Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 31 — Arms as Instruments of Ill-Omen
He who delights in killing cannot win the world
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.
Source context
- Theme
- renunciation of weapons and warfare as expressions of ill omen, even when wielded by the noble
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Bhagavad Gita / Kshatriya ethicsThe Gita's opening tension — Arjuna's grief at the prospect of battle — structurally parallels Chapter 31's insistence that arms are instruments of ill omen to be handled with mourning rather than celebration, even by the warrior caste.
- Jain ahimsa doctrineJain teaching on ahimsa (non-injury) as an absolute moral orientation provides cross-tradition congruence with the Daoist axiom that weapons, however necessary, remain objects of disgrace requiring ritual lamentation after use.
- Stoic just-war restraintStoic ethics, particularly in Cicero's De Officiis, frames military action as a last resort surrounded by conditions of grief and minimisation, offering cross-tradition congruence with the chapter's insistence on mourning rather than triumph after killing.
Chapter 31
Now arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. Therefore they who have the Tao do not like to employ them.
The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honourable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man;--he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes; victory (by force of arms) is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.
On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right;--his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief; and the victor in battle has his place (rightly) according to those rites.