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 -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance -> 5.1

The ordinary men of the world
all rejoice in men's agreeing with themselves,
and dislike men's being different from themselves.
This rejoicing and this dislike arise from their being bent on making themselves distinguished above all others.
But have they who have this object at heart so risen out above all others?
They depend on them to rest quietly (in the position which they desire),
and their knowledge is not equal to the multitude of the arts of all those others!
When they wish again to administer a state for its ruler,
they proceed to employ all the methods which the kings of the three dynasties considered profitable
without seeing the evils of such a course.
This is to make the state depend on the peradventure of their luck.
But how seldom it is that that peradventure does not issue in the ruin of the state!
Not once in ten thousand instances will such men preserve a state.
Not once will they succeed, and in more than ten thousand cases will they ruin it.
Alas that the possessors of territory (the rulers of states) should not know the danger (of employing such men)!


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.