Tao Te Ching

Laozi es una figura legendaria o, por lo menos, semi-legendaria, y constituye un evidente eufemismo decir que no se sabe nada a ciencia cierta acerca de él, ya que, incluso en el supuesto de que haya una base histórica en su biografía, debemos admitir que la imaginación popular ha tejido en torno a él un tapiz fantástico de acontecimientos imposibles e incidentes increíbles de tal magnitud que no hay esperanza alguna de desenredar la intrincada red de leyendas, mitos y hechos que lo rodean. (...)

Waley
True words are not fine-sounding; Fine-sounding words are not true. The good man does not prove by argument; The he who proves by argument is not good. True wisdom is different from much learning; Much learning means little wisdom. The Sage has no need to hoard; When his own last scrap has been used up on behalf of others, Lo, he has more than before! When his own last scrap has been used up in giving to other, Lo, his stock is even greater than before! For heaven’s way is to sharpen (...)

Waley
Given a small country with few inhabitants, He could bring it about that through There should be among the people contrivances requiring ten times, A hundred times less labour, they would not use them. He could bring it about that the people would be ready To lay down their lives and lay them down again in defence of their homes, Tather than emigrate. There might still be boats and carriage, But no one would go in them; There might still be weapons of war, But no one would drill with (...)

Waley
(To requite injuries with good deeds.) To allay the main discontent, But only in a manner that will certainly produce further discontents can hardly be called successful.
Therefore the Sage behaves like the holder of the left-hand tally, Who stays where he is and does not go round making claims on people.
For he who has the “power” of Tao is the Grand Almoner; He who has not the “power” is the Grand Perquisitor. “It is Heaven’s way, without distinction of persons, To keep the good (...)

Waley
Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water; But when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail. For they can find no way of altering it.
That the yielding conquers the resistant And the soft conquers the hard is a fact known by all men, Yet utilized by none.
Yet it is in reference to this that the Sage said “Only he who has accepted the dirt of the country can be lord of its soil shrines; Only he who takes upon himself the evils (...)

Waley
Heaven’s way is like the bending of a bow. When a bow is bent the top comes down and the bottom-end comes up.
So too does Heaven take away from those who have too much, And give to those that have not enough. But if it is Heaven’s way to take from those who have too much And give to those who have not enough, this is far from being man’s way. He takes away from those that have not-enough in order To make offering to those who already have too much. One there is and one only, so rich (...)

Waley
When he is born, man is soft and weak; In death he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants And trees while they are alive are supple and soft, But when and dead they become brittle and dry. Truly, what is stiff and hard is a “companion of death”; What is soft and weak is a “companion of life”. Therefore “the weapon that is too hard will be broken, The tree that has the hardest wood will be cut down”. Truly, the hard and mighty are cast down; The soft and weak set (...)

Waley
The people starve because those above them eat too much tax-grain. That is the only reason why they starve.
The people are difficult to keep in order because those above them interfere. That is the only reason why they are so difficult to keep in order. The people attach no importance to death, Because those above them are too grossly absorbed in the pursuit of life. That is why they attach no importance to death. And indeed, in that their hearts are so little set on life They are (...)

Waley
The people are not frightened of death. What then is the use of trying to intimidate them with the death-penalty?
And even supposing people were generally frightened of death And did not regard it as an everyday thing, Which of us would dare to seize them and slay them?
There is the Lord of Slaughter always ready for this task, And to do it in his stead is like thrusting oneself into the master-carpenter’s place And doing his chipping for him. Now “he who tries to do the (...)

Waley
He whose braveness lies in daring, slays. He whose braveness lies in not daring , gives life. Of these two, either may be profitable or unprofitable. But “Heaven hates what it hates; None can know the reason why”. Wherefore the Sage, too, disallows it. For it is the way of Heaven not to strive but none the less to conquer, Not to speak, but none the less to get an answer, Not to beckon; yet things come to it of themselves. Heaven is like one who says little, yet none the less has laid (...)