Index

First Lines

A large country is the low level of inter-flowing rivers

Sixty-one

A leader is best when the people barely know they exist

Seventeen

A person anxious for knowledge

Forty-eight

A person of sure fitness

Thirty-eight

A person whom life fulfills

Fifty-five

A person with outward courage dares to die

Seventy-three

A person's work, however finished it seems

Forty-five

A realm is governed by ordinary acts

Fifty-seven

A sound person's heart is not shut within itself

Forty-nine

Allow all things to fall from you

Sixteen

Before creation, a presence existed

Twenty-five

Before it moves, hold it

Sixty-four

Bountiful life, letting anyone attend

Thirty-four

Death is no threat to people

Seventy-four

Death might appear to be the issue of life

Fifty

Even the finest arms are an instrument of ill fortune

Thirty-one

Everyone says that my way of life

Sixty-seven

Existence having born them

Fifty-one

Existence is beyond the power of words to define

One

Existence is infinite, not to be defined

Thirty-two

Existence, by nothing bred

Four

Favor and disfavor have been called equal worries

Thirteen

Five colors blind the eye

Twelve

From the way of life

Sixty-two

Handle a large country with as gentle a touch

Sixty

Having both a body and a soul and loving the world

Ten

If I had any learning

Fifty-three

If terms to end a quarrel leave bad feeling

Seventy-nine

If the land is small, and its people few

Eighty

If the sign of life in in your face

Thirty-five

In the land where the way of life is understood

Forty-six

Is not existence

Seventy-seven

It is better not to make merit a matter of reward

Three

It is better to have less than to have too much

Nine

Knowledge studies others

Thirty-three

Leave off fine learning

Twenty

Life on its way returns into a mist

Forty

Life, when it came to be

Forty-two

Long ago the land was ruled with a wisdom

Fifteen

My way is so simple to feel, so easy to apply

Seventy

Nature does not have to insist

Twenty-three

Nature, immune as to a sacrifice of straw dogs

Five

One may move so well that a footprint never shows

Twenty-seven

One who has a man's wings

Twenty-eight

One who would guide a leader of people in the uses of life

Thirty

People of stamina, knowing the way of life

Forty-one

People starve if taxes eat their grain

Seventy-five

People through finding one thing beautiful

Two

People who know how little they know are well

Seventy-one

People, at their best, are like water

Eight

People, knowing the way of life

Sixty-three

Real words are not in vain

Eighty-one

Rid of formalized wisdom and learning

Nineteen

Since true foundation cannot fail

Fifty-four

Sound old rulers, it is said

Sixty-five

Standing on tiptoe, a person loses balance

Twenty-four

That which is heavy is the root of that which is light

Twenty-six

That which shrinks

Thirty-six

The best officer does not plunge in headlong

Sixty-eight

The breath of life

Six

The source of life is as a mother

Fifty-two

The surest test if a person is sane

Twenty-one

The universe is deathless

Seven

The way of life is to do nothing through acting

Thirty-seven

The wholeness of life has

Thirty-nine

There is a saying among soldiers

Sixty-nine

There is no need to run outside

Forty-seven

Thirty spokes make the wheel's hub

Eleven

This who would take over the earth

Twenty-nine

Those who know, do not tell

Fifty-six

To lead people

Fifty-nine

Upon those who defy authority

Seventy-two

What is more fluid, more yielding than water

Seventy-eight

What is of all things most yielding

Forty-three

What we look for beyond seeing and call unseen

Fourteen

When born, a person is soft and weak

Seventy-six

When people lost sight of the way of life

Eighteen

When the country is ruled with a light hand

Fifty-eight

Which means more to you

Forty-four

Why are the rivers and seas said to be the Lords of the waters

Sixty-six

Yield and you need not break

Twenty-two

Last Lines

A sane person prefers heaven

Seventy-nine

Against being dead

Sixty-seven

Am only an infant still nursing at the breast

Twenty

And a sane person will have none of them

Twenty-four

And before they catch anything else they cure their ills

Seventy-one

And can start again

Forty-four

And enough of a child

Forty-nine

And how completely it comes home

Twenty-two

And thus my own heart teaches

Forty-two

And you are at the core of living

Fifty-one

Are too fat to dare to die

Seventy-five

Be that your no and your yes

Seventy-two

Because it could all begin with me

Fifty-four

Because this person has no death to die

Fifty

Brilliant, but not blinding

Fifty-eight

Came ministers commended as loyal

Eighteen

Comes to an early death

Thirty

Comes to an early end

Fifty-five

Compassion, the one wealth that can afford them

Sixty-nine

Conduct your triumph as a funeral

Thirty-one

Containing a jewel beyond price

Seventy

Do enough without vying, this is the tao

Nine

Exists most

Thirty-four

Fail to honor people and they fail to honor you

Twenty-three

For you have witnessed eternity

Fifty-two

From private greeds and wanton needs

Nineteen

From wonder into wonder existence opens

One

Good government comes of itself

Three

Has attained the highest post in the world

Fifty-six

How endless it is and how good

Thirty-five

If I keep from imposing on people, they become themselves

Fifty-seven

If the large country submits

Sixty-one

If you never assume self-importance, you never lose it

Two

In the way life flows

Fourteen

Is a sound person to guard them

Thirteen

Is fellowship with people that maintains itself

Sixty-eight

It cannot trouble you

Sixty-three

It has left you behind

Forty-eight

Knows just how it is cast

Seventy-three

Leaving death behind

Thirty-three

May slice their own hand

Seventy-four

More wealth than this

Sixty-two

More words matter less; hold fast to the center

Five

No one blames them

Eight

Of many rivers reaching the one sea

Thirty-two

Of the highway's harms

Fifty-three

Over-rate themselves

Twenty-nine

Peace comes of course

Thirty-seven

Remains content

Forty-six

Renews its never needing to exist

Forty

Should be our way also

Eighty-one

That they have no need to visit any other place

Eighty

The more remains

Six

The people will say, we did this ourselves"

Seventeen

The seeing root, whose eye is infinite

Fifty-nine

The sense of direction that people misplace

Sixty-four

The way to do is to be

Forty-seven

The whole circle of life

Sixty-five

They are facets of the single channel of vitality

Sixty

They are not swayed by desire for change

Fifteen

They endlessly become themselves

Seven

They have heard stone growing in a cliff

Thirty-nine

They have their 'yes' and they have their 'no'

Twelve

They have their no and they have their yes

Thirty-eight

They seem to twist the truth

Seventy-eight

This image of no other sire

Four

This is the essence of virtue

Ten

This is the heart of it

Twenty-seven

Though the body is no more, the tao will remain

Sixteen

Through which everyone is everyone's equal

Seventy-seven

Thus are we helped by what is not to use what is

Eleven

To be filled from an undiminishing supply

Twenty-eight

To that which fulfills life

Forty-one

Unseen they survive

Thirty-six

Until the circle is full

Twenty-five

What name need I know of the origin than this

Twenty-one

Which few indeed understand

Forty-three

Who is not bent upon comparison

Sixty-six

will be the first cut down

Seventy-six

With pace beyond reign, speed beyond helm

Twenty-six

Your way will be the rule

Forty-five