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Chapter
19
绝圣弃智, 民利百倍;绝仁弃义,民复孝慈;绝巧弃利,盗贼无有。
此三者以为文,不足。故令有所属:见素抱朴,少私寡欲,绝学无忧* 。
If you give up your holiness and the will to control everything, this will be hundred times better for everyone. If you stop promoting humanity and benevolence, the people will return to filial piety and fatherly affection. If you give up cheating and forget making profit, thieves and robbers will disappear.
Adopting these three renunciations as a rule is not enough. That is why people must know what to attach themselves to.
Let them try to keep their simplicity, to keep their original sobriety, to have few private interests and few desires, to give up books and keep their mind untroubled.
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