On Virtue
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上德不德，是以有德；下德不失德，是以無德。上德無為而無以為，下德為之而有以為。上仁為之而無以為，上義為之而有以為。上禮為之而莫之應，則攘臂而仍之。故失道而後德，失德而後仁，失仁而後義，失義而後禮。夫禮者，忠信之薄而亂之首。前識者，道之華而愚之始。是以大丈夫處其厚，不居其薄；處其實，不居其華。故去彼取此。
The highest virtue is not “virtuous,” and so it has virtue. The lower virtue does not let go of virtue, and so it has no virtue. The highest virtue does not act, and has nothing to act for. The lower virtue acts, and has something to act for. The highest kindness acts, and has nothing to act for. The highest justice acts, and has something to act for. The highest ritual acts, and when no one answers it, then it rolls up its sleeves and presses on. So when the Way is lost, virtue comes after. When virtue is lost, kindness comes after. When kindness is lost, justice comes after. When justice is lost, ritual comes after. Now, ritual is the thinning of loyalty and good faith, and the head of disorder. Knowing ahead of time is the flower of the Way, and the beginning of folly. So the great man dwells in the thick and does not stay in the thin; he dwells in the fruit and does not stay in the flower. So he lets go of that and takes this.
Laozi on the decline from the Way through virtue, kindness, justice and ritual, with a textual crux over how forceful the last stage really is.
Each step down the ladder is more visible and more effortful than the one before. True virtue does not know it is virtuous and needs no audience; lesser virtue works hard to look virtuous and ends up hollow. Ritual, the last and most brittle stage, has to force a response when none comes naturally, which is why the great man dwells in substance rather than show.
The crux is the verb in 攘臂而仍之. This text's 仍 means 'presses on, insists'; Wang Bi's received text reads a stronger 扔, 'yanks, drags by force,' turning the image of a ritualist rolling up his sleeves into something closer to grabbing someone by the arm. The Mawangdui silk texts, buried around 168 BCE and older than either printed tradition, read simply 乃之, 'and then acts,' with no forcing verb at all. So 仍 sits between the silk's plain 乃之 and Wang Bi's stronger 扔之: three degrees of force in the same gesture, though the sources do not say which came first.
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