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Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance -> 2

崔瞿问于老聃曰：Cui Ji asked Lao Dan, saying,
“不治天下， 'If you do not govern the world,
安藏人心？” how can you make men's minds good?'
老聃曰： The reply was,
“汝慎无撄人心。 'Take care how you meddle with and disturb men's minds.
人心排下而进上，The mind, if pushed about, gets depressed; if helped forward, it gets exalted.
上下囚杀，Now exalted, now depressed, here it appears as a prisoner, and there as a wrathful fury.
淖约柔乎刚强。(At one time) it becomes pliable and soft, yielding to what is hard and strong;
廉刿雕琢，(at another), it is sharp as the sharpest corner, fit to carve or chisel (stone or jade).
其热焦火， Now it is hot as a scorching fire,
其寒凝冰。 and anon it is cold as ice.
其疾俛仰之间， It is so swift that while one is bending down and lifting up his head,
而再抚四海之外， it shall twice have put forth a soothing hand beyond the four seas.
其居也渊而静，Resting, it is still as a deep abyss;
其动也县而天。moving, it is like one of the bodies in the sky;
偾骄而不可系者，in its resolute haughtiness, it refuses to be bound
其唯人心乎！- such is the mind of man!'
昔者黄帝始以仁义撄人之心，Anciently, Huang-Di was the first to meddle with and disturb the mind of man with his benevolence and righteousness.
尧、舜于是乎股无胈，胫无毛，After him, Yao and Shun wore their thighs bare and the hair off the calves of their legs,
以养天下之形， in their labours to nourish the bodies of the people.
愁其五藏以为仁义， They toiled painfully with all the powers in their five viscera at the practice of their benevolence and righteousness;
矜其血气以规法度。 they tasked their blood and breath to make out a code of laws
然犹有不胜也。- and after all they were unsuccessful.
尧于是放欢兜于崇山， On this Yao sent away Huan Dou to Chong hill,
投三苗于三峗， and (the Chiefs of) the Three Miao to San-wei,
流共工于幽都， and banished the Minister of Works to the Dark Capital;
此不胜天下也夫！ so unequal had they been to cope with the world.
施及三王而天下大骇矣。Then we are carried on to the kings of the Three (dynasties), when the world was in a state of great distraction.
下有桀、跖， Of the lowest type of character there were Jie and Zhi;
上有曾、史， of a higher type there were Zeng (Shen) and Shi (Qiu).
而儒、墨毕起。 At the same time there arose the classes of the Literati and the Mohists.
于是乎喜怒相疑，Hereupon, complacency in, and hatred of, one another produced mutual suspicions;
愚知相欺， the stupid and the wise imposed on one another;
善否相非， the good and the bad condemned one another;
诞信相讥， the boastful and the sincere interchanged their recriminations
而天下衰矣；- and the world fell into decay.
大德不同， Views as to what was greatly virtuous did not agree,
而性命烂漫矣； and the nature with its endowments became as if shrivelled by fire or carried away by a flood.
天下好知， All were eager for knowledge,
而百姓求竭矣。 and the people were exhausted with their searchings (after what was good).
于是乎釿锯制焉， On this the axe and the saw were brought into play;
绳墨杀焉， guilt was determined as by the plumb-line and death inflicted;
椎凿决焉。 the hammer and gouge did their work.
天下脊脊大乱，罪在撄人心。The world fell into great disorder, and presented the appearance of a jagged mountain ridge.
故贤者伏处大山嵁岩之下，The crime to which all was due was the meddling with and disturbing men's minds. The effect was that men of ability and worth lay concealed at the foot of the crags of mount Tai,
而万乘之君忧栗乎庙堂之上。 and princes of ten thousand chariots were anxious and terrified in their ancestral temples.
今世殊死者相枕也， In the present age those who have been put to death in various ways lie thick as if pillowed on each other;
桁杨者相推也， those who are wearing the cangue press on each other (on the roads);
刑戮者相望也， those who are suffering the bastinado can see each other (all over the land).
而儒、墨乃始离跂攘臂乎桎梏之间。And now the Literati and the Mohists begin to stand, on tiptoe and with bare arms, among the fettered and manacled crowd!
意！Ah!
甚矣哉！其无愧而不知耻也甚矣！extreme is their shamelessness, and their failure to see the disgrace!
吾未知圣知之不为桁杨椄槢也， Strange that we should be slow to recognise their sageness and wisdom in the bars of the cangue,
仁义之不为桎梏、凿枘也， and their benevolence and righteousness in the rivets of the fetters and handcuffs!
焉知曾、史之不为桀、跖嚆矢也！ How do we know that Zeng and Shi are not the whizzing arrows of Jie and Zhi?
故曰： Therefore it is said,
‘绝圣弃知而天下大治。’”'Abolish sageness and cast away knowledge, and the world will be brought to a state of great order.'

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