{"id":13799,"date":"2021-02-05T09:46:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=13799"},"modified":"2021-03-19T21:24:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T01:24:17","slug":"principle-and-action-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=13799","title":{"rendered":"Principle and Action 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2190 Chapter 16<\/a> Chapters 18-19 →<\/a><\/p>\n

Chapter 17<\/h2>\n

The people at the beginning hardly knew that there were (sovereigns)
\nTheir successors (i.e., sovereigns) were loved and exalted
\nTheir successors were feared
\nTheir successors were despised
\nTheir perfidy [lacking loyalty] destroyed all trust
\nThe first, solemn, reserved in speaking
\nFulfilled their function perfectly
\nAnd the ten thousand beings said:
\n\u201cWe are living according to our nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/h2>\n

Up until recent times in China the \u201cinvisibility of the Emperor\u201d (because, by custom, he rarely showed himself alone) was an outer symbol of the invisible \u201cnot-acting\u201d government. The text indicates the successive forms, always more degraded, assumed by the type of the leader.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First of all \u201cdistance\u201d fails (the first principle was: \u201che exercised an influence, only keeping himself distant\u201d). The sovereign is visible and \u201cpopular\u201d: he loves popularity and needs it. This prestige is not based on the feeling of distance, but on that of closeness to him of the governed mass; for this reason he is loved.\n<\/li>\n
  2. In the next case the type of the prince follows, who governs only because he is feared.\n<\/li>\n
  3. We finally reach the leader who is feared and despised at the same time, failing every relationship of loyalism and mutual fidelity, and the structure of a State reaches the limit of instability.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The sovereign of the origins, \u201cwhose power derives from that of the Principle\u201d, was called \u201cThe Mysterious One\u201d — says Chuang Tze. He transmits the influence of the Principle to all beings, making their natural capacities develop in them; at the origin his \u201cpolitics\u201d consisted \u201cin leading the individual nature of being back to conformity with the universal acting virtue.\u201d (XII, 1-10) The general idea is summarized rather well by Granet (La pens\u00e9e chinoise, p 547) in the following terms:<\/p>\n

    \nFor the benefit of all things, but without charity nor pride, he is limited to concentrate in himself an intact Majesty \u2026 this sovereign Majesty is not distinguished from pure Power nor from integral knowledge (i she<\/em>) \u2026 An unknown Autocrat, he does his work without anyone noticing it, and this work is accomplished without affecting in any way the one from whom it emanates.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Chinese text and literal translation<\/h2>\n

    Chapter 17 (\u7b2c\u5341\u4e03\u7ae0)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \u592a\u4e0a\uff0c\u4e0b\u77e5\u6709\u4e4b\uff1b
    \n\u5176\u6b21\uff0c\u89aa\u800c\u8b7d\u4e4b\uff1b
    \n\u5176\u6b21\u754f\u4e4b\uff1b
    \n\u5176\u6b21\u4fae\u4e4b\u3002
    \n\u4fe1\u4e0d\u8db3\u7109\uff0c\u6709\u4e0d\u4fe1\u7109\u3002
    \n\u60a0\u516e\uff0c\u5176\u8cb4\u8a00\uff0c
    \n\u529f\u6210\u4e8b\u9042\uff0c
    \n\u767e\u59d3\u7686\u8b02\u6211\u81ea\u7136\u3002
    \n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
    		\n
    Great rulers are hardly known by their subjects,
    \n Then come those the people draw near and praise,
    \n Then those the people hold in fear,
    \n Then those the people revile.
    \n When one lacks trust, one finds no trust.
    \nReluctantly, without boasting;
    \nPerform actions, accomplish deeds;
    \nThe people will say it happened naturally.\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For the benefit of all things, but without charity nor pride, he is limited to concentrate in himself an intact Majesty \u2026 this sovereign Majesty is not distinguished from pure Power nor from integral knowledge \u2026 An unknown Autocrat, he does his work without anyone noticing it, and this work is accomplished without affecting in any way the one from which it emanates. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":12826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1266],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tao-te-ching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14136,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799\/revisions\/14136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}