chapter-47", "title": "Chapter 47 — Knowing Without Travel", "words": 68, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/47-chapter-47/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/47-chapter-47.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Without going out, knowing the world", "blurb": "Without going out the door, one knows the world. Without looking through the window, one sees the Way of heaven. The farther one travels, the less one knows. The sage knows without going, sees without looking, accomplishes without acting." }, { "num": 48, "slug": "48-chapter-48", "title": "Chapter 48 — Daily Decrease", "words": 102, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/48-chapter-48/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/48-chapter-48.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "In pursuit of learning, daily increase; in pursuit of Tao, daily decrease", "blurb": "In pursuit of learning, every day something is gained; in pursuit of the Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less until non-action is reached — and through non-action nothing is left undone. The world is won by leaving it alone." }, { "num": 49, "slug": "49-chapter-49", "title": "Chapter 49 — The Sage's Heart", "words": 120, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/49-chapter-49/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/49-chapter-49.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The sage has no fixed mind; he takes the heart of the people as his heart", "blurb": "The sage has no fixed mind of his own; he takes the heart of the people as his heart. To the good he is good; to the not-good he is also good — this is true goodness. To the faithful he is faithful; to the unfaithful he is also faithful — this is true faithfulness." }, { "num": 50, "slug": "50-chapter-50", "title": "Chapter 50 — Out of Life, Into Death", "words": 153, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/50-chapter-50/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/50-chapter-50.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "He who knows how to live encounters no tiger or wild buffalo", "blurb": "Coming out is life; going in is death. Three in ten follow life; three in ten follow death; three in ten move from life toward death through restless craving. Only one in ten knows how to live: he encounters no tiger or wild buffalo, for in him there is no death-place to receive their horns." }, { "num": 51, "slug": "51-chapter-51", "title": "Chapter 51 — Mysterious Virtue", "words": 142, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/51-chapter-51/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/51-chapter-51.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Tao gives life; Te nourishes; circumstance shapes; environment completes", "blurb": "Tao gives birth, Te (virtue) nourishes, circumstance shapes, environment completes. The ten thousand things honor the Tao and value Te — not by command, but always so of itself. To give birth without possessing, to act without expecting reward, to lead without dominating — this is mysterious virtue (xuán dé)." }, { "num": 52, "slug": "52-chapter-52", "title": "Chapter 52 — Returning to the Mother", "words": 170, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/52-chapter-52/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/52-chapter-52.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Hold to the mother to know the children", "blurb": "The world has a beginning, called the Mother. Knowing the Mother, one knows the children; knowing the children and returning to the Mother — to the end of life there is no danger. Close the mouth, shut the gates — and to the end of life there is no toil." }, { "num": 53, "slug": "53-chapter-53", "title": "Chapter 53 — The Great Way Is Smooth", "words": 112, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/53-chapter-53/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/53-chapter-53.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The court is full of corruption; the fields are full of weeds", "blurb": "If I have the slightest knowledge, I would walk on the great Way and only fear straying. The great Way is smooth, but people love bypaths. When the court is full of corruption, the fields are full of weeds and the granaries empty. This is robbery and excess — not the Way." }, { "num": 54, "slug": "54-chapter-54", "title": "Chapter 54 — Cultivation in Self and Beyond", "words": 136, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/54-chapter-54/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/54-chapter-54.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "What is well-planted is not uprooted", "blurb": "What is well-planted is not uprooted; what is well-embraced cannot slip away. Cultivate the Tao in the self — virtue becomes real. In the family — virtue overflows. In the village — virtue endures. In the state — virtue abounds. In the world — virtue is universal." }, { "num": 55, "slug": "55-chapter-55", "title": "Chapter 55 — The Infant Holding Virtue", "words": 168, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/55-chapter-55/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/55-chapter-55.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "He who holds virtue in fullness is like a newborn", "blurb": "He who holds virtue in fullness is like a newborn infant: poisonous insects do not sting him, fierce beasts do not seize him. His bones are weak, his sinews soft, yet his grip is firm. He does not yet know union of male and female, yet his organ stirs — the height of vital essence." }, { "num": 56, "slug": "56-chapter-56", "title": "Chapter 56 — Those Who Know Do Not Speak", "words": 105, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/56-chapter-56/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/56-chapter-56.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Mysterious leveling (xuán tóng)", "blurb": "Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know. Block the openings, shut the gates, blunt the sharpness, untie the tangles, soften the glare, settle into the dust — this is mysterious leveling. He cannot be made intimate or distant, profitable or harmful, honored or humbled — and so is honored by the world." }, { "num": 57, "slug": "57-chapter-57", "title": "Chapter 57 — Governing Without Action", "words": 175, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/57-chapter-57/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/57-chapter-57.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "I take no action and the people transform of themselves", "blurb": "Govern a state by uprightness; deploy armies by strategy; gain the world by non-interference. The more prohibitions, the poorer the people; the more sharp weapons, the more disorder; the more laws, the more thieves. The sage: I take no action, and the people transform of themselves." }, { "num": 58, "slug": "58-chapter-58", "title": "Chapter 58 — Cycling of Fortune", "words": 133, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/58-chapter-58/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/58-chapter-58.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Fortune is the lurking-place of disaster", "blurb": "When government is dull, the people are honest; when government is sharp, the people are crafty. Disaster is what fortune leans on; fortune is what disaster hides within. Who can know the end? There is no fixed correctness. The sage is square but does not cut, sharp but does not pierce, straight but not extreme, luminous but not dazzling." }, { "num": 59, "slug": "59-chapter-59", "title": "Chapter 59 — Sparing", "words": 148, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/59-chapter-59/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/59-chapter-59.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "In governing people and serving heaven, nothing surpasses sparing", "blurb": "In governing people and serving heaven, nothing surpasses sparing (sè). Only by sparing does one early submit; early submission means accumulated virtue; accumulated virtue overcomes all. To overcome all is to have no limit; with no limit, one can possess the state. To possess the Mother of the state is to long endure." }, { "num": 60, "slug": "60-chapter-60", "title": "Chapter 60 — Governing a Great State", "words": 89, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/60-chapter-60/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/60-chapter-60.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Like cooking a small fish", "blurb": "Govern a great state as you would cook a small fish — do not turn it too often. When the Tao governs the world, demons have no power. Not that they have no spirit, but their spirit does not harm; the sage also does not harm. Neither harms the other, and virtue returns to the people." }, { "num": 61, "slug": "61-chapter-61", "title": "Chapter 61 — The Great State as Low Ground", "words": 142, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/61-chapter-61/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/61-chapter-61.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Yielding wins what striving cannot", "blurb": "A great state is like the downward flow in which all the world meets — the female of the world. The female overcomes the male through stillness, taking the low position. By taking the low position, the great state wins the small; by taking the low position, the small state wins the great." }, { "num": 62, "slug": "62-chapter-62", "title": "Chapter 62 — The Treasure of All", "words": 176, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/62-chapter-62/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/62-chapter-62.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The Tao is the treasure of the good; the refuge of the not-good", "blurb": "The Tao is the inner refuge of the ten thousand things — treasure of the good, refuge of the not-good. Fine words can buy honor; fine deeds can win respect. The not-good — why throw them away? Better to offer the unmoving Tao." }, { "num": 63, "slug": "63-chapter-63", "title": "Chapter 63 — Acting Without Acting", "words": 163, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/63-chapter-63/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/63-chapter-63.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Plan the difficult while it is easy", "blurb": "Act without acting; do without doing; taste the tasteless. Magnify the small; multiply the few; repay grudges with virtue. Plan the difficult while it is easy; tackle the great while it is small. The sage does not strive for greatness and so accomplishes the great." }, { "num": 64, "slug": "64-chapter-64", "title": "Chapter 64 — Beginnings", "words": 244, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/64-chapter-64/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/64-chapter-64.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "A tree of vast girth grows from a tiny shoot", "blurb": "The still is easy to hold; the not-yet-emerged is easy to plan. The brittle breaks easily; the fine scatters easily. Act before it has emerged; order before it is in disorder. A tree of vast girth grows from a tiny shoot; a tower of nine stories rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins under the foot." }, { "num": 65, "slug": "65-chapter-65", "title": "Chapter 65 — Governing With Simplicity", "words": 122, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/65-chapter-65/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/65-chapter-65.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The sage rules by keeping the people unknowing", "blurb": "In ancient times those who practised the Tao did not enlighten the people but kept them simple. The people are hard to govern because they have too much knowledge. To govern by knowledge is to plunder the state; not to govern by knowledge is its blessing. This is mysterious virtue." }, { "num": 66, "slug": "66-chapter-66", "title": "Chapter 66 — Why Rivers and Seas Are Kings of Valleys", "words": 131, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/66-chapter-66/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/66-chapter-66.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Because they are good at staying below", "blurb": "Rivers and seas can be kings of a hundred valleys because they are good at staying below. To lead the people, one must speak as if below them; to put oneself ahead, one must put oneself last. The sage is above and the people do not feel his weight; he is in front and they do not feel harmed." }, { "num": 67, "slug": "67-chapter-67", "title": "Chapter 67 — Three Treasures", "words": 170, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/67-chapter-67/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/67-chapter-67.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Compassion, frugality, never daring to be first", "blurb": "All under heaven say my Tao is great yet seems unlike anything else. I have three treasures: first compassion, second frugality, third never daring to be first in the world. Through compassion one can be brave; through frugality one can be liberal; through not daring to be first, one can be the chief of vessels." }, { "num": 68, "slug": "68-chapter-68", "title": "Chapter 68 — Not Striving", "words": 83, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/68-chapter-68/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/68-chapter-68.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "The virtue of not contending", "blurb": "A good soldier is not warlike; a good fighter does not lose his temper; a good conqueror does not engage; a good employer of men makes himself low. This is the virtue of not contending, the power of employing others, joining with heaven — the highest peak of the ancients." }, { "num": 69, "slug": "69-chapter-69", "title": "Chapter 69 — Retreating, Not Advancing", "words": 129, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/69-chapter-69/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/69-chapter-69.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Dare not advance an inch, but retreat a foot", "blurb": "There is a saying among strategists: I dare not be the host; I am the guest. I dare not advance an inch; I retreat a foot. This is called marching without ranks, rolling up sleeves without baring arms, capturing without weapons. No misfortune is greater than underestimating the enemy." }, { "num": 70, "slug": "70-chapter-70", "title": "Chapter 70 — My Words Are Easy to Understand", "words": 107, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/70-chapter-70/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/70-chapter-70.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Yet no one can practise them", "blurb": "My words are easy to understand and easy to practise, yet no one in the world can understand or practise them. My words have an ancestor; my deeds have a master. Because they do not understand, they do not know me. Those who know me are few; those who follow me are honored. The sage wears coarse cloth, hides jade in his bosom." }, { "num": 71, "slug": "71-chapter-71", "title": "Chapter 71 — Knowing One Does Not Know", "words": 70, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/71-chapter-71/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/71-chapter-71.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "To know that one does not know is highest", "blurb": "To know that one does not know is highest. Not to know yet to think one knows is sickness. To recognize this sickness as sickness is to be free of sickness. The sage is free of sickness because he recognizes it as sickness." }, { "num": 72, "slug": "72-chapter-72", "title": "Chapter 72 — When People Lose Fear of Power", "words": 98, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/72-chapter-72/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/72-chapter-72.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Great power descends", "blurb": "When the people no longer fear the awesome, great awesomeness arrives. Do not crowd their dwellings; do not weary their lives. Only when their oppression ceases will their dissatisfaction cease. The sage knows himself but does not display himself; loves himself but does not exalt himself." }, { "num": 73, "slug": "73-chapter-73", "title": "Chapter 73 — Heaven's Net", "words": 145, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/73-chapter-73/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/73-chapter-73.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Heaven's net is wide; though loose, it loses nothing", "blurb": "He who is bold in daring is killed; he who is bold in not-daring lives. Of these two, one is profit, one is harm. Heaven's Way: not striving yet good at overcoming; not speaking yet good at responding; not summoning yet things come of themselves. Heaven's net is wide; though its mesh is loose, it loses nothing." }, { "num": 74, "slug": "74-chapter-74", "title": "Chapter 74 — When People Do Not Fear Death", "words": 106, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/74-chapter-74/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/74-chapter-74.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "What use is the threat of death?", "blurb": "When the people do not fear death, what use is the threat of death? If they did fear death and one could seize wrongdoers and execute them, who would dare? There is a master executioner (heaven). To execute in his place is to hew wood in the master carpenter's place — few escape injury to their hands." }, { "num": 75, "slug": "75-chapter-75", "title": "Chapter 75 — Why the People Starve", "words": 107, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/75-chapter-75/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/75-chapter-75.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Because those above eat too much in taxes", "blurb": "The people starve because those above eat too much in taxes — that is why they starve. The people are hard to govern because those above are too active — that is why they are hard to govern. The people make light of death because they grasp too greedily after life — that is why they make light of death. Only he who does not strive for life is wise about life." }, { "num": 76, "slug": "76-chapter-76", "title": "Chapter 76 — Soft Outlasts Hard", "words": 109, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/76-chapter-76/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/76-chapter-76.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "At birth, soft and supple; at death, hard and stiff", "blurb": "At birth, the human being is soft and supple; at death, hard and stiff. The ten thousand things, grass and trees, at birth are tender and pliant; at death, dry and withered. Therefore the hard and strong are companions of death; the soft and weak are companions of life. A mighty army falls; a stiff tree breaks." }, { "num": 77, "slug": "77-chapter-77", "title": "Chapter 77 — Heaven's Way", "words": 138, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/77-chapter-77/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/77-chapter-77.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Like the bending of a bow", "blurb": "Heaven's Way is like the bending of a bow: the high end is pulled down, the low end raised; what is excess is reduced, what is deficient supplemented. Heaven's Way reduces excess and supplements deficiency. Humanity's way is otherwise: reducing the deficient to supplement the excessive. Only one who has the Tao can offer his surplus to the world." }, { "num": 78, "slug": "78-chapter-78", "title": "Chapter 78 — Nothing Softer Than Water", "words": 113, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/78-chapter-78/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/78-chapter-78.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Yet nothing surpasses water in overcoming the hard", "blurb": "Nothing in the world is softer than water; yet for attacking the hard and strong, nothing surpasses it. The weak overcomes the strong; the soft overcomes the hard. All know this; none can practise it. He who bears the disgrace of the country is master of the altars; he who bears the misfortune of the country is king of the world. Straight words seem inverted." }, { "num": 79, "slug": "79-chapter-79", "title": "Chapter 79 — Settling Without Resentment", "words": 123, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/79-chapter-79/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/79-chapter-79.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Reconciling great grievances leaves residual resentment", "blurb": "To reconcile great grievances inevitably leaves some resentment behind — how can this be considered good? Therefore the sage holds the left tally and does not press his claim against others. He who has virtue attends to the tally; he who lacks virtue attends to collection. Heaven's Way has no favorites; it sides always with the good." }, { "num": 80, "slug": "80-chapter-80", "title": "Chapter 80 — The Small State", "words": 176, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/80-chapter-80/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/80-chapter-80.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Neighboring states in sight; people grow old without visiting", "blurb": "Let the state be small with few people; let weapons and tools exist but go unused; let people regard death as serious and not migrate. Boats and carriages, weapons and armor — present but not used. Let people return to knotted-cord writing. Let them relish their food, find beauty in their clothes, peace in their homes, joy in their customs. Though neighboring states are in sight, the people grow old and die without visiting." }, { "num": 81, "slug": "81-chapter-81", "title": "Chapter 81 — Closing — True Words Are Not Beautiful", "words": 109, "url": "/sources/tao-te-ching/81-chapter-81/", "api": "/api/sources/tao-te-ching/81-chapter-81.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true", "blurb": "True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. The good are not argumentative; the argumentative are not good. The knowing are not learned; the learned are not knowing. The sage does not hoard. The more he does for others, the more he has himself; the more he gives to others, the more he possesses. Heaven's Way: benefit, not harm. The sage's Way: act, not contend." } ] }