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Chinese Text
绝圣弃智，民利百倍;
绝仁弃义，民复孝慈;
绝巧弃利，盗贼无有.
此三者，为文不足，故令有所属：见素抱朴，少私寡欲.
Translation
If you abandon sagacity and discard wisdom, the people will benefit a hundredfold.
If you abandon benevolence and discard righteousness, the people will return to filial piety and parental affection.
If you abandon skill and discard profit, thieves and bandits will disappear.
Abandon these three things and recognize that appearance is not enough.
Therefore, I show people what they should hold to.
Let them strive to reveal their simplicity, preserve their purity, have few private interests, and few desires.
Notes
Cf. ch. III and XLV. H: It was the sages of the middle antiquity who used prudence, benevolence, and righteousness to govern the people. But the exercise of these virtues assumes an activity that 老子 criticizes, and their abuse can lead to disorder. If one wants to revive the administration of high antiquity, one must practice non-action, and the empire will purify itself. 素朴 : Benevolence and righteousness teach filial piety and parental affection. But when they deteriorated, people borrowed the mask of benevolence and righteousness for despicable interests. Sons disobeyed their fathers, and fathers tyrannized their sons. If you abandon teaching them, the people will naturally return to the filial piety and parental affection that heaven has instilled in them. The same applies to prudence and skill, which are meant to contribute to peace and profit for people. When their true character deteriorates, they are used to violate laws or to cleverly steal from others. According to 列子 , 老子 does not blame the possession of these qualities as long as they are concentrated within us. He only disapproves of the vain display and abuse by certain people; he believes that those who truly possess them do not show them outwardly, and those who display them only have the appearance, not the reality.
E and all commentators add the words "one must abandon (these three things)" which are (C): 1° sagacity and wisdom; 2° benevolence and righteousness; 3° skill and profit. One must (ibid.) abandon everything that has only a specious appearance.
Literally: Jubeo homines habere (id) cui adhæreant, that is (C): I want people to attach themselves only to simplicity and purity, and to strive (B) to have few desires.
E: Why does the Sage abandon these three things when governing? It is because they are contrary to reality (here, reality means the actual possession of these qualities). Reality is the principal, appearance (i.e., the outward appearance of these qualities) is only secondary. He who focuses on (showing) the appearance (of a quality) loses its reality; he who chases after the secondary loses the principal. Whoever values the principal and sincerity has solid virtue that can last long. A tree that only gives flowers and produces no fruit offers only a weak and fleeting advantage; it is almost useless. All that has been said clearly shows that appearances are not enough (毕静 ) to govern the empire well.
E: The word 素 means "simple, without ornament." The word 朴 means "wood that is not yet hewn or worked." These two words are used here figuratively. 显素 "show outwardly the reality (of one's virtue), do not add ornament (i.e., let it appear in all its simplicity)"; 抱朴 "preserve internally one's purity (the purity of one's virtue), do not let it dissipate outward."
According to most commentators, these two parts of the sentence, like the next two, depend on the word 著 "to attach to." But the interpreter 毕静 sees the last two ideas as the consequence of the first two: if they reveal their simplicity, if they preserve their purity, then they will have few 私 "private interests," and few 欲 "desires."
Commentator E relates the word 私 "private interests" to the calculations of ambition or greed, and the word 欲 "desires" to sensual appetites.
