Chapter 56
Govern the state with uprightness, deploy the military with surprise, but win the world through non-interference.
How do I know this to be so?
By this evidence: When the world has many prohibitions and taboos, the people grow ever poorer. When the people have many sharp weapons, the state falls into greater confusion. When people have many clever skills, strange contrivances increasingly arise. When laws and decrees are ever more prominent, thieves and bandits multiply.
Therefore the sage says: I practice non-interference, and the people transform themselves. I cherish stillness, and the people correct themselves. I engage in no enterprises, and the people enrich themselves. I harbor no desires, and the people return to simplicity of themselves.