Give birth,
Pour out and return to
Like a river in springtime,
Adorn
Eyes of the whole world
Seeing each other,
The Wise Person hears,
Their virtue's virtue:
Let them hear
The sound of the world
Speaking to those they love,
They become All-suffering
From this existence.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
1. Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
2. Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes of
the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. It is not that
those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will not be
employed to hurt men. It is not that it could not hurt men, but
neither does the ruling sage hurt them.
3. When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good
influences converge in the virtue (of the Tao).