9.
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill
Oversharpen your blade, and it will soon blunt
Fill your house with gold and jade,
and it can no longer be guarded
Wealth and place breed insolence
that brings ruin in its train
When the work is done, retire
This is Heaven's Way
10.
Carrying the body and the soul and embracing the one
Can you avoid separation?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and nourishing
Having without posessing
Acting with no expectations
Leading and not trying to take control
This is the supreme virtue
11.
Thirty spokes converge on a single hub
but it is in the space where there is nothing
that the usefulness of the cart lies
Clay is molded to make a pot
but it is the space where there is nothing
that the usefulness of the clay pot lies
Cut the doors and windows to make a room
but it is in the spaces where there is nothing
that the usefulness of the room lies
Thus we are helped by what is not
to use what is
12
The five colours can blind,
The five tones deafen,
The five tastes cloy
The race, the hunt, can drive men mad
and their booty leave them no peace
Therefore a sensible man
will do what the belly dictates
and not the outer eye
He chooses this and lets go of that
Taoist literature is full of dialogues with Confucianists in which the latter are shown up as stuffy and pompous. An instance is the story of Chuang Tzu (the intuitive Taoist) and Hui Tzu (the rational Confucianist) who were strolling one day on a bridge over the Hao River. Observed Chuang Tzu:
"Look how the minnows dart hither and thither at will. Such is the pleasure that fish enjoy."
"You are not a fish," responded Hui Tzu. "How do you know what gives pleasure to fish?"
"You are not I," said Chuang Tzu. "How do you know I do not know what gives pleasure to fish?"
