Chapter 65 · Simplicity Over Cunning

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

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

The ancients who showed their skill in practising the Tao did so,

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

The ancients who showed their skill in practising the Tao did so, not to enlighten the people, but rather to make them simple and ignorant. The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having much knowledge. He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a scourge to it; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing. He who knows these two things finds in them also his model and rule. Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call the mysterious excellence (of a governor). Deep and far-reaching is such mysterious excellence, showing indeed its possessor as opposite to others, but leading them to a great conformity to him.

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Chapter 65, in a second rendering

Kept Them Plain

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

The old hands who were good at this didn't sharpen people up - they kept them plain. People are hard to run precisely because they're too clever. So running a place by being clever robs it, and running it without that blesses it. Know those two and you've got the model. Knowing the model is the deep kind of strength. That strength runs deep and far, it heads the opposite way from how everything else grabs and clutches - and that's how you get back to things really flowing.

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