Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 17 — The Best Ruler
When the work is done, the people say: we did it ourselves
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.
Source context
- Theme
- invisible governance: the ruler whose presence is barely known by the people
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Platonic political philosophyPlato's philosopher-king in the Republic governs through wisdom rather than coercive visibility, structurally parallel to the Taoist sage-ruler whose effective action leaves no trace in the awareness of those governed.
- Vedantic concept of the witnessing Self (sakshi)The Advaita teaching that the highest Self acts as pure witness without imposing itself on appearances shows cross-tradition congruence with the Taoist ideal of ruling from non-interference, each tradition locating supreme efficacy in non-assertive presence.
- Sufi concept of the hidden pole (qutb al-maktum)In Sufi cosmology the concealed pole of sanctity sustains the spiritual order of the world without public recognition, a structural parallel to Chapter 17's maximal ruler whose people merely note that things got done.
Chapter 17
In the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there were (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them. Thus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers) a want of faith in them ensued (in the people).
How irresolute did those (earliest rulers) appear, showing (by their reticence) the importance which they set upon their words! Their work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the people all said, 'We are as we are, of ourselves!'