[DDJ Meaning] Chapter 59

[dawei]

David Hinton 2002
59

To govern people and serve heaven
there's nothing like thrift.
Thrift means submitting early,
and submitting early means storing up Integrity.
Store up Integrity and nothing is beyond you.
Once nothing is beyond you,
no one knows where it will all end.
Once no one knows where it will end,
you can nurture a nation.
And nurturing the nation's mother too
you can last and last.
This is called rooted deep and solid,
the Way of long life and enduring insight.

 

Chad Hansen 2009
59

In governing people and serving nature, nothing is better than conserving. 
In general, only conserving 
deserves to be called early readiness. 
Early readiness: call it emphasizing accumulating virtuosity. 
If one emphasizes accumulating virtuosity then there is nothing one cannot conquer. 
If there is nothing one cannot conquer, no one knows one's limit. 
Those of whom no one knows their limits 
may take states. 
The mother of taking states 
is able to endure. 
This is called the deep root and inherent base 
Of the guide to long-life and enduring vision. 

 

 

Moss Roberts 2001

59

For ruling men, for serving heaven,
Nothing surpasses having in store.
For it is having in store
That we call taking precaution.
And taking precaution we call
Bent on amassing one’s powers
Means overcoming all obstacles.
Overcoming all obstacles
Means having no known turning point.
Having no known turning point
Gives dominion over the kingdom.
The mother-source of this dominion
Yields staying power –
What is known as deep roots and strong base,
The Way of extended life and sustained reflection.

 
 

Lok Sang Ho 2002
59

To rule over men or to serve heaven
Nothing works better than following the farmer’s example.
The farmer does his preparatory work early.
To be like him, one must pay attention to the accumulation of virtue.
That way one can overcome all difficulties.
That way one’s ability knows no limit.
That way one can sustain a nation.
Virtue being the mother of a nation,
With virtue the nation can last a long time.
With deep roots and secure trunks, one is
 on the way to a long life and a long view. 

 

Gu Zhengku 1993
59

The best way to govern the state and keep in good health
Is to stint vitality.
To stint vitality means to attempt an early preparation;
The early preparation means to keep accumulating virtue;
Keep accumulating virtue and one can become all-conquering;
Be all-conquering and one's power will be beyond measure;
When one's power is beyond measure,
He can be entrusted with the duty of defending the state.
When there is the principle of governing the state,
The government can long endure.
This is called the Tao of deep roots and sturdy stems
By which one can live and see longer time.

 

Lin Yutang 1948
59

In managing human affairs, there is no better rule 
   than to be sparing. 
To be sparing is to forestall; 
To forestall is to be prepared and strengthened; 
To be prepared and strengthened is to be ever-victorious; 
To be ever-victorious is to have infinite capacity; 
He who has infinite capacity is fit to rule a country, 
And the Mother (principle) of a ruling country can long endure. 
   This is to be firmly rooted, to have deep strength, 
   The road to immortality and enduring vision.

 

 

Flowing Hands 1987
59

In serving Heaven and dealing with all things,
know a balance and have restraint.
In having restraint know the natural order.
In knowing the natural order, be at one with the Dao.
Being at one with the Dao, one knows how to care for all
things without bias or preference.
And so, the natural order is not upset.
Man interferes with the natural order, and
so he makes problems for himself.
Too much kindness is no good.
Nature takes care of all things and so man should not interfere.
For it will only cause problems and imbalances.
Man is the only creature that interferes.
The Ten Thousand Things rise and fall naturally, and so they are balanced.
Strengthen the body and simplify your life, and so pass on a healthy
body to the next generation.
For the weaker the body, the more atrophy will set in, in the generations to come.
The weaker the body, the more it is prone to disease, imbalance and malformation.
 

[Marblehead]

I'm a conservative.

 

[OldDog]

If I had to say ... I would csll myself independent.

[Kara_mia]

Thanks a lot!

[wandelaar]

What is stored?

[OldDog]

21 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

What is stored?

 

Generally, I think, it can be anything. The theme here seems to be to prepare, save, be thrifty and not expend frivolously. More as a way of life in accord with Dao. Never too much. Address things while they are small and dealing with them while it is easy, which requires one to be far seeing.

 

Specifically, they (translators) are speaking of virtue and/or integrity, of which, much has been written on this site.

 

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by OldDog
Grammar

[wandelaar]

1 minute ago, OldDog said:

Generally, I think, it can be anything. The theme here seems to be to prepare, save, be thrifty and not expend frivolously. More as a way of life in accord with Dao. Never too much. Address things while they are small and dealing with them while it is easy, which requires n one to be far seeing.

 

That I can understand.

 

1 minute ago, OldDog said:

Specifically, they (translators) are speaking of virtue and/or integrity, of which, much has been written on this site.

 

There my logical mind protests. Virtue and integrity are not "things" or "substances", I don't see how they could be stored.

[OldDog]

4 hours ago, wandelaar said:

There my logical mind protests. Virtue and integrity are not "things" or "substances", I don't see how they could be stored.

 

Here we are back at a question of what is knowable. The rational mind proceeds from the viewpoint of what is tangible ... what can beobseved through the senses ... that which can be measured, weighed or quantified. 

 

Might be better to approach the question of virtue from the point of view ... if we can acknowledge virtue as existing, how can we know it?

 

Does wisdom exist and can we find a standard of measure that is universally suitable for quantifying wisdom? How about love? Can we acknowledge love comes into being and agree on how to measure it. So, I suspect, it is with virtue. Wisdom, love, virtue can develop and grow. Easy enough to acknowledge, but measure?

 

These are things that rational mind has trouble with. But, if we can conceed that there is more to knowledge than what the rational mind can understand through the senses ... and therefore, measure ... then we are at a launching point for further discovery.

 

 

[wandelaar]

My rational mind has no problem with understanding (the basics of) virtue, love, wisdom, etc. I don't see what's so mysterious about that. Those phenomena are investigated by positive psychology, and so they are definitely not beyond the reach of scientific research.

[dawei]

This series is about extracting the meaning, but not through so much discussion. You can look at the past series for discussion.  State the meaning as you see it.   If there is doubt as to understanding, that is still a previous series.

 

This series is more about a surety about an understanding. 

[wandelaar]

So what specific topic do I have to go to?

[OldDog]

14 hours ago, dawei said:

This series is about extracting the meaning ... State the meaning as you see it.

 

Fair enough. I tend to fall into discussion over specific points. I do like exploring others ideas. Going forward, I will try to throttle that back. If it looks like a lengthy discussion wants to develop, I'll try moving it to General Discussion.

 

mea culpa

 

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by OldDog
Spelling

[wandelaar]

Yes - but where do we go now? Couldn't find chapter 59 of the past series...

Edited October 26, 2018 by wandelaar

[Marblehead]

 

[Marblehead]

Strange.  My opening post is missing.  That would be the translations.  Looks like the discussions are still in tact.

 

[Stosh]

2 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Strange.  My opening post is missing.  That would be the translations.  Looks like the discussions are still in tact.

 

Maybe you can change the font down ,,if it was blanked due to being scaled up too big , due to format changes since 2011 ? 

[dawei]

2 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Strange.  My opening post is missing.  That would be the translations.  Looks like the discussions are still in tact.

 

 

weird... I randomly checked some of your other thread starters and one was blank... without any 'edit' text which would show to staff.

 

Let's blame Russia or Trump.... flip a coin  

[Marblehead]

Yeah, I'll blame Russia.  Trump's getting plenty of blame now-a-days.

 

 

[Rara]

Pick your favourite 😂

 

For me, this is a chapter about starting early and storing "virtue". The more I practice, I feel this word can be interchangable with "qi". They both seem to work hand in hand.

 

Only by this practice, is one fit to leave the house.

[Sketch]

• Verse Fifty Nine

 

If by chance you do get put in charge of anything,

 

For heaven's sake show some restraint.

 

Get up in the morning and do the same things you learned were the right things to do 

Base your decisions on the same 

Behavior and thinking.

 

This way of thinking can deal with anything that comes up.

 

It is not limited just to your personal daily routine.

 

It can be the foundation for

Nations, societies, ways of life

That have the power to endure.

 

Deep roots make solid stems.

 

And that is the way to a long life.

 

生 Sheng; life, raw, born, sprout

 

“He not busy being born is busy dying”

Bob Dylan

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Sketch