Settling the People
Read the full text in our reader
不尚賢，使民不爭；不貴難得之貨，使民不為盜；不見可欲，使心不亂。是以聖人治，虛其心，實其腹，弱其志，強其骨。常使民無知無欲；使夫知者不敢為也。為無為，則無不治。
Do not exalt the worthy, and you keep the people from competing. Do not prize goods that are hard to get, and you keep the people from becoming thieves. Do not display what is desirable, and you keep hearts from disorder. So the sage governs: he empties their hearts, fills their bellies, softens their wills, and strengthens their bones. He always keeps the people without knowledge and without desire, and sees that those who know do not dare to act. Do non-doing, and then nothing is out of order.
The third chapter. Heshang Gong titles it 安民 “Settling the People”.
A chapter on government that reads at first like advice to keep people simple. Heshang Gong reads it as care of the body as much as policy: 虛 “empty” and 實 “full” are the language of breath and health, and 治 “govern” also means “to treat an illness”.
The last line is the book’s signature paradox, 為無為.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Tao Te Ching 3 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Tao Te Ching — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Tao Te Ching 3 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/tao/3/