Chapter 65第65章

The ancients who practiced the Way well didn't try to make people clever — they kept them simple. People are hard to govern because they know too much. So ruling a country by cleverness is the country's misfortune. Not ruling by cleverness is the country's blessing. Understanding these two alternatives is the guiding principle. Always knowing this principle is called Mysterious Virtue. Mysterious Virtue is deep — deep and far-reaching, and goes in the opposite direction from things. But eventually it arrives at the Great Harmony. This seems terribly anti-intellectual, but think of it this way: when everyone in a society is calculating their advantage, scheming and strategizing, nobody trusts anyone. The most harmonious communities are ones where people don't overthink everything.

This is Lao-tzu's most controversial passage for modern readers, and I think it's been badly misunderstood. The ancients who were good at practicing the Tao didn't try to enlighten the people — they kept them in their original simplicity. People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge. Governing through cleverness is a curse upon the state. Not governing through cleverness is a blessing. Now, this isn't anti-intellectualism — it's a critique of what we might call the weaponization of intelligence. When everyone is clever, everyone is gaming the system. It's an arms race of cunning. Understanding these two paths is the model, the template. Always knowing this template is Mysterious Virtue. And Mysterious Virtue goes deep, goes far, and moves in the opposite direction from all things — counter to entropy, counter to the cultural momentum — until it arrives at the Great Flowing-With. This is the return to nature through conscious choice.

Wang Bi makes a very important distinction here that is easily misunderstood. When the text says the ancient masters of the Way did not 'illuminate' the people but rather kept them 'simple,' this is not about keeping people ignorant in a negative sense. Wang Bi glosses 'illumination' — 明 — as 'much knowledge, craftiness, and deception,' and 'simplicity' — 愚 — as 'without knowledge, guarding the authentic, following what is natural.' The people are difficult to govern because they have too much cleverness — too many crafty stratagems. So governing with cleverness is called 'being a thief to the nation,' while governing without cleverness is the nation's blessing. Wang Bi then introduces the concept of the 'measuring standard' — 稽式 — which is the ancient pattern that all governance should conform to. To constantly know this standard is what he calls Mysterious Virtue — 玄德. And Mysterious Virtue runs deep, runs far, and goes in the opposite direction from all things — which is to say, it reverses the common tendency toward accumulation and cleverness. Only then does it arrive at the Great Compliance — everything flowing smoothly in its natural course.

Wang Bi's reading of this chapter is a masterclass in how to interpret a politically dangerous text. The claim that ancient sages kept people 'simple' rather than 'enlightened' sounds authoritarian — but Wang Bi's glosses reveal something far more interesting. 明 — 'bright, illuminated' — he defines as 「多知巧詐」, 'much knowledge, craftiness, deception.' 愚 — 'simple, foolish' — he defines as 「無知守真順自然」, 'without [false] knowledge, guarding the authentic, following the natural.' This is not anti-intellectualism; it is a critique of a specific KIND of intelligence — the instrumental, manipulative kind that Wang Bi calls 智慝, 'crafty wickedness.' The people are hard to govern BECAUSE of their proliferation of clever stratagems. Governing through cleverness is being a bandit to the nation; governing without cleverness is the nation's blessing. Then Wang Bi introduces the concept of 稽式 — the 'standard of reckoning,' what accords with the ancient pattern. To always know this standard is Mysterious Virtue. And the character of Mysterious Virtue is that 「與物反矣乃至大順」 — it goes counter to things, and ONLY THEN arrives at the Great Compliance. This is dialectical thinking of the highest order: true harmony comes only through the reversal of conventional direction.