Plain Customs
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太上，下知有之；其次親之譽之；其次畏之；其次侮之。信不足焉，猶兮其貴言。功成事遂，百姓皆謂我自然。
The very best ruler: those below know only that he is there. The next, they love him and praise him. The next, they fear him. The next, they despise him. When trust is not enough, he is wary, and he treasures his words. The work is done, the task complete, and the people all say, “We did it ourselves, naturally.”
A ranking of rulers by how visible their rule is, ending in the ideal: people crediting themselves for what the ruler quietly made possible.
The ranking measures one thing, how much the people notice their ruler, and the best one barely registers. A ruler short on trust does better to be sparing with words than to make promises; then, when the work succeeds, the people credit themselves.
Heshang Gong's version pictures that reticent ruler as 猶, “wary, hesitant”; Wang Bi's has 悠, “unhurried, at ease”, a noticeably calmer image. Wang Bi's text also carries a clause missing here entirely, 有不信焉, “there will be mistrust,” one of the most quoted lines of the book in that recension.
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