Laozi

“ Stillness may be considered (a sort of) abasement.
Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement leads to gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favour.
The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.
62 Tao has of all things the most honoured place. ”

“ This is the Knowledge of Subtlety.
Gentleness overcomes Toughness,
Vulnerability overcomes Dominance.
Fish cannot leave the depth,
Deadly weapons should not be exposed to the people.
Chapter 37 (第三十七章)
道常無為而無不為。
侯王若能守,
萬物將自化;
化而欲作,
吾將鎮之以無名之樸;
無名之樸,亦將不欲;
不欲以靜,
天下將自正。
The Dao abides in non-action but there is nothing it does not do.
When the leaders abide,
The myriad of things transform by themselves;
Transformed and desire arises,
I would suppress it with the unknowable unexploited;
Without knowledge and exploitation, one thus led to no desire ”

“ He who possesses the mother of the state may continue long. His case is like that (of the plant) of which we say that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm:--this is the way to secure that its enduring life shall long be seen.
60 Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes of the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. ”

“ When the leaders maintain uninvolved, irrelevant and undeserving,
Is it not based on humility?
Therefore prepare your chariots and set them aside.
Yearn not for crowns and jewels,
And remain composed in grits and gravel.
Chapter 40 (第四十章)
反者道之動,
弱者道之用。
天下萬物生於有,
有生於無。
Resilience is the Dao in action,
Vulnerability is the Dao in expression.
The myriad things in the universe are conceived by existence,
Existence is conceived by inexistence.
Chapter 41 (第四十一章)
上士聞道,勤而行之 ”

“ The Laotian smiled. "I didn't write the receipt. Did you go up into the monument."
"No, just stayed here. What's up there?"
"I don't know. What's up there? Poor people trying to sell their trinkets, souvenirs if you want to call it that. Junk for westerners to remember their trip to Laos. All of it is the same as in Thailand. Nothing that would interest you unless you want a little better view of the city."
"I see. Then I guess not."
"You don't want to be a spectator of poverty?" ”

“ If the Laotian did not return he might continue to have the pleasant company of his thoughts provided he held reign over their restive movements and they were directed mostly toward some external aim instead of a constant churning of old redundant ideas and ghosts of memory haunting him with their illusionary palpability as though that which had been could be grasped still. Alone here in Laos, a foreign land, there was plenty that was novel to explore and by being a sole traveler, his will, his uncompromised agenda, would be exactly as he wished it to be. ”

“ This Thai family includes the Shans proper, and the Siamese. The name Lao, which appears to mean simply “man,” is the collective Siamese term for all the Thai peoples subject to Siam, while Shan, said to be of Chinese origin, is the collective Burmese term for those subject to Burma. Lao is therefore rather a political than an ethnical title, and the people cordially dislike the name, insisting on their right to be called Thai. Owing to the different circumstances which have attended their migrations, the Thai peoples have attained to varying degrees of civilization. ”

“ The Laos are very superstitious, believe in wer-wolves, and that all diseases are caused by evil spirits. Their chief food is rice and fish. Men, women and children all smoke tobacco. The civilized Laos were long addicted to slave-hunting, not only with the sanction but even with the co-operation of their rulers, the Lao mandarins heading regular expeditions against the wilder tribes.
Closely allied with the Lao are a number of tribes found throughout the hill regions of the upper Mekong, between Yunnan and Kwangsi in China and the upper waters of the Menam in Siam. ”

“ It is well to remember that this doctrine, which we may call for distinction's sake Laoism, has intrinsically very little to do with that form of belief now so prevalent among the Chinese, and which is known under the name of Taoism. Although this name itself is derived from Lao-tze's own word Tao, meaning Reason or True Path, and although the followers of Taoism see in the great philosopher its first revealer, it is in all probability nothing more than a new aspect and new appellation assumed by that aboriginal Chinese cult which was based on nature- and ancestor-worship. ”

“ He was a Chinese philosopher, contemporary with Confucius. With regard to his life and actions, many absurd and impossible things are related. His name, Lao-tze, means ‘Old Child;’ and the Chinese say this appellation was given him because he was born already old, and with gray hair. The followers of Lao-tze believe in a spiritual world, in spiritual manifestations, and in the transmigration of souls. This doctrine is [Pg 233] called the religion of Tao, or Reason. The priests are now only cheats and jugglers, living on the superstition of the people, to whom they sell charms and spells. ”

“ The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao, who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier. ”

“ Lâo-zze's system often goes with English writers by the name of Rationalism; but if that name be retained, the term must be taken in quite a peculiar sense. His doctrine was that of the Tâo, but it is not easy to determine what English term will best express the meaning of the Chinese character. The only record which we have of Lao-zze's views is the Tâo-teh King, or 'Classic of Tâo and Virtue,' a treatise of no great length. ”

“ Thus he the constant excellence retains; The simple child again, free from all stains. Who knows how white attracts, Yet always keeps himself within black's shade, The pattern of humility displayed, Displayed in view of all beneath the sky ”

“ During succeeding centuries Lao armies advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north, the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange of embassies. ”

“ Laotze (i. e. the old Philosopher) , a Chinese sage, born in the province of Ho-nan about 565 B.C., a contemporary of Confucius, who wrote the celebrated "Tao-te-King," canon, that is, of the Tao, or divine reason, and of virtue, one—and deservedly so on account of its high ethics—of the sacred books of China; he was the founder of one of the three principal religions of China, Confucianism and Buddhism being the other two, although his followers, the Tao-sze as they are called, are now degenerated into a set of jugglers. ”

“ According to the general view among the Chinese, Lao Tz [) u] was an older contemporary of Confucius; recent Chinese and Western research (A. Waley; H.H. Dubs) has contested this view and places Lao Tz [) u] in the latter part of the fourth century B.C., or even later. Virtually nothing at all is known about his life; the oldest biography of Lao Tz [) u] , written about 100 B.C., says that he lived as an official at the ruler's court and, one day, became tired of the life of an official and withdrew from the capital to his estate, where he died in old age. ”

“ The black-bellied or western Laotians are called by their eastern brethren by the same name which, in Siam and Cambodia, is bestowed on the Annamites, Zuène, Lao-Zuène. The only thing that distinguishes them is, that they tattoo the under part of the body, principally the thighs, and frequently wear the hair long and knotted on the top of their heads. Their language is nearly the same, and differs little from the Siamese and Eastern Laos, except in the pronunciation, and in certain expressions no longer in use among the former. ”

“ The Pass to which Szŭ Ma-chien represents Lao-tzŭ as going, and where he met with Yin-hsi 尹喜, is said in a note to this passage to be probably Han-ku-kwan 函谷關, the present Ling-pao 靈寶 in the extreme west of Honan, and on the south bank of the Yellow River. The Pass and its keeper have since become famous in the legendary and poetic literature of China. This is the last historical notice that we have of Lao-tzŭ. He left the Pass, having enriched the keeper with the 81 chapters he had composed on Tao and Virtue, and went away. “No one knows his end.” ”

“ We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue! ”

“ When at one with the Dao:
When heaven is at one, it is clear,
When earth is at one, it is fertile,
When the spirit is at one, it is serene,
When the refuge is at one, it is rewarding,
When the myriad things are at one, there is life,
When the leaders are at one, the people are respectable,
And become at one!
If the heaven is unclear, there is fear it will fracture;
If the earth is infertile, there is dread for disaster;
If the spirit is disturbed, there is anxiety in death;
If the refuge is deprived, there is panic over recession ”

“ The Chinese and Indians alone traffic here; it requires a day’s journey to conclude the smallest bargain, and a whole village is assembled to make sure that the money is not spurious. On my route here I have not met a single Siamese, but in every village have seen Birmans, Kariens, and people from Western Laos. I have found men in Lao-Pouene moulded like athletes and of herculean strength, and thought that the King of Siam might raise in this province a fine regiment of grenadiers. ”

“ Their besetting sin is slave-hunting, which was until recently pursued with the acquiescence of the Siam authorities, to the terror of the hill-tribes within their reach and to their own demoralization. Apart from the passions associated with this infamous trade the Laos are for the most part an inoffensive, unwarlike race, fond of music, and living chiefly on a diet of rice, vegetables, fruits, fish, and poultry. ”

“ And here he was exiting Vientiane. It was hard to believe that he had actually been in the capital. The city had monuments and a few signs in English elucidating Laotian history, but signs of international commerce or even signs in Laotian prompting capitalism on a local level, seemed scarce. These people were not competing but sustaining themselves and thus there was little thriving on the backs of others. There were no elite artists—no arts at all outside that which impoverished students sold along the river to French tourists. ”

“ Starting with a gay band of troops, armed with banners, umbrellas, matchlocks, singing birds in cages, and other deadly weapons affected by the Chinese soldier, Lao proceeded against the rebels. At the first brush with the enemy the tao-tai’s glittering rabble deserted to a man to the opposing force. ”

“ Therefore the sage desires what (other men) do not desire, and does not prize things difficult to get; he learns what (other men) do not learn, and turns back to what the multitude of men have passed by. Thus he helps the natural development of all things, and does not dare to act (with an ulterior purpose of his own) .
65 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. ”

“ In Lao-tze we find the perfect opposite of Confucius, both in the turn of his mind and in his views and methods of saving the world. Lao-tze endeavoured to reform humanity by warning them to cast off all human artifice and to return to nature. This may be taken as the whole tenor of his doctrine: Do not try to do anything with your petty will, because it is the way to hinder and spoil the spontaneous growth of the true virtue that permeates the universe. ”

“ There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it. ”

“ It is the Way of Heaven to diminish superabundance, and to supplement deficiency. It is not so with the way of man. He takes away from those who have not enough to add to his own superabundance.
Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao! ”

“ 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! ”