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Chinese text
使我介然有知，行于大道，唯施是畏。
大道甚夷，而人好径。
朝甚除，田甚芜，仓甚虚，服文彩，带利剑，厌饮食，财货有余，是谓盗竽。
非道也哉！
Translation
If I were endowed with some knowledge, I would walk the great Way.
The only thing I fear is to act.
The great Way is very smooth, but the people love bypaths.
If the courts are very splendid, the fields are very overgrown, and the granaries very empty.
The princes dress in rich fabrics; they carry sharp swords; they sate themselves on delicate foods; they overflow with riches.
This is called glorifying in theft; this is not practicing the Tao.
Notes
介然 : E, H, and most commentators explain 介然 as "small, thin, a little." A alone renders it as "great," 大 . A: Lao-tseu detests the princes of his time who do not practice the 大道 . This is why he makes this assumption (to warn them): "If I had great knowledge (E, H: some knowledge) in the art of administration, I would walk the 大道 , and I would give myself the salutary example of non-action".
A explains 施 as 施为 "to act." "I wish to reward virtuous men, but I fear to create hypocritical virtue; I wish to trust loyal and sincere men, but I fear to give rise to false loyalty."
E explains 施 as 彰大 "to become great, to appear great." H renders it as to give, the opposite of receiving. "If I wish," he says, "to give (that is, teach men) the 大道 , and if they refuse to accept it, etc."
H: The killer of men is perverse and corrupt; he does not follow the 大道 . Thus the influence of instruction withers day by day, the cunning and wickedness of the people increase, and the laws become more and more severe.
E: The word 除 has the meaning of 洁好 "clean (that is, well swept) and beautiful (to look at)."
B: So that the prince may wear clothes of different colored silks and feed on delicate foods, he must oppress the people with taxes, and strip them of their riches. Hoc est quod agunt prædones!
E: So that the prince may have superfluity, the people must be deprived of the necessities.
E: The expression 盗竽 means "to take another's property and glory in it."
Several editors have adopted, according to the famous philosopher Han-fei, the reading 盗竽 "to give the example of theft." It is also found in the Dictionary of 康熙 , concerning this very passage of Lao-tseu. "Yú," it is said there, "is the largest of the five musical instruments. It is four feet two inches long. In a musical ensemble, when it begins to sound, all the other instruments follow suit. Similarly, when great thieves set the example, small thieves imitate them. This is why Lao-tseu says here 'to give the example of theft' (literally: 'for theft, to imitate the instrument yú, that is, to give the signal, to set the example')."
E: The Sage dwells in a humble house, wears coarse clothing, and eats in the simplest way; but he devotes himself to farming and values grain. In this way, profit is sure to be spread equally among all, and the rich will not dazzle the poor. The princes of today do the opposite; this is why Lao-tseu says they do not practice the 道 .
