Tao Te Ching Chapter 53: Increasing Evidence

The most politically furious chapter in the Tao Te Ching. It opens in humility — if I had even the smallest wisdom, I would walk the great Way and fear only straying from it — and notes the human perversity that makes straying the norm: the great Way is very level and smooth, yet people prefer the side paths. The shortcuts, the angles, the clever routes around the plain road.

Then Lao Tzu describes where the side paths have led, in reportage that needs no updating: the court is in ruin; the fields are overgrown; the granaries are empty — yet those in power wear embroidered robes, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, and hoard wealth beyond measure. The juxtaposition — splendid courts above barren fields — is diagnosed with the bluntest phrase in the book: this is called robber-lords. It is not the Tao! Luxury coexisting with ruin is not misfortune, the chapter insists; it is theft with ceremony, and no vocabulary of rank can rename it.