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  1. Chapter 42 (truncated)

    Chapter 42 (truncated): 道生一。一生二。二生三。三生万物。万物负阴而抱阳,冲气以为和。人之所恶,唯孤、寡、不谷,而王公以为称,故物或损之而益,或益之而损。人之所教,我亦教之,强梁者,不得其死。吾将以为教父。 Chapter sub-title: Selfishness, corruption, Intolerance [MP29a]The three worst behaviors in mankind (人之所恶) are selfishness (唯孤), corruption (寡) and intolerance (不谷). [MP29b]Yet, the rulers and ruling technocrats (王公) openly accept these decadent and self-indulgent behaviors as commendable attributes (以为称). [MP30]Looking forward (故), these ghastly and unpleasant behaviors (物1) can be perceived in two opposing ways (author’s supplementation). [MP30a]One, some people (或1) possibly lessen the impact (损1) of these shameless behaviors (之) and (而) gain much better benefits in return (益1). [MP30b]Two, others (或2) conversely strengthen (益2) all or any one of them (物2) and (而) in the process, compound its destructive power (损2). [MP31a]Anything that I can teach mankind (人之所教), I have already taught them (我亦教之). For example, anyone who is tyrannical, brutal, cruel, vicious, a bully or ruffian (强梁者) who causes cruelty (especially, to fellow mankind) will die a miserable death (不得其死). [MP31b]I (吾) am preaching these warnings (将以为) as teaching lessons (教父) that all men and women must refrain from, totally (author’s supplementation). Notes: 1) Struck out texts discussed about the creation of Heaven and Earth. 2) 唯孤: 唯我独尊 (a Chinese proverb), meaning self-centered. It implies selfishness. (孤and 独, are interchangeable, or can be combined as a phrase 孤独). 3) 寡: 寡廉鲜耻 (a Chinese proverb), meaning shameless, brazenfaced. Among of kinds of shameless acts, corruption is the most brazenly shameful and yet, the most people easily succumb to it. Btw, today’s society does not detest shameless as much as corruption. 4) 不谷: 不虚怀若谷 (a Chinese proverb) meaning not open-minded or have a receptive mind. Intolerance is a simple antonym. 5) 或: some people, certain group of people. 6) This chapter can be split into two chapters. The struck-out texts as a separate subtitle. 7) Notice, the core elements of this chapter are three Chinese proverbs; namely, 唯我独尊, 寡廉鲜耻 and 虚怀若谷. In the past, few people (if not, nobody) ever suspected these characters唯孤, 寡 and 谷 are abbreviation for these proverbs. It might be a surprise to you, Lao Zi discussed about human behaviors which we now classify as a study of the school of humanities (psychology, social science or etc).