Lao Zi on Water

(Based on the translations by Tormod Kinnes)

Chapter 8

The highest good is like that of water.

The goodness of water is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures; yet itself hardly ever scrambles –

It seems quite content with the places that all men disdain.
It is this that can make water so near to some Tao.

And if men think the ground the best place for building a house on,
If among thoughts they value those that are profound,
If in friendship they value gentleness;
In words, truth and sincere faithfulness,
In government, order;
In deeds: competence, ability, effectiveness;
In actions: timeliness and being properly timed –

In each case it is because they prefer things that hardly lead to strife, and therefore hardly go much astray or amiss.

Chapter 66

How did the great rivers and seas become the kings of the ravines? By being experts at keeping low.

Therefore to be above the people you have to speak as though you are lower than the people in some ways.

So to be ahead of the people, you have to follow them in your own person. To be foremost or guide well, walk behind.

The wise man keeps himself on top, and the people hardly feels his weight or get crushed by it in time. He guides in this way, and the people do not harm him the least.

He can even walk in front, and people do not wish him harm.

In this dynamic way everything under heaven will be glad to be pushed by him and will not find his guidance irksome. Then the people of the world are glad, the world rejoices and praises him without getting tired of it, in order to uphold him forever.

He accomplishes his aims by overt non-striving. Because he does not compete in the open, no one can compete well with him.

Chapter 78

There is hardly anything more yielding than water, but almost none is better in attacking the resistant and hard,

There are few substitutes for it.

Thus the yielding may conquer the resistant and the soft the hard. This was utilised by none I knew.

Wise sayings,

“Only he who has accepted the dirt of a country can be lord of its soil-shrines: can become heaven-accepted there. Who bears evils of the country can become a king. Who takes into himself the calumny of the world serves to preserve the state.”

Straight words seem crooked.