Dao De Jing, chapter 17

[lnhammer]

The best of all [rulers], [the people] don’t^[17-0] know they have him;
Next tier, they love and praise him;
Next tier, they fear him;
Next^[17-1] tier, they despise him.
When trust is insufficient, they don’t trust him.
Relaxed, ah!, are his valued words.
When his actions succeed and affairs go well,
The hundred families all cry, “We ourselves did this.”

^[17-0] All texts have 下, which can be read as “lessen” in a way that almost makes sense, but otherwise is universally assumed assumed to be a variant form of 不 “not” and frequently amended to that (as I’ve done)
^[17-1] Other texts have “lowest”

太上，不知有之；
其次，亲而誉之；
其次，畏之；
其次，侮之。
信不足，焉有不信焉。
悠兮，其贵言。
功成事遂，
百姓皆谓我自然。

“Valued” is often glossed as “rare” based on passages such as chapter 2, but that seems unnecessary here.

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

Really tight.

[lnhammer]

The next couple chapters are too, which makes the rhapsodic ch.20 all the more startling when you stumble over it.