Chapter 59
Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish.
When the Dao presides over all under heaven, ghosts lose their spiritual power. It is not that ghosts lose their spiritual power, but that their spiritual power does not harm people. It is not that their spiritual power does not harm people, but that the sage also does not harm people.
When these two do not harm each other, virtue flows back and forth between them and returns to its source.