Three treasures

sixty seven [sixty eight and sixty nine]

The whole world says, I am the Great;
Great and unlike everyone else.
But it is precisely because I am unlike everyone else,
That I am therefore able to be the Great.
Were I like everyone else,
For a long time now I would have seemed
insignificant and small.

I hold and keep three treasures;
Hold on to them and treasure them.
The first is compassion;
the second is frugality;
The third is not presuming to be
At the forefront of the world.
Now. it is because  I am compassionate
that I therefore can be courageous;
And, it is because I am frugal
that I therefore can be generous;
And it is because I do not presume
To be at the forefront of the world,
That I therefore can be the head
of those with complete talent.

Now, if you abandon this compassion,
and yet try to be courageous,
And if you abandon this frugality,
And yet try to be generous;
And if you abandon this staying behind
And yet try to be first.
Then you will die 

If with compasssion you attack, you will win;
If you defend, then you will stand firm.

When Heaven is about to establish him,
It is as though he surrounds him
with the protective wall of compassion.
 

[sixty seven] Sixty eight and [and sixty nine]

Therefore, one who is good at being a warrior,
Does not make a show of his might;
One who is a good in battle does not get angry;
One who is good at defeating the enemy
Does not engage him.
And one who is goed at using men
Places himself below them.
This is called the Virtue of not competing;
This is called the ability to deal with people.
This is called matching Heaven.
It is the high point of the past.
 

[sixty seven, sixty eight and] sixty nine

Those who use weapons have a saying which goes:
"I do not presume to act like the host
but instead play the part of the guest;
I do not advance and inch
but would rather retreat a foot". 

This is called moving forward
without appearing to move -
Rolling up one's sleeves
without showing one's arms -
Grasping firmly, without holding a weapon -
And enticing to fight when there is no opponent. 

Of disasters, there is no greater catastrophe
Than thinking you have no rival.
To think you have no rival,
Is to come close to losing my treasures.
Therefore when weapons are raised,
and opponents are fairly well matched,
Then is the one who feels grief that will win.
 

Corrected with the Mawangtui text

Using men

Ambush

Individuality

Seventy

My words are easy to understand
and easy to put in practice,
Yet no one in the world do understand them,
And no one put them into practice. 

Now, my words have an ancestor.
And my deeds have a lord.
And it is simply because [people]
have no understanding [of them],
That they therefore do not understand me. 

But when those who understand me are few;
Then I am of great value.
Therefore the sage wears coarse woolen cloth
But inside it, he holds on to jade.

 Corrected with the Mawangtui text