Chapter 62
Tao holds the place of highest honor among all things. It is the treasure that enriches good people, and the shelter that protects the bad and cancels their wrongs.
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Fine words can buy honor; fine deeds can lift a person above others. And even those who are not good are not cast aside by it.
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So when the sovereign takes his throne as the Son of Heaven and appoints his three high ministers, even if a prince were to present a jade disc large enough to fill both hands, accompanied by a team of horses, such a gift would not match the offering of this Tao, presented on one’s knees.
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Why did the ancients value this Tao so highly? Wasn’t it because those who sought it could find it, and the guilty could be freed from their guilt through it? That is why it is regarded as the most precious thing in the world.
