Superphysics
Federal States
4 minutes • 679 words
Table of contents
Chapter 57: The State Should Have Concise but Efficient Laws
1 A state may be ruled by measures of correction. Weapons of war may be used with crafty dexterity. But the kingdom is made one’s own only by freedom from action and purpose.
2 The multiplication of prohibitive laws increases the poverty of the people.
The more implements to add to their profit that the people have, the greater disorder is there in the state and clan;
The more acts of crafty dexterity that men possess, the more do strange contrivances appear;
The more display there is of legislation, the more thieves and robbers there are.
3 Therefore a sage has said:
‘I will do nothing of purpose.
This will let the people be transformed by themselves. I will keep still and the people will correct themselves. I will take no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich.
I will manifest no ambition, and the people will of themselves attain to the primitive simplicity.’
Chapter 58: Liberty
1 The government that seems the most unwise often supplies the most goodness to the people.
The government which meddles and touches everything will bring disappointment.
Happiness is found by the side of Misery.
Misery lurks beneath Happiness!
Who knows what either will come to in the end?
2 Shall we then dispense with correction?
The method of correction shall by a turn become distortion. The good in it shall by a turn become evil. The delusion of the people on this point has indeed subsisted for a long time.
3 Therefore the sage is (like) a square which cuts no one (with its angles); (like) a corner which injures no one (with its sharpness).
He is straightforward, but allows himself no license; he is bright, but does not dazzle.
Chapter 59: Moderation
1 Moderation is the best way to regulate the human and rendering the service to the heavenly.
2 It is only by this moderation that there becomes an early return to normalcy. That early return is what I call ’the repeated accumulation of the attributes of the Tao'.
The repeated accumulation of those attributes leads to the subjugation of every obstacle each time. We do not know what shall be the limit of this subjugation. When one knows not what the limit shall be, he may be the ruler of a state.
3 He who possesses the mother of the state may rule a long time. He is like a plant with deep roots and firm flower stalks. These secure the plant for it to have a long life.
Chapter 60: Managing the State
1 Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
2 The state should be governed according to the Tao or True Nature. In this way, the cooking up of criticism will not produce a bad smell.
It is not that the cooking does not produce smells, but that the smells will not hurt men.
It is not that the smells could hurt men, but because the ruling sage will not use it to hurt them.
3 When the ruler and his subjects do not injuriously affect each other, their good influences converge in the virtue of the Tao or True Nature.
Chapter 61: Federalism
1 What makes a state great is its being like a low-lying, down-flowing stream. It becomes the centre to which tend all the small states under heaven.
2 This is shown by females. The female always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered a sort of abasement.
3 Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself. Here, the abasement leads to gaining adherents.
Small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. Here, the abasement leads to procuring favour.
4 The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them. A small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.
