Chapter 57

Original Text

以正治國，以奇用兵，以無事取天下。吾何以知天下之然哉？天下多忌諱，而民彌貧；人多利器，國家滋昏；人多技巧，奇物滋起；法令滋彰，盜賊多有。故聖人云：我無為而民自化，我好靜而民自正，我無事而民自富，我無慾而民自樸。

Translation

Govern the state with uprightness, deploy the army with the unexpected, win all under Heaven through noninterference.

How do I know this is so? By these signs: When all under Heaven is burdened with taboos, the people grow ever poorer. When the people are furnished with sharp implements, the state falls ever deeper into confusion. When the people abound in cleverness and skill, strange novelties multiply without end. When laws and decrees grow ever more prominent, thieves and bandits abound all the more.

Therefore the Sage says: I practice nonaction, and the people transform themselves. I cherish stillness, and the people right themselves. I refrain from interference, and the people enrich themselves. I am free of desire, and the people return to the unhewn.

Word Notes

• 滋 — "ever deeper," "all the more": a sense of deepening further, intensifying.

Chapter Explanation

Govern the state with uprightness. Deploy the army with the unexpected. Win all under Heaven through noninterference. How do I know that all under Heaven can be won through noninterference? Because when all under Heaven is burdened with many taboos, the people fear violating the prohibitions, lose their livelihoods, and grow ever poorer. When the people are furnished with many sharp implements of convenience, where there are mechanical affairs there must be mechanical minds; people treat one another with cunning and stratagem, and the state inevitably falls into disorder. When people prize cleverness and skill, strange and useless novelties multiply all the more. When one governs people by laws and decrees, the more conspicuous these become, the more thieves and bandits abound. All of this is the consequence of meddling. Therefore the Sage says: I practice nonaction, and the people naturally transform themselves. I cherish stillness, and the people naturally right themselves. I refrain from interfering, and the people naturally grow rich. I am free of private desires, and the people naturally return to pure simplicity.

Discourse

I, this young student, upon reading this chapter, came to understand that learning is not a pedantic and useless doctrine, and that followers of Dao are not pedantic and useless people. It is simply that governing a state through Dao and transforming the people through De means one is unwilling to lightly deploy one's methods of Dao — for fear of awakening the people's calculating minds, which would only throw the state into ever greater turmoil.

When it comes to the point where the use of military force is unavoidable — when the fate of the state and the lives of the people hang in the balance — then the person of Dao can indeed achieve victory through the unexpected and rescue the world from calamity. But the "unexpected" they employ is not cunning stratagems or deceitful ruses; it is not brute force or freakish valor. It is simply that which surpasses people's expectations — something different from the way others wage war.

Confucius, for instance, did not consider wrestling a tiger barehanded or wading a river on foot to be the truly remarkable thing; rather, he regarded facing every undertaking with apprehension and succeeding through careful counsel as truly remarkable.

The Marquis of Wu, Zhuge Liang, did not consider capturing Meng Huo to be the remarkable thing — he considered releasing Meng Huo to be remarkable. And it was not one release that was remarkable, but seven releases.

As for the Marquis of Wu playing his lute atop an empty city to turn back Sima Yi's forces, or Zhang Zifang playing his flute on a mountaintop to scatter the Hegemon-King's army — these are but lesser instances of the marvelous.

For the person of Dao does not consider it marvelous to win battles by filling the cities with slaughter and filling the fields with slaughter. What they consider marvelous is retiring the troops with a laugh and a jest, ending war and stilling strife. Military force is used only to rescue the world from chaos. Once chaos is quelled, military force is no longer employed, and one returns to honoring Dao and treasuring De, to clarity, stillness, and nonaction.