The Tao Te Ching

Of the world's many religions and philosophies, I keep going back to Chinese taoism as one of the more intriguing -- because of simplicity or subtlety, common sense and mystery, ecology and energy, suppleness and relevence.

There are scores of English translations of the Tao Te Ching (or Daodeyjingh), some more beautifully rendered than others, based on Chinese texts tradionally ascribed to Lao Tzu (Laozi), "the Old Master," a man or composite like Homer, who lived ca. 600 BCE. With taoism, there is a "way" or flow or energy that connects everything and every universal movement and fluctuation; taoist ideas, mixed with Buddhism, migrated to Japan and helped create Zen Buddhism.

Taoism flows away from too much direct interference in the world. It provides an ideal vision and means for detaching from ego and the world, living a gentler life, and so works well with Buddhism. But it's wide open to all sorts of interpretation, made all the more mysterious by the myriads of translations, some of which come across like riddles, or zen koans.

I happen to have a Penguin Classics version in front of me; this edition (D.C. Lau translation) interprets much of the Tao Te Ching as sage advice for maintaining harmony and stability within the empire, much like the later Art of War by Sun Tzu. There are other strongly different slants on the following passages, and though I prefer some of the others, this is the one available.

LXXX

Reduce the size and population of the state. Ensure that
even though the people have tools of war for a troop or a
battalion they will not use them; and also that they will be
reluctant to move to distant places because they look on
death as no light matter.

Even when they have ships and carts, they will have no use
for them; and even when they have armour and weapons,
they will have no occasion to make a show of them.

Bring it about that the people will return to the use of the
knotted rope,
Will find relish in their food
And beauty in their clothes,
Will be content in their abode
And happy in the way they live.

Though adjoining states are within sight of one another,
and the sound of dogs barking and cocks crowing in one
state can be heard in another, yet the people of one state
will grow old and die without having had any dealings
with those of another.