64

It’s easy to rule while it’s peaceful it’s easy to plan for before it appears it’s easy to break while it’s fragile it’s easy to disperse while it’s small act before anything exists govern before anyone rebels a giant tree grows from the tiniest shoot a great tower rises from a basket of dirt a thousand-mile journey begins at your feet but to act is to fail to control is to lose sages therefore don’t act thus they don’t fail they don’t control thus they don’t lose when people pursue a task failure occurs near the end care at the end as well as the start means an end to failure sages thus seek what no one else seeks they don’t prize hard-to-get goods they study what no one else studies they turn to what others pass by to help all things remain natural they dare not act

LU HUI-CH’ING says, “We should act before anything exists, while things are peaceful and latent. We should govern before anyone rebels, while they are weak and few. But to act before anything exists means to act without acting. To govern before anyone rebels means to govern without governing.”

SU CH’E says, “To act before anything exists comes first. To govern before anyone rebels comes next.”

KUAN-TZU says, “Know where success and failure lie, then act” (Kuantzu: 47).

HUAI-NAN-TZU says, “A needle creates a tapestry. A basket of earth makes a wall. Success and failure begin from something small” (Huainantzu: 16).

SUNG CH’ANG-HSING says, “From a sprout, the small becomes great. From a basket of earth, the low becomes high. From here, the near becomes far. But trees are cut down, towers are toppled, and journeys end. Everything we do eventually results in failure. Everything we control is eventually lost. But if we act before anything exists, how can we fail? If we govern before anyone rebels, how can we lose?”

WANG P’ANG says, “Everything has its course. When the time is right, it arrives. But people are blind to this truth and work to speed things up. They try to help Heaven and end up ruining things just as they near completion.”

HO-SHANG KUNG says, “Others seek the ornamental. Sages seek the simple. Others seek form. Sages seek Virtue. Others study facts and skills. Sages study what is natural. Others learn how to govern the world. Sages learn how to govern themselves and how to uphold the truth of the Way.”

HAN FEI says, “The wise don’t fill their lessons with words or their shelves with books. The world may pass them by, but rulers turn to them when they want to learn what no one else learns.”

WU CH’ENG says, “The sage seeks without seeking and studies without studying. For the truth of all things lies not in acting but in doing what is natural. By not acting, the sage shares in the naturalness of all things.”

For line nine, the Mawangtui texts have: “a height of a hundred fathoms.” There are two copies of the latter half of this verse among the Kuotien texts. In the first copy, line seventeen is omitted and line sixteen is lin-shih-chih-chi, “the rule for dealing with things.” In the second copy, line sixteen is omitted but line seventeen is present, although after line eighteen and in variant form. In line twenty-two, the first Kuotien copy has chiao (teach), while the second has hsueh (study).