Chinese text
以正治国，以奇用兵，以无事取天下。
吾何以知其然？
以此。
天下多忌讳，而人弥贫；人多利器，国家滋昏；人多伎巧，奇物滋起；法物滋彰，盗贼多有。
故圣人云：“我无为，人自化；我好静，人自正；我无事，人自富；我无欲，人自朴。”
Translation
With righteousness, one governs the kingdom; with cunning, one wages war; with non-action, one becomes the master of the empire.
How do I know this is the case for the empire? By this.
The more the king multiplies prohibitions and defenses, the more the people impoverish themselves;
The more the people have means for profit, the more the kingdom falls into chaos;
The more the people have skill and ingenuity, the more one sees strange objects being made;
The more laws are manifest, the more thieves increase.
This is why the Sage says: I practice non-action, and the people transform themselves.
I love tranquility, and the people correct themselves.
I abstain from all affairs, and the people enrich themselves.
I free myself from all desires, and the people return to simplicity by themselves.
Notes
A, H: The word 奇 here means 诈 , 'deceit, trickery, artifice'.
E: In war, one desires to take the enemy by surprise; this is why one resorts to cleverly devised stratagems.
B: When the prince observes 无为 , when he avoids creating a multitude of laws, the people enjoy peace and give him all their affection. On the contrary, when the administration becomes bothersome and harassing, the people revolt and only know how to hate him.
H: How do I know that by 无为 , one can become the peaceful master of the 天下 ? I know it by seeing that prohibitions, instruments of profit, arts, and laws, which all relate to blameworthy activity, are powerless to provide peaceful government of the 天下 .
According to A, the words 天下 (commonly 'empire') refer here to 'the prince', 君主 . One could retain the usual meaning of this expression, and, because of the word 多 , which becomes, by position, the active verb 'to multiply', render it in the locative as 'in the empire.' Below, the word 多 means 'to have much of'; but the last 多 resumes the ordinary meaning of 'much, in great abundance'.
A: The expression 忌讳 means 'defenses, prohibitions.' 刘劼夫 : When defenses and prohibitions are very relaxed, the people of the 天下 enjoy complete freedom to act or speak. But when defenses are very multiplied and very severe, many people violate the laws, defy the prohibitions, and lose their jobs; this is why the people only become increasingly impoverished.
E: When the people sincerely apply themselves to their duties without chasing after trivial things, even if they had many 利器 , they would not use them.
Ibid. The expression 多利器 'when he has many instruments of profit' means 'when he ardently pursues profit.' 苏子由 explains the words 利器 as 权谋 'schemes, stratagems.' 老子 wants the prince to make the people ignorant and free from desires, so as to bring them back to their original simplicity and purity; if, on the contrary, the people are skilled at making plans and schemes to obtain profit and satisfy their greed, the kingdom will fall into disorder.
Most editions have 人 , 'people.' E reads 民 'the people.' When the people are truly pure and simple, no one needs to shine with extraordinary skill. But when the people show much skill and ingenuity in the arts, one sees a multitude of objects that are as strange as they are useless, which become instruments of disturbance and disorder for the 天下 .
E explains the adjective 奇 (commonly 'rare, extraordinary') by 邪恶 , an expression to which the dictionary of 康熙 gives the meaning of 'strange, bizarre.' E adds the words 无益 'useless' to better characterize the results of the kind of skill that the people sought, as spoken of by 老子 .
The word 滋 means 'to arise, to be born'.
E: In times of peace, laws and regulations are reduced to little; in times of trouble, they are greatly multiplied. If the prince employs laws of excessive severity to restrain inferiors, the latter evade the laws by cunning and skill and mock the prince; then betrayals increase, and thieves multiply day by day. The four kinds of misfortunes we have just reported come from the king engaging in action. These are the disorders that such activity brings about in the 天下 . One sees from this that to become the master of the 天下 , one must absolutely observe 无为 .
E: The Sage (this expression refers to a perfect prince) observes 无为 ; he teaches without speaking (that is, by his example): this is why the people live in sweet harmony and transform themselves.
E: When the Sage loves tranquility, the people also observe 无为 . By observing 无为 , they correct themselves.
E: If the king is very busy (for example, if he orders public works, if he undertakes military expeditions), the people are forced to abandon their private work, to leave their profession; how could they not become poor? This is why, when the king engages in no occupation, the people enrich themselves.
K: If the king has desires, the people will rush to satisfy them, and deceit and hypocrisy will appear. This is why, when the king is without desires, the people return to simplicity by themselves.
A: If the king is constantly without desires, if he suppresses luxury and magnificence, the people will imitate his example and return to simplicity by themselves.
