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self-restraint,
or to take the lead,
is fatal.
    Compassion wins the battle
and holds the fort ;
it is the bulwark set
around those heaven helps.
    ----
    The first two verses
of this chapter are a joy to me.
    The three final verses
are closely connected in thought to the next two chapters, which may be read as
a single meditation on mercy, moderation, and modesty, on the use of strength,
on victory and defeat.

68 – Heaven’s lead
    The best captain doesn’t rush in front.
The fiercest fighter doesn’t bluster.
The big winner isn’t competing.
The best boss takes a low footing.
This is the power of noncompetition.
This is the right use of ability.
To follow heaven’s lead
has always been the best way.

 
69 – Using mystery
    The expert in warfare says :
Rather than dare make the attack
I’d take the attack;
rather than dare advance an inch
I’d retreat a foot.
    It’s called marching without marching ,
rolling up your sleeves without flexing your muscles,
being armed without weapons,
giving the attacker no opponent.
Nothing’s worse than attacking what yields.
To attack what yields is to throw away the prize.
    So, when matched armies meet ,
the one who comes to grief
is the true victor.
    ----
    A piece of sound
tactical advice (practiced by the martial arts, such as Aikido, and by
underground resistance and guerrilla forces ) , which
leads to a profound moral warning. The prize thrown away by the aggressor is
compassion. The yielder, the griever, the mourner, keeps that prize. The game
is loser take all.

70 – Being obscure
    My words are so easy to understand ,
so easy to follow,
    and yet nobody in the world
understands or follows them.
    Words come from an ancestry ,
deeds from a mastery:
when these are unknown, so am I.
    In my obscurity
is my value.
That’s why the wise
wear their jade under common clothes.

 
71 – The sick mind
    To know without knowing is best.
Not knowing without knowing it is sick.
    To be sick of sickness
is the only cure.
    The wise aren’t sick.
They’re sick of sickness ,
so they’re well.
    ----
    What you know without
knowing you know it is the right kind of knowledge. Any other kind (conviction,
theory, dogmatic belief, opinion) isn’t the right kind, and if you don’t know
that, you’ll lose the Way. This chapter is an example of exactly what Lao Tzu
was talking about in the last one--obscure clarity, well concealed jade.

72 – The right fear
    When we don’t fear what we should fear
we are in fearful danger.
We ought not to live in narrow houses ,
we ought not to do stupid work.
    If we don’t accept stupidity
we won’t act stupidly.
So, wise souls know but don’t show themselves ,
look after but don’t prize themselves,
letting the one go, keeping the other.

 
73 – Daring to do
    Brave daring leads to death.
Brave caution leads to life.
The choice can be the right one
or the wrong one.
    Who will interpret
the judgment of heaven?
Even the wise soul
finds it hard.
    The way of heaven
doesn’t compete
yet wins handily ,
doesn’t speak
yet answers fully,
doesn’t summon
yet attracts.
It acts
perfectly easily.
    The net of heaven
is vast, vast ,
wide-meshed,
yet misses nothing.

 
74 – The Lord of Slaughter
    When normal, decent people don’t fear death ,
how can you use death to frighten them?
Even when they have a normal fear of death ,
who of us dare take and kill the one who doesn’t?
When people are normal and decent and death-fearing ,
there’s always an executioner.
To take the place of that executioner
is to take the place of the great carpenter.
People who cut the great carpenter’s wood
seldom get off with their hands unhurt.
    ----
    To Lao Tzu, not to
fear dying and not to fear killing are equally unnatural and antisocial. Who
are we to forestall the judgment of heaven or nature, to usurp the role of “the
executioner”? “The Lord of Slaughter” is Waley’s grand translation.

75 – Greed
    People are starving.
The rich gobble taxes ,