Verse 71

It is well to know that you do not know.
To think you know when you do not is sickness.

When you are sick of sickness you will no longer be sick.
True Persons are not sick because they are sick of sickness;
this is the way to health.


Verse 72

When the people lack a sense of awe
disaster will descend upon them.

Do not constrict their living space.
Do not harass them in their work.

If you do not oppress them, they will not weary of you.
Therefore, True Persons know themselves

but make no show of themselves.
They know their value

but do not exalt themselves.
They prefer this within to that without.


Verse 73

A person whose courage lies in daring will meet death.
A person whose courage lies in not daring will encounter life.

Of the two courses, either may be beneficial or harmful.
Heaven dislikes what it dislikes.

Who knows the reason why?
Even the True Person has difficulty with such a question.

The Tao of Heaven
does not strive and yet it overcomes,
does not speak and yet it gets responses,
does not beckon and yet it attracts,
is at ease and yet it follows a plan.

The net of heaven is cast wide.
Though the mesh is coarse, nothing ever slips through.


Verse 74

When the people do not fear death,
of what use is it to threaten them with death?

If the people were always afraid of death
and if those who did wrong
would always be arrested and put to death,
who would do wrong?

There is always a Lord of Execution whose duty it is to kill.
If you try to fill that function it is like trying to hew wood
in place of a master carpenter.
You will probably injure your own hands.

Verse 75

Why are the people starving?
Because their leaders eat up too much of the tax-grain;
that is why the people are starving.

Why are the people difficult to govern?
Because their leaders interfere;
that is why the people are difficult to govern.

Why do the people treat death lightly.
Because their leaders are so grossly absorbed in the pursuit of living;
that is why the people treat death lightly.

Indeed, it is wiser to ignore life altogether
than to place too high a value on it.


Verse 76

At birth you are supple and soft.
At death you are stiff and hard.

Grass and trees are pliant and tender when living,
but they are dry and brittle when dead.

Therefore, the stiff and hard are attendants of death,
the supple and soft are attendants of life.

Thus, the hard weapon will be broken.
The mighty tree will invite the axe.

Therefore, the hard and mighty belong below;
the yielding and gentle belong above.


Verse 77

The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow.
The high end is pulled down and the low end is raised up.
The excessive is diminished and the deficient is supplemented.

It is the way of heaven to take where there is too much
in order to give where there is not enough.

The way of people is otherwise.
They take where there is not enough
in order to increase where there is already too much.

Who will take from their own excesses
and give to all under heaven?
Only those who hold to the Tao.

Therefore, the True Person benefits yet expects no reward,
does the work and moves on.
There is no desire to be considered better than others.


Verse 78

Nothing under heaven is
softer or more yielding than water.
Yet it has no equal for attacking things
that are hard and stiff.
Nothing can withstand it.

Everyone knows that the yielding overcomes the stiff,
and the soft overcomes the hard.
Yet no one applies this knowledge.

Therefore, an Old One said:
Only a person who has accepted the country’s dirt
is a leader worthy to offer sacrifice
at its shrines of earth and grain.

Only a person who takes up the country’s burdens
deserves to be a leader
among those who dwell under heaven.
Straightforward words seem crooked.

Verse 79

Even though a truce is made between great enemies,
some enmity is bound to remain.
How can this be beneficial?

Therefore, the True Person
undertakes the obligations of the agreement
but makes no claim upon others.

The person who has Virtue shares with others.
The person who lacks Virtue takes from others.

The way of heaven has no favorites;
it always remains with what is good.


Verse 80

In a small country with few people:
Though there are machines that would increase
production ten to a hundred miles
they are not used.

The people take death seriously and do not travel about.
Though they have boats and carriages no one uses them.
Though they have armour and weapons,
there is no occasion to display them.
The people give up writing
and return to the knotting of cords.

They are satisfied with their food.
They are pleased with their clothes.
They are content with their homes.
They are happy in their simple ways.

Even though they live within sight of another country
and can hear dogs barking and cocks crowing in it,
still the people grow old and die
without ever coming into conflict.


Verse 81

Sincere words are not elegant; elegant words are not sincere.
The good person does not argue; the person who argues is not good.

The wise do not have great learning; those with great learning are not wise.
True Persons do not hoard.

Using all they have for others, they still have more.
Giving all they have to others, they are richer than before.

The way of heaven is to benefit and not to harm.
The way of the True Reason is to assist without striving
in the unfolding of the story of the earth.


Now it is time to take rest  and be inquiry--Neelanjan