1, original text
Its security is easy to keep, but not easy to seek. Crispy and easy to spread, but slightly easy to disperse. Do it for nothing, treat it in disorder. Broken wood is born in the end; Nine-story platform, starting with tired soil; A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you cook some fresh food to govern a big country, people will often fail in a few achievements. If you are careful to the end, you will never fail.
2. Translation
Easy to maintain when the situation is stable; It is easy to solve when there is no sign of the incident; Fragile things dissolve easily; Things can easily dissipate at delicate times. It is necessary to make proper arrangements before the incident and deal with it before the disaster. Folded trees grow from saplings; The nine-story platform is built of accumulated soil; The journey of potential begins with the first step.
If you do something, you will not do it, and if you don't do it, you will lose something. Because the sage does nothing, he will not fail, nor will he gain nothing, so he will not lose anything. Managing a big country is like cooking a small fish. People often fail when they are close to success. When things are almost over, you can be as cautious as you were at the beginning, so the desire of saints is to have nothing to ask for and not to pay attention to rare things; The sage's learning is no learning, in order to remedy common mistakes made by people. Used to assist the natural development of all things and dare not interfere.
Appreciation of Tao Te Ching
In ancient China, the Classic of Tao Te Ching, which is a combination of governing the country and dealing with the world, appeared. As early as the Shang Dynasty in ancient China, there was a prime minister, Yi Yin, who told Tang, the monarch of the Shang Dynasty, that governing a country like cooking should not be too hasty or too slack, but just right.
Being able to integrate the theory of governing the country with the theory of cooking small delicacies shows Lao Tzu's profound wisdom. In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu used the truth of life and society to discuss the truth of nature many times, which shows that Lao Tzu's philosophy has penetrated into life, society and nature and is a thorough understanding of the world.
Han Feizi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was called one of the people who absorbed the essence of Laozi's thought by later generations. He once well explained Laozi's famous saying that "governing a big country can cook small and fresh." "Everything is done by Han Feizi" says: "Cooking a little fresh and scraping a few times is a thief; Governing a big country and reforming several laws will make people suffer. Therefore, it is important to be quiet and not to reform. Therefore, to govern a big country, you can cook something fresh. ".