Original text

If you don’t respect the virtuous, the people will not fight;

If you don’t value hard-to-find goods, the people will not steal;

Not seen It is desirable to keep the people's hearts calm.

This is the rule of the sage: empty his heart, strengthen his belly, weaken his will, and strengthen his bones.

It often makes the people ignorant and desireless, and makes the wise men dare not do anything.

If you do nothing, everything will be cured.

Explanation

(1) Not to respect the virtuous, so that the people will not fight: "To esteem the virtuous" means to admire the talented and talented, that is, to encourage the people to "become famous". It promotes social groups to Differentiation and specialization make society deviate from chaos and namelessness. "Not respecting the virtuous" is a measure that discourages the differentiation and specialization of social groups and keeps society in chaos and anonymity.

(2) Don’t value hard-to-find goods so that people don’t commit theft: “Pricing hard-to-find goods” means valuing rare and valuable things, which makes the already tense supply of scarce resources in society even more tense. The excessive supply of resources prompts people to frequently violate the prevailing rules of the game and engage in theft. "Inexpensive and hard-to-find goods" requires rulers not to aggravate the tension in resource supply and not to pursue a luxurious life that requires a lot of manpower and material resources. Laozi's idea of ??linking people's theft to the shortage of social resource supply was inherited and developed by Han Feizi.

(3) Be humble: The main control center of the system is the "heart". "Being humble" means removing all kinds of prejudices that play a dominant role in the system. In Laozi's Taoism, propositions such as abandoning the sage and abandoning wisdom, and weakening the ruler's control power are all actions of "humility".

(4) Really its belly: "belly" is a metaphor for the actor's life-sustaining function. Engaging in basic economic construction and meeting the people's needs for food and clothing means "filling the belly".

(5) Weaken the ambition: that is, soften the stubborn pursuit of the actor.

(6) Strengthen its bones: "Bone" refers to the basic scaffolding of the system. "Strengthening its bones" means improving the actor's self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

(7) Ignorance and no desire: "Humble mind" means "ignorance", "weak ambition" means "no desire". "To make the people ignorant and desireless" means that the people do not hold on to prejudices and do not have greed.

(8) Wise man: Wisdom, like the knowledge of the sun, is an authoritative stereotype that has a "universal illumination" effect on the public in a certain social period. Wise men are stereotyped authorities with certain influence and appeal in society.

(9) Weiwei: This is for society as a whole. For society as a whole, "doing nothing" means not doing too much artificial social shaping, or stubbornly maintaining a certain "ism", and not promoting the differentiation and specialization of social groups, so that the society can maintain the flexibility of chaos and anonymity. Adaptability means the ability to adapt to circumstances as they arise.

[Translation]

If there is no compliment to talented people in society, it will not lead to fighting among the people. If everyone does not think that precious things are precious, then Those who do not steal and do not show off things that cause greed will not lead to confusion among the people.

So the governing principle of the sage is: to make the people treat others with humility, to make the people have enough food and clothing, to make the people have no ambitions, to make the people healthy, and to make the whole people form the custom of being modest and prudent, not being in the limelight, living and working in peace and contentment, and not wanting to be in trouble. , even if there are a few "smart people" among them, they would not dare to "risk the disapproval of the world." If the saints act according to the principle of "inaction" and act in accordance with nature, then society will not be unstable.

The word "inaction" here has a specific meaning, not doing nothing. "If you do nothing, everything will be cured." That is to say, if your behavior reaches the state of "inaction," there will be nothing in the world that you cannot control.

Extended information:

About the author

Laozi, whose surname is Li and Ming'er, whose given name is Dan, may also be called Boyang. Huaxia nationality, a native of Qurenli, Lixiang, Kuxian County, Chu State, was a great philosopher and thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the founder of the Taoist school. Laozi is a world cultural celebrity and one of the world's 100 historical celebrities. The Tao Te Ching still exists. The essence of his works is simple dialectics and advocates doing nothing. His teachings have a profound impact on the development of Chinese philosophy. In Taoism, Lao Tzu is revered as the founder of Taoism. Laozi and later Zhuangzi were both called Laozi and Zhuangzi.

Reference material: Tao Te Ching_Baidu Encyclopedia