A route through the Daodejing · 6 chaptersWhy water is closest to the Way

1. 8The highest good is like waternot yet coveredThe highest good is like water. Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not conten…
2. 36What is to be shrunk must first be stretchednot yet coveredWhat is to be shrunk must first be stretched; what is to be weakened must first be strengt…
3. 43The softest thing in the world gallops through the hardestnot yet coveredThe softest thing in the world gallops through the hardest. What has no substance enters w…
4. 66The rivers and the sea can be kings of the hundred valleys…not yet coveredThe rivers and the sea can be kings of the hundred valleys because they are good at stayin…
5. 76When people are alive they are soft and weaknot yet coveredWhen people are alive they are soft and weak; when they die they are hard and stiff. Plant…
6. 78Nothing in the world is softer and weaker than water, yet…not yet coveredNothing in the world is softer and weaker than water, yet for attacking the hard and stron…

All 81 chapters of the Daodejing

Famous lines that were once written differentlyDoes wuwei mean doing nothing?Knowing enough, knowing when to stopLaozi on warThe infant and the newbornPu: the uncarved blockReversal and returnThe Way and namesLaozi and Confucius: humaneness, rightness, ritualHow the sage treats the people