第五十八章      福禍相連

其政悶悶，其民淳淳；其政察察，其民缺缺。
禍兮福之所倚，福兮禍之所伏。孰知其極？其無正。正復為奇，善復為妖。人之迷，其日固久。是以圣人方而不割，廉而不劌，直而不肆，光而不耀。

The Cycle of Fortune and Misfortune

If a country is governed withtolerance,

the people are comfortable andsincere.

If a country is governed with repression,

the people are depressed andcrafty.

Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on, Good fortune is what badfortune hides in.Who knows the ultimate end of this process? there is no fixednorm of correctness. Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal, And the goodagain will become evil.Andpeople indeed are bewilded by this

for a long, long time.

Thus the Enlightened Individualsare:

Square without sharpness,

honest without offending,

straightforward without hurting,

radiant without dazzling.

 [譯文]

以德為政，民風淳樸。 強權為政，百姓狡狤。 災禍呀，福分依傍其中，福分呀，災禍隱藏其中。誰知福禍的轉換呢？沒有一個固定模式。和諧會轉化為反常，善行可轉化為惡績。對此，人們已經迷惑很久了。

真正悟道的人有規(guī)矩方圓卻不顯露于外， 尖銳而不刺人，耿直而不放肆，坦蕩光明卻不耀眼。