Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Back Forward
Daoism -> Dao De Jing -> 30

(A caveat against war)
He who would assist a lord of men in harmony with the Dao
天下 will not assert his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms.
Such a course is sure to meet with its proper return.
Wherever a host is stationed,
briars and thorns spring up.
In the sequence of great armies
there are sure to be bad years.
A skilful (commander) strikes a decisive blow, and stops.
He does not dare (by continuing his operations) to assert and complete his mastery.
He will strike the blow, but will be on his guard against being vain or boastful or arrogant in consequence of it.
He strikes it as a matter of necessity;
he strikes it, but not from a wish for mastery.
When things have attained their strong maturity they become old.
This may be said to be not in accordance with the Dao:
and what is not in accordance with it soon comes to an end.


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.