How do I know all this?
This one steals a buckle and he is executed, that one steals a country and he becomes its ruler. Yet it is at the gates of rulers that benevolence and righteousness are professed. Surely this is a case of the wisdom of the sages, benevolence and righteousness being stolen? So people rush to become great robbers, to seize estates, stealing benevolence and righteousness, and taking all the profits of the weights and measures, balances and weights, contracts and legal arguments. Try to prevent them with promises of the trappings of power, they don’t care. Threaten them with execution, and this doesn’t stop them. For by profiting those like Robber Chih, whom none can stop, the sage has made a great mistake.
It is said, ‘Just as you do not take the fish away from the deep waters, so the means of controlling a country should not be shown.’ The sage is the means of control, so the world should not see him clearly. Thus, if sages and wisdom were abandoned, great robbers would cease; destroy the jade and shatter the pearls, then petty thieves would not appear; burn the accounts and rip up the contracts, and the people will return to simplicity; break up the weights and the measures and the people will no longer argue; obliterate the laws of the world the sages have made, then the people can begin to be reasoned with. Throw away the six tones, destroy the pipes and lute, block the ears of Blind Kuang the musician, then every person in the world would for the first time be able to hear properly. If adornments were abolished, the five colours cast away and the eyes of Li Chu glued shut, then everyone in the world would be able to see clearly for the first time. Shatter the template and plumb line, discard the compass and T-square, break the fingers of a craftsman such as craftsman Chui, then for the first time everyone in the world will have and use real skills.
There is a saying: ‘The greatest art in the world is like foolishness.’
Ignore the behaviour of Tseng and Shih, shut the mouth of Yang and Mo, purge benevolence and righteousness, and the true Virtue of all under Heaven will display its mystic power. When people have true clear vision, no one in the world will be duped; if everyone has true hearing, then no one in the world will be distracted; if everyone has true wisdom, then no one in the world will be fooled; if everyone has Virtue, then no one in the world will be debased. Those such as Tseng, Shih, Yang, Mo, the musician Kuang, craftsman Chui or Li Chu showed off their virtue on the outside. They made the world aflame with admiration and so confused the world: a way of proceeding which was pointless.
Sir, are you the only person who does not know about the age of perfect Virtue? In times past, in the era of Yung Cheng, Ta Ting, Po Huang, Chung Yang, Li Lu, Li Hsu, Hsien Yuan, Ho Hsu, Tsun Lu, Chu Jung, Fu Hsi and Shen Nung45 the people followed their ways, knotting string and using the nets. They enjoyed their food; they took pleasure in their clothes; they were content with their lifestyles; they were at ease in their homes. Even though the states were so close to each other that they could hear their neighbours’ dogs and chickens, nevertheless the people lived until a good age before dying and never travelled beyond their own borders. At that time, perfect harmony was the norm. Now the people are agitated, trying to see what is going on, saying, ‘In such and such a place there is a wise man!’ So they pack their bags and rush off, leaving their parents at home and failing to fulfil their duties to their ruler. You can see their footprints making a track from one state to another and the grooves made by their carriages, stretching for more than a thousand li. This is the fault of those in authority who search for good knowledge.
If those in authority search for knowledge, but without the Tao, everything under Heaven will be in terrible confusion. How do I know about all this? A great deal of knowledge is needed to make bows, crossbows, nets, arrows and so forth, but the result is that the birds fly higher in distress. A great deal of knowledge is needed to make fishing lines, traps, baits and hooks, but the result is that the fish disperse in distress in the water. A great deal of knowledge is needed to make traps, snares and nets, but the result is that the animals are disturbed and seek refuge in marshy lands. In the same way, the versatility needed to produce rhetoric, to plot and scheme, spread rumours and debate pointlessly, to dust off arguments and seek apparent agreement, is also considerable, but the result is that the people are confused. So everything under Heaven is in a state of distress, all because of the pursuit of knowledge. Everything in the world knows how to seek for knowledge that they do not have, but do not know how to find what they already know. Everything in the world knows how to condemn what they dislike, but do not know how to condemn what they have which is wrong. This is what causes such immense confusion. It is as if the brightness of the sun and moon had been eclipsed above, while down below the hills and streams have lost their power, as though the natural flow of the four seasons had been broken. There
