Daodejing - Chapter Forty Eight

 

道德經  - 第四十八章

為學日益，為道日損。

損之又損，以至於無為。無為而無不為。

取天下常以無事，及其有事，不足以取天下。

Daodejing - Chapter Forty Eight

(Forgetting knowledge)

Those who devote themselves to learning seek, from day to day, to increase something of themselves; 

Those who devote themselves to the Dao seek, from day to day, to diminish something of themselves.

They diminish it again and again, until they arrive at doing nothing (that is based on human dao (Wuwei)).

Having arrived at this point of non-action (Wuwei), then nothing is left undone.

Successful rulers under heaven do not give trouble to their citizens or to themselves. 

If they make trouble, they will not be successful rulers under heaven.

References

1. The English translation is based on the translation by James Legge.
2. The Chinese text is based on the Daodejing in the ctext.org website : https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing.