Chapter 53第53章

If I had just a little knowledge, I would walk the great Way, and my only fear would be straying from it. The great Way is very smooth and straight, yet people love the side paths. When the court is all dolled up, the fields are full of weeds and the granaries are bare. To wear gorgeous clothes, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, and have wealth in excess — this is called the boasting of thieves. How contrary to the Tao! It's a beautiful critique that still applies: when the leaders live in splendor while the land goes untended, something has gone terribly wrong. The side paths always look more exciting than the straight road.

If I have even a little understanding, I would walk the great Way — my only fear being that I might stray. The great Way is very level, but people love the byways. When the court is splendid, the fields are weedy and the granaries empty. Wearing fine clothes, carrying sharp swords, stuffed with food and drink, possessing wealth in excess — this is called the swagger of thieves. It is certainly not the Way! This chapter is a direct political critique that is as devastating today as it was in ancient China. The concentration of wealth in the hands of the few while the productive land lies fallow — this is what empire always produces. The 'byways' are the shortcuts of exploitation, the clever paths of extraction. Lao-tzu calls it what it is: robbery dressed in silk. The great Way is level and easy, but our civilizational addiction to hierarchy and accumulation keeps us on the crooked paths.

Wang Bi says: 'If I have even a little knowledge, walking on the great Tao, what I would fear most is straying onto byroads.' The great Tao is perfectly smooth and level, yet the people insist on taking shortcuts through the rough terrain. Wang Bi reads this as a description of rulers who obstruct the great Tao through their own interventions and impositions. The court is thoroughly swept clean — that is, the palaces are well maintained and splendid. But the fields are full of weeds and the granaries are empty. They wear embroidered garments, carry sharp swords, gorge themselves on food and drink, and possess wealth in excess. This, he says, is called 'boasting of robbery' — it is most certainly not the Tao. You see, the image is of a government that has beautified itself while the land it governs has gone to ruin. The bypaths are the paths of self-enrichment; the great Tao is the path that nourishes all.

Wang Bi reads this chapter as a direct indictment of the ruling class. The great Tao is broad and smooth, yet the people prefer the bypaths — and the reason they prefer bypaths is that the rulers have obstructed the main road through their own impositions. The court is immaculate, swept clean; the fields are overgrown with weeds; the granaries stand empty. Embroidered clothes, sharp swords, gluttonous feasts, superfluous wealth — 'this is called boasting of robbery.' 「是謂盜夸」. Wang Bi sees the entire apparatus of aristocratic display as theft from the productive landscape. The bypaths are not the people’s error but the inevitable consequence of rulers who have diverted the resources of the great road into their own ornamental splendor. This is class analysis in the sixth century — the recognition that elite luxury and popular immiseration are not separate phenomena but two faces of the same extractive process. The great Tao is level; it is human institutions that create the rough terrain.