Chapter XIX

 1.      Eliminate the sages, get rid of the schemers,

2.      and the people will benefit a hundredfold;

3.      Eliminate humaneness, get rid of righteousness,

4.      and the people will return to filiality and charity;

5.      Eliminate cleverness, get rid of gain,

6.      and there will be no more bandits and thieves.

7.      These three sayings I take to be incomplete,

8.      so they’ve had something attached to them:

9.      Display the simple, embrace the original

10.  Think little of self and make your desires few.

11. Eliminate learning, and there will be no more worries.

Interpretation: Develops the ideas of Chs. 17 and 18, but note that filiality and charity have changed significance between Ch 18 line 6 and Ch. 19 line 4.  

Translation: “Original” in line 9 was translated “rough lumber” in Ch. 15, where the concrete underlying metaphor was more important. The basic idea is “raw material”; Taoism privileges the original and natural and solid over the cultural and artificial.

Cross-references: Legalism. ”Original / rough lumber”: Chs. 15, 28, 32, 37, 57.

Text: As said above, it has been suggested that Chs. 17-19 make a single unit. The last line is traditionally attached to the beginning of the next chapter, but is more appropriate here.  

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