3 - Managing People

Not raising the clever, causes the people to not compete.
Not valuing treasures that are difficult to acquire, causes the people to not become thieves.
Not seeing that which can be desired, causes hearts to not become unstable.
Therefore this is the way that sages rule [others],
By emptying their minds and filling their stomachs,
By weakening their ambitions and strengthening their bones.
Always causing the people to be without knowledge and without desire.
Letting them know non-daring, non-action, that is all.
Thus, nothing is not managed.

不尚賢，使民不爭；
不貴難得之貨，
使民不為盜；
不見可欲，使心不亂。
是以聖人之治，
虛其心，實其腹，
弱其志，強其骨。
常使民無知無欲。
使夫知不敢弗為而已，
則無不治矣。

This chapter discusses how to manage people (whether a country, a state, a company, or a team).

By avoiding behaviors that cause others to become toxic, one is able to keep their state or team stable, happy, and peaceful. The sage can manage their team by:

  • Filling their stomachs; this refers to physiological needs (such as hunger)
  • Emptying their minds; this refers to being free of superfluous knowledge and delusions (that will lead to mental static and new desires, and thus unhappiness and instability)
  • Weakening their ambitions; this refers to reducing competitiveness (selfish behavior that leads to one winning at the expense of everyone else)
  • Strengthening their bones; this refers to improving health
  • Non-daring; this means not presuming to be a hero and doing dangerous things
  • Non-action; as discussed in chapter 2
We can also see how modern society's desire for expensive academic credentials, luxury brands, and gourmet foods only causes unrest and unhappiness in the minds of the people. The desire for such things is in large part artificially created by society and not about intrinsic value - for example, in North America, lobsters were considered an undesirable, peasant food only 100 years ago, but today are expensive cuisine - yet lobsters are lobsters.

This chapter has additional meanings when interpreted from a cultivation standpoint:

  • "Filling the belly" means filling the lower dantian with breath and mind.
  • "Emptying the mind" is similarly also part of cultivation practice.
  • "Weakening the ambitions" is the same as reducing desires.
  • "Strengthening the bones" refers to body-strengthening practices as in martial arts.
Thus, this chapter is also a suggestion to cultivate the three aspects of body, breath, and mind.

Chapter 2 ← | → Chapter 4

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