| Kingdoms can only be governed if rules are kept; rule a kingdom by some normal standards and with utmost discretion. Battles, on the other hand, can be won if rules are aptly broken. Operate the army and fight some battles by (unusual) tactics of surprise and attack. Yet administer the kingdom by engaging in no activity. Win the world by doing next to nothing, for major adherence can only be won by letting well alone. How do I know this will be so? By this: The more prohibitions, ritual avoidances, and taboos there are, the poorer the people will end. The more 'sharp weapons' there are, the more troubled and chaotic the state will be, and the more benighted the whole land will grow. The more cunning craftsmen there are, the more skills of technique, the more vicious things will appear: the more pernicious contrivances will be invented. The more laws are promulgated, the more thieves and bandits there will be. So: The greater the number of statutes, the greater the number of thieves in the end. So a wise man decreed: So long as I "do nothing" the people get transformed of themselves. So long as I love quietude, the people will of themselves go straight. So long as I act only by proper inactivity the people will of themselves grow rich. I have no desires, and the people of themselves become simple as the mythological raw block'. |
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
| 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |
| 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 |
| 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 |
| 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 |
| 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |