There is a saying among soldiers:

It is easier to lose a yard than take an inch.

In this manner one may deploy troops without marshalling them,

Bring weapons to bear without exposing them,

Engage the foe without invading them,

And exhaust their strength without fighting them.

There is no worse disaster than misunderstanding your enemy;

To do so endangers all of my treasures;

So when two well matched forces oppose eachother,

The general who maintains compassion will win.

My words are easy to understand

And my actions are easy to perform

Yet no other can understand or perform them.

My words have meaning; my actions have reason;

Yet these cannot be known and I cannot be known.

We are each unique, and therefore valuable;

Though the sage wears coarse clothes, his heart is jade.

Who recognizes his limitations is healthy;

Who ignores his limitations is sick.

The sage recognizes this sickness as a limitation.

And so becomes immune.

When people have nothing more to lose,

Then revolution will result.

Do not take away their lands,

And do not destroy their livelihoods;

If your burden is not heavy then they will not shirk it.

The sage maintains himself but exacts no tribute,

Values himself but requires no honours;

He ignores abstraction and accepts substance.

Who is brave and bold will perish;

Who is brave and subtle will benefit.

The subtle profit where the bold perish

For fate does not honour daring.

And even the sage dares not tempt fate.

Fate does not attack, yet all things are conquered by it;

It does not ask, yet all things answer to it;

It does not call, yet all things meet it;

It does not plan, yet all things are determined by it.

Fate's net is vast and its mesh is coarse,

Yet none escape it.

If people were not afraid of death,

Then what would be the use of an executioner?

If people were only afraid of death,

And you executed everyone who did not obey,

No one would dare to disobey you.

Then what would be the use of an executioner?

People fear death because death is an instrument of fate.

When people are killed by execution rather than by fate,

This is like carving wood in the place of a carpenter.

Those who carve wood in place of a carpenter

Often injure their hands.

When rulers take grain so that they may feast,

Their people become hungry;

When rulers take action to serve their own interests,

Their people become rebellious;

When rulers take lives so that their own lives are maintained,

Their people no longer fear death.

When people act without regard for their own lives

They overcome those who value only their own lives.

A newborn is soft and tender,

A crone, hard and stiff.

Plants and animals, in life, are supple and succulent;

In death, withered and dry.

So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,

And hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.

Just as a sapless tree will split and decay

So an inflexible force will meet defeat;

The hard and mighty lie beneath the ground

While the tender and weak dance on the breeze above.

Is the action of nature not unlike drawing a bow?

What is higher is pulled down, and what is lower is raised up;

What is taller is shortened, and what is thinner is broadened;

Nature's motion decreases those who have more than they need

And increases those who need more than they have.

It is not so with Man.

Man decreases those who need more than they have

And increases those who have more than they need.

To give away what you do not need is to follow the Way.

So the sage gives without expectation,

Accomplishes without claiming credit,

And has no desire for ostentation.

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water,

Yet nothing can better overcome the hard and strong,

For they can neither control nor do away with it.

The soft overcomes the hard,

The yielding overcomes the strong;

Every person knows this,

But no one can practice it.

Who attends to the people would control the land and grain;

Who attends to the state would control the whole world;

Truth is easily hidden by rhetoric.

When conflict is reconciled, some hard feelings remain;

This is dangerous.

The sage accepts less than is due

And does not blame or punish;

For harmony seeks agreement

Where justice seeks payment.

The ancients said: "nature is impartial;

Therefore it serves those who serve all."

Let your community be small, with only a few people;

Keep tools in abundance, but do not depend upon them;

Appreciate your life and be content with your home;

Sail boats and ride horses, but don't go too far;

Keep weapons and armour, but do not employ them;

Let everyone read and write,

Eat well and make beautiful things.

Live peacefully and delight in your own society;

Dwell within cock-crow of your neighbours,

But maintain your independence from them.