Translation: Tao Te King – Chapter 37. Of governance

Chapter 37. Of governance

The Tao stays peaceful yet leaves nothing undone.

If a ruler or  a king could hold on to it, all things would be made better.

Drawing of the 18 tonne Laozi statue
Eighteen tonnes light. CC-BY-SA 2.5 by artist Elijahmeeks.

If in addition to this improvement lust would be evoked I would defeat it with wordless simplicity

Wordless simplicity would remove the lust and peace would return once again.¹

Thus the world would be reborn.


  1. Mr. Ervast: ‘Godly wisdom is always simple – straight, honest – in its actions, but the worldly on the other and is complicated, cunning and “political”‘

Own translation from 1925 Finnish translation by Pekka Ervast (ISBN 951-8995-01-X) with kind permission of Ruusu-Ristin Kirjallisuusseura ry.

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