Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 53 — The Great Way Is Smooth
The court is full of corruption; the fields are full of weeds
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.
Source context
- Theme
- abandonment of the great Way in favour of devious paths, and the social decay that follows
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Platonic political philosophyPlato's Republic diagnoses civic corruption as a fall from justice into the pursuit of private advantage, structurally parallel to Laozi's image of rulers who forsake the Tao and accumulate wealth while fields lie waste.
- Vedantic ethics (Dharma-Adharma)The Mahabharata's concept of adharma — deviation from cosmic order producing social disintegration — offers cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 53's depiction of ostentation and excess as signs that the great Way has been abandoned.
- Hebrew prophetic traditionThe Hebrew prophets' condemnation of rulers who accumulate luxury while the poor go hungry (e.g. Amos, Isaiah) exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Laozi's censure of those who wear fine garments and gorge on food while the people lack sufficiency.
Chapter 53
If I were suddenly to become known, and (put into a position to) conduct (a government) according to the Great Tao, what I should be most afraid of would be a boastful display.
The great Tao (or way) is very level and easy; but people love the by-ways.
Their court(-yards and buildings) shall be well kept, but their fields shall be ill-cultivated, and their granaries very empty. They shall wear elegant and ornamented robes, carry a sharp sword at their girdle, pamper themselves in eating and drinking, and have a superabundance of property and wealth;--such (princes) may be called robbers and boasters. This is contrary to the Tao surely!