Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Simplified Chinese version
Back Forward
Daoism -> Dao De Jing -> 65

(Pure, unmixed excellence)
The ancients who showed their skill in practising the Dao did so,
not to enlighten the people,
but rather to make them simple and ignorant.
The difficulty in governing the people
arises from their having much knowledge.
He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom
is a scourge to it;
while he who does not (try to) do so
is a blessing.
𥡴He who knows these two things finds in them also his model and rule.
𥡴Ability to know this model and rule
constitutes what we call the mysterious excellence (of a governor).
Deep and far-reaching is such mysterious excellence,
showing indeed its possessor as opposite to others,
but leading them to a great conformity to him.


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org/ens. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.