Abundant in being,
Idleness and miseries perplex the mind;
Lest even inauspicious desires render them less.
When only the brightest of lights are allowed to shine,
All this perplexity seems to be overcome.
And how do we know it is so? By looking;
If only we could keep to the Way.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
1. What makes a great state is its being (like) a low-lying,
down-flowing (stream);--it becomes the centre to which tend (all the
small states) under heaven.
2. (To illustrate from) the case of all females:--the female always
overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a
sort of) abasement.
3. Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states,
gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to
a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement
leads to gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favour.
4. The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them;
a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other.
Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase
itself.