Tao Te Ching, Ch 57

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

Chapter 57

Govern the state with upright integrity.

Deploy the military with surprise tactics.

Win the world by not being meddlesome.

How do I know it is like that?

By means of this:

The more restrictions there are in the world, 

the poorer people will be.

The more sharpened tools people have,

 the more chaotic the state will be.

The more skills people have,

 the more strange things will multiply.

The more detailed are the edicts, 

the more thieves and robbers there will be.

Hence the sage says,

“I take no action and people are transformed by themselves.

I prefer quiet, and people are corrected by themselves.

I am not meddlesome and people can enrich themselves.

I am desireless and people by themselves can become simple and plain.”

Review

    

The Truth in the Tao Te Ching is not only for individual need, but also for military affair and the governance of the whole country. Here Lao Tzu tells us the three principles derived from the Truth:

 

“Govern the state with upright integrity.

Deploy the military with surprise tactics.

Win the world by not being meddlesome.”

 

To govern a country with the Truth, we must have upright integrity. The ruling class should be trustworthy and righteous to people. The principle of upright integrity must be enacted for the welfare and stability of the country. If the ruling class does not abide by righteousness and integrity to their people, the country will be corrupted, and chaotic situation will result.

 

Therefore, the Truth in governing a country is righteousness and integrity. In military affair, the Truth turns into mysterious in order to overcome the enemies who threaten the country; thus, Lao Tzu says:

“Deploy the military with surprise tactics.”

 

About 1400 years ago in Arabic Peninsular, Prophet Muhammad who was regarded as the most trustworthy person in Mecca, never told a lie in his life and always kept his promise without fail. He was a well-known absolutely honest man in the Middle East; therefore, he was named “Ahmed” by the people which means the most trustworthy and reliable person. Undoubtedly, Prophet Muhammad abided by the Truth in his whole life in every aspect including military affair. As what has been mentioned in the previous Chapters, Prophet Muhammad started warfare by enacting the principles the same as Lao Tzu tells us in the Tao Te Ching (see Chapters 30 and 31). Prophet Muhammad also told his companions that telling lies was only acceptable during warfare to be exempt from the punishment of Allah in order to cheat the enemies by sending wrong messages. It is truly one of the surprise tactics Lao Tzu refers here.

 

When we see closely the warfare Prophet Muhammad deployed, we can find Prophet Muhammad had used surprise tactics many times to overcome the enemies by minimum armed force. To complete the mission of establishing Islam in Arabic Peninsular, the casualties of both sides, Muslims and pagans, were unbelievably small in number, totally less than 500. Then Lao Tzu tells us the third principle of the Truth:

 

“Win the world by not being meddlesome.”

 

Here Lao Tzu means the rulers should never be troublesome to their people by over acting in all affairs. The government should give freedom for people to develop themselves to live in harmony and peace, thus Lao Tzu tells the rulers not to be meddlesome. To be meddlesome to interfere people’s affairs too much will make people suffer instead of having any benefit. Here Lao Tzu explains:

 

“How do I know it is like that?

By means of this:”

 

First, Lao Tzu tells us:

 

“The more restrictions there are in the world, the poorer the people will be.”

 

What the rulers should do is to provide a healthy environment for governing the country with righteousness and integrity for people to earn their living freely by their creativity coping with different situations. If there are a lot of restrictions telling people not to do with thousand rules, regulations and instructions in different affairs, people cannot use their creativities to deal with different situations for their best. To be flexible to deal with different situations resembles closely the law of nature, while to be rigid is opposite to the law of nature. A highly controlled society will deprive people of their liberty to live well and to have mutual benefit to each other. It is why the free economy in our world is always more successful than the controlled economy. People can get wealthy better in the free economy than in the controlled economy. Our world history in different countries tells us the Truth told by Lao Tzu. How the communist countries planning everything for people turned all of them into poverty.

 

For Lao Tzu, the real life of people is simplicity, not luxurious life, not the life full of endless desires. The more desires people have in their life no matter in the social, economic and cultural aspects, the more problems will arise among the people. People cannot retain their purity and simplicity but are always fond of various enjoyments in living by inventing something new in their life. All kinds of machines and tools are invented for people to enjoy different experiences in eating, drinking, entertaining and sleeping. Some people will be jealous of other people who have more sophisticated enjoyments in life. People start to compare and contend with each other. Such society Lao Tzu describes as the most harmful and troublesome to people:

 

“The more sharpened tools people have, the more chaotic the state will be.

The more skills people have, the stranger things will multiply.

The more detailed are the edicts, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”

 

By being always busy with the external world, people forget to seek the Truth inside them. People turn to be greedy and cunning for acquisition of outward gains. People become robbers or thieves for grasping more by any means. Everyone wants to have more and more outwardly. What they have lost inward them they do not know. They lose their Real Self which is the greatest loss in their life though they may gain much outwardly. People seek and seek the material benefit, fame and pride outward them, while they know nothing valuable inward them. How can this happen? It is due to the encouragement in outward pursuit of lifestyle with varieties and complex. People lose simplicity which is the key for realizing the Truth inherent in them.

 

Nowadays, our modern sophisticated lifestyle makes people stick into material life to enjoy more and more. People have no room to be quiet and contented with nothing, the emptiness of life. For Lao Tzu, the ideal sages are the embodiment of the Truth, the model for people to follow to return to their purity and simplicity like a raw rock, the rock not yet carved into different forms and shapes. This is the origin of our real self that we all should return naturally if we have a simple and quiet life. People should be natural and simple, not artificial and complicated; thus, Lao Tzu gives us the conclusion in the end:

 

“Hence the sage says,

“I take no action and people are transformed by themselves.

I prefer quiet, and people are corrected by themselves.

I am not meddlesome, and people can enrich themselves.

I am desireless and people by themselves can become simple and plain.”