Dharma & Dao

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 65 of 81

Chapter 65

modern paraphrase of James Legge's 1891 translation

Modern paraphrase. This is an AI-generated retelling in contemporary English (model: claude-opus-4-7). It is not the James Legge translation. The original is one click away.

  1. The ancients who were skilled at practicing the Tao did not use it to enlighten the people, but rather to keep them simple.

  2. People are hard to govern because they know too much. Whoever tries to govern a state through cleverness is a curse to it; whoever governs without cleverness is a blessing to it.

  3. Knowing these two things is itself the standard. To grasp this standard is what we call mysterious virtue. Mysterious virtue runs deep and reaches far; it sets its possessor apart from others, yet in the end brings everything into great harmony.

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