The most quoted line in the political half of the book: governing a large country is like cooking a small fish — handle it too much and it falls apart. Excessive intervention destroys delicate things, and everything alive is more delicate than its manager believes. One flip, not five; season lightly; mostly, leave the pan alone.
The rest of the chapter describes what happens over a realm governed with that restraint: when the Tao presides over the world, even the spirits lose their power to harm — or rather, the text corrects itself with a smile, their power simply does not harm people. And not only the spirits: the sage too does not harm the people. The old terrors and the new administrators both stand down. The final line completes the circle of mutual disarmament: when neither harms the other, virtue flows back and forth between them. Peace, in this chapter, is not enforced from above; it accumulates between parties who have all stopped meddling.
Key verses
Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish — handle it too much and you ruin it. When the Tao presides over the world, even the spirits lose their power to harm. It is not that the spirits lose their power; their power simply does not harm people. Not only do the spirits not harm people — the sage too does not harm people. When neither harms the other, virtue flows back and forth between them.
Read Chapter 60 in full
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