Chapter 53 Chapter fifty-seven

It is right to govern the country with the right way (regular, normal, and upright way), and to use troops to win by surprise, irregular and abnormal means.But if you really want to do bigger things, if you want to take over the world, you have to "do nothing".That is to say, it is necessary to gain the trust of the world by means of inaction, less trouble, and simplification. Why do I say that we want to govern the country and use soldiers to conquer the world?The reason is as follows: the more rules and taboos there are in the world, the poorer the people will be.The more sharp weapons people have (rare goods or lethal weapons), the darker and darker the country's politics become.The more ingenious and obscene skills people have, the more strange things and monsters will appear (the farther they are from the main road).The more stringent and cumbersome the laws and regulations, the more criminals and thieves there will be.

Therefore the sage said, I do nothing and the people will naturally be educated.I am so quiet (one more thing is worse than one less thing) and the people will naturally walk on the right path.I don't cause trouble, and I don't work around looking for trouble, and the people are naturally rich.I have no greed and ambition, and the people are naturally simple and honest. Laozi does not do anything and does not allow it. He advocates governing the country with the right way and using the army with the strange way.This is also very good.Governing the country is dealing with the local people. You must use the right way, and you must not use tricks, schemes, disguises, or surprises.Governing the country should be upright, upright, honest, and upright.This is not the case with soldiers. Only by using alternative means, methods that the enemy can't think of, and unimaginable strange moves can we win.Here Laozi can even be said to have the meaning of distinguishing between two types of contradictions.

However, Zhengdao is also curious about Dao, but it is still a specific Dao, a small Dao, and a partial Dao. To take the world and unify China, we need the Dao. Only the Dao of doing nothing can win the support and trust of the people of the world . Take the world with nothing, sounds wonderful, elegant, wise, moral and beautiful.It's a pity that there are not too many such examples in ancient and modern China and abroad, but there are such cases where two capable people compete in a mess, and it is difficult to distinguish the difference. In the end, the fruit falls to a person who is not obvious, basically has nothing, words, intentions, inclinations, and no one knows. hands of people.

There are many examples of the opposite. There are some meddlesome people, meddlesome kings, and meddlesome ministers. For example, Qin Shihuang, how capable and accomplished!Unify the six kingdoms, patrol the four fields, write the same books, share the same track with the cars, repair the Great Wall, build the Afang Palace, rectify the mind, eliminate weapons, and establish a foundation for all generations, but it has only been passed on to the second generation! Chongzhen, the king of the Ming Dynasty who died and hanged himself, was not a lazy and lazy person. He was known as the night clothes and food, as careful as a hair, diligent in governing himself, raising taxes and eliminating rebellion. He acted vigorously and eliminated Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs. Acclaimed and embraced, but finally perishing.

The failure of the planned economy in my country's current situation also illustrates this point.How hard is the planned economy, how responsible and promising!Under certain conditions, a planned economy is not useless. However, in such a large country, it is impossible to rely on one plan to solve the tasks of people's livelihood and national power development. A leader who does everything by himself, a leader who does not trust subordinates and the people, and a leader who does not allow subordinates to have any creativity and flexibility, must be a leader who is exhausted but not thankful.A headstrong leader is a leader doomed to failure.

Lifting a stone to shoot oneself in the foot, in this sense, Lao Tzu still has his special insights into the inaction to conquer the world advocated by Lao Tzu. In life, especially in politics, there are often situations that are counterproductive and throw fuel to put out the fire. Lao Tzu discovered this early on: the more regulations are more detailed, the more difficult people's livelihood will be, and the poorer the people will be.The more treasures and treasures there are, the more they compete for it.The higher the technical proficiency of workers, the more unreliable things will happen.Laws are getting stricter and more criminals are breaking the law.

Lao Tzu’s sayings about sharp weapons, tricks, strange things, rare goods, etc. can be extended to another perspective today, that is, a society should not only pay attention to the development of production and efficiency, but also pay attention to distribution, social justice and people’s happiness. Education, pay attention to ethics and due restraint and self-control.Similar problems will exist in any society in any historical period. Lao Tzu's discovery that the more developed the laws and regulations, the more crimes, there is a problem of reversing the cause as the result.After all, it cannot be said that orders are the inducement of crimes, technology is the chief culprit of counterfeiting, and it is difficult to say that sharp weapons, useful or valuable goods, or even weapons themselves have caused the dark and dark situation.Too many taboos make people poor, but it is easy to reason, because you have tied the hands and feet of the people to survive, get rich, and consume.

But this illustrates a more profound problem. The ruler's treatment of the head and the foot often cannot solve the problem, and may even cause more problems.Only through control, management, prohibition, fortification and other means, the goal of effective governance cannot be achieved.For unsure actions, it is better to lose in few than in many; it is better to lose in slowness than in impatience and rash.Those in power should study deeper and more essential reasons, and take more radical measures.For example, too many or too few laws should not be the cause of thieves. More profound reasons should be found and discussed from the aspects of the fairness of distribution, the degree of education and law-abiding of the people, and the state of the rulers, that is, the state of law-abiding. .

Do nothing, the people will be self-absorbed; quiet, the people will be upright; do nothing, the people will be rich; no desire, the people will be simple.This is still a good ideal.This is consistent with the ideal orientation of small government, big society, until the demise of the country and political parties.However, the ideal is an ideal, and the reality has not yet reached this point.This is also the reason why the wise are calling for a long time, and the vicious and active people are still unscrupulous, and there is still a big market.