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Texte chinois
将欲取天下而为之，吾见其不得已。
天下神器，不可为。
为者败之，执者失之。
夫物或行或随，或嘘或吹，或强或赢，或接或隳。
是以圣人去甚，去奢，去泰。
Translation
If one seeks to govern the empire perfectly, I see that it cannot be done.
The empire is like a divine vessel which man should not meddle with.
If he meddles with it, he spoils it; if he tries to grasp it, he loses it.
Hence, among all beings, some advance and some follow; some warm and some cool; some are strong and some weak; some move and some stop.
Therefore, the Sage eliminates excess, luxury, and grandeur.
Notes
The word 取 qǔ (commonly meaning to take) means here "to bring to perfection, to conduct to its height." Lao-tze says that kings desire to bring the government of the empire to perfection, but they ignore the way to succeed in this. Indeed, they engage in action (the opposite of non-action); this is not to possess the art of properly governing the empire.
According to Liu-kie-fou and Sou-tseu-yeou, I have taken the word 已 yǐ as a final particle.
Literally: "The empire is a thing of this kind: it is like a divine vessel, etc." Here is what kind of thing the empire is: it is like a divine vessel which it is not in man's power to make (to fabricate). If he works to perfect it, on the contrary, he destroys it; if he seizes it to possess it, on the contrary, he loses it.
The word 嘘 xū means "to warm," the word 吹 chuī means "to cool."
Such is the mutual opposition and natural inequality of beings. Those who advance, one cannot make them follow; those who warm (or bring heat, like summer), one cannot make them cool (or bring cold, like winter), that is to say, one cannot change their nature. This is why one succeeds without effort in governing beings by conforming to their nature (that is, by practicing non-action and letting them follow their innate impulse). But if one goes against their nature and acts, one gives oneself much trouble and torment, and the creatures only become more confused.
This is why the Sage renounces music and sensual pleasure (淫 yín), the brilliance and richness of clothing, the delights of the table (奢 shē), the magnificence of palaces, towers, and belvederes (泰 tai). After suppressing these three things (excess, luxury, and magnificence), he practices non-action, and the empire transforms itself.
Alternatively, Sie-hoeï. This interpreter thinks that the words 淫 yín, 奢 shē, 泰 tai do not mean here "luxury, sensuality, extravagant spending" (meaning these words have taken in subsequent centuries), but "superfluous and blameworthy activity for executing the simplest and easiest things that can be done naturally."
