Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
- Here comes a little more advice for rulers.
- If you aren't overbearing as a ruler, the people are automatically simple and honest.
- If you constantly spy on your citizens and boss them around, they'll just find more and more sneaky ways to avoid your scrutiny.
- Now, we dive into the idea that it's hard to tell what's right and wrong.
- It's also hard to tell if something that's happened is good or bad.
- A horrible tragedy might seem... um... horrible, but who knows what good things it might lead to?
- People have been confused about this stuff for a long time, and we're not going to solve it anytime soon.
- So while the sages hold themselves to the way of the Tao, they don't judge people who don't.
- The sages have personal discipline, but they don't criticize people who live other ways.
- The sages are enlightened, but they don't go around saying they're better than everybody else because of it.