Chapter 36 Part Seven Confronting Xingyang

The highest virtue is not virtue, because there is virtue; the lower virtue does not lose virtue, because there is no virtue, the upper virtue is inaction and no thinking, the lower virtue is inaction but there is something, the upper benevolence is for it without thinking, the upper righteousness is for it, and there is something for it. If you don't respond to it, throw your arms and throw it away.Therefore, morality comes after loss of morality, benevolence comes after loss of benevolence, righteousness comes after loss of benevolence, propriety comes after loss of righteousness, and the lack of loyalty and trustworthiness of the person who loses etiquette leads to chaos.Fore-knowledge is the flower of Tao and the beginning of ignorance.Therefore, a man should treat his thick, not his thin, and treat his truth, not his grandeur.So go and take this.

——Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching · Chapter 38" Virtuous people follow objective laws, never blindly follow their own subjective desires, and act according to their emotions and emotions. Only in this way can they be moral and far-sighted. People who are virtuous, deliberately pretentious, want to implement virtuous government, think they are virtuous, but go against the way of nature and lose their virtue. A virtuous person follows nature in everything and does not do anything intentionally. On the contrary, he will not go against the way of nature in everything he does. Although a man of great benevolence does something, it is out of love, without deliberate pretense, so that his "benevolence will not violate the Tao."

Upright people care about right and wrong in everything, and everything has its own purpose, so it often goes against nature. People who perform rituals create hundreds of red tapes and ask people to obey them. If others ignore them, he will stretch out his arms to force others to obey. Therefore, virtue is needed when suffering is not enough, benevolence is needed when virtue is not enough, righteousness is needed when benevolence is not enough, and propriety is needed when righteousness is not enough.Because suffering has evolved into ritual, the farther away from the natural way.The emergence of rituals is the beginning of human nature becoming weak due to simplicity, and it is also the beginning of chaos in the world.

Those who think they are prophets often like the prosperous truth, go against the simplicity, seize the end of the Tao, and the truth is the beginning of stupidity.It is based on a man's conduct, based on kindness; no emphasis on etiquette, and simplicity; rejecting Hua Zhu, getting rid of the performance that is not in line with the Tao, and strictly adhering to the true nature of doing nothing and doing nothing.