Chapter 58 · Good Fortune Beside Misery

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

The government that seems the most unwise, Oft goodness to the people best supplies; That which is meddling, touching everything, Will work but ill, and disappointment bring. Misery!--happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness!--misery lurks beneath it! Who knows what either will come to in the end? Shall we then dispense with correction? The (method of) correction shall by a turn become distortion, and the good in it shall by a turn become evil. The delusion of the people (on this point) has indeed subsisted for a long time. Therefore the sage is (like) a square which cuts no one (with its angles); (like) a corner which injures no one (with its sharpness). He is straightforward, but allows himself no license; he is bright, but does not dazzle.

Misery Propped Up on Happiness

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

When the government's dull and hands-off, people come out decent. When it's sharp and into everything, people come out cunning. Misery is propped up on happiness, and happiness has misery tucked inside it - who knows where it lands? There's no fixed normal. The normal flips strange, the good flips rotten, and people have been confused about this for a long, long time. So the steady hand has corners but doesn't cut you, an edge but doesn't gash you, runs straight but doesn't run you over, gives off light but doesn't blind you.

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