Practicing the Way
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道者萬物之奧，善人之寶，不善人之所保。美言可以市，尊行可以加人。人之不善，何棄之有？故立天子，置三公，雖有拱璧以先駟馬，不如坐進此道。古之所以貴此道者何？不日以求得，有罪以免耶？故為天下貴。
The Way is the hidden store of the ten thousand things, the treasure of good people, and what people who are not good lean on. Fine words can be sold at market; honored conduct can set one apart from others. If a person is not good, why cast him away? So a Son of Heaven is set up and three chief ministers are appointed; though you have a jade disc held in both hands, sent ahead of a team of four horses, it is not as good as sitting still and offering this Way. What was the ancients’ reason for prizing this Way? It is not by seeking day after day that you get it; if you have a fault, through it you are spared, are you not? So it is prized by the world.
Why the Way is treasured even by, and even for, the person who has done wrong.
The Way belongs to the good and the not-good alike. The good treasure it, and the not-good lean on it to be kept safe without quite knowing it, which is the ground for never casting anyone away.
The line about the ancients reads one character differently from the more familiar version, which asks, half rhetorically, “is it not said, seek and you find, and even guilt is pardoned”. This text has “day” for “say”, and Heshang Gong takes it literally: no one needs to go searching for the Way day after day, far off, because it is already close, within yourself.
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