Extremis

 Seventy-five

The reason why people starve,
Is because they take so much in tax-grain.
Therefore the people are starving. 

The reason why the common people cannot be ruled,
Is because their superiors have their reasons for acting.
Therefore they cannot be ruled. 

The reason why people take death lightly,
Is because they so avidly seek after life.
Therefore the people take death lightly. 
Only those who do not act for the purpose of living -
Only those are superior to those who value life.

Flexability
 

Seventy-six

When people are born, they are supple and soft;
When they die, they end up stretched and stiff;
When the ten thousand things, grasses and trees are alive,
They are supple and pliant;
When they are death they are withered and dried out. 

Therefore we say that the firm and rigid
are the companions of death,
While the supple, the soft, the weak and the delicate
are the companions of life. 

If a soldier is rigid, he will not win;
If a tree is rigid, it will come to its end.
Rigidity and power occupy the inferior position;
Suppleness, softness, weakness and delicateness
occuppy the superior position.

Balance

Seventy-seven

The Tao of Heaven is like the bending of a bow.
The high it presses down, and the low it raises up.
To those with a surplus, it takes away;
To those without enough, it adds on.
Therefore the way of Heaven
is to reduce the excessive
and increase the insufficient;
The way of Man -
Is to reduce the insufficient
and offer more to the excessive.
Now, who is able to have a surplus
And use it to offer to Heaven?
Clearly it is only the one who possesses Tao. 

Therefore the Sage -
Takes action, but do not possess them;
Accomplishes his tasks - but does not dwell on them.
Like this, is his desire
Not to make a display of his worthyness.

Accept responsability

Seventy-eight

In the whole world nothing is softer
and weaker than water.
And yet for attacking the solid and strong,
nothing can beat it,
Because there is nothing that can replace it.
That water can defeat the strong -
That the weak can defeat the strong -
There is no one in the world that does not know it,
and yet there is no one who can put it into practice.
For this reason, the words of the Sage say:
To take on yourself  the disgrace of the state -
This is called being the lord of earth and grain;
To assume responsability for all ill-omened events in the state -
This is called being the king of the World.
Correct words seem to say the reverse
Of what you expect them to say.

Reconciliation
 

Seventy-nine

To make peace where there has been great resentment,
There is bound to be resentment left over.
How could this be regarded as good?
Therefore the Sage holds The right tally
Yet makes no demands of others.
For this reason, those who have virtue
are in charge of the tally;
Those without Virtue are in charge of the taxes.
The Tao of Heaven is impartial
It stays always with the good men .

Corrected with the Mawangtui text