Chapter 18 — Customs worn thin俗薄

失無為之事，更以施慧立善道，進物也。

Having lost affairs without doing, one hands out cleverness instead, sets up a way of goodness, and pushes things forward.

大道之時，家有孝子，戶有忠信，仁義不見也。大道廢不用，惡逆生，乃有仁義可傳道。

In the age when the great Dao prevailed, every family had its filial sons and every household its loyalty and good faith, so benevolence and righteousness were nowhere to be seen. Once the great Dao fell away and went unused, evil and defiance arose, and only then could the Dao be handed on by way of benevolence and righteousness.

行術用明，以察姦偽；趣覩形見，物知避之。故智慧出則大偽生也。

One works schemes and uses brightness to look out for craft and falsehood, and then one's intent shows and one's shape is seen, and things learn how to dodge. That is why when cleverness comes out, great falsehood appears.

智慧之君賤德而貴言，賤質而貴文，下則應之以為大偽姦詐。

A clever ruler holds virtue cheap and prizes words, holds plain substance cheap and prizes ornament; those below answer him in kind with great falsehood and crafty deceit.

甚美之名生於大惡，所謂美惡同門。六親，父子兄弟夫婦也。若六親自和，國家自治，則孝慈忠臣不知其所在矣。魚相忘於江湖之道，則相濡之德生也。

A name of great beauty is born from great evil; this is what is meant by beauty and ugliness coming out of the same gate. The six kin are father and son, elder and younger brother, husband and wife. If the six kin were in harmony of themselves and the state were governed of itself, one would not know where filial piety, kindness, and loyal ministers were. It is only with the Dao in which fish forget one another in rivers and lakes that the virtue of wetting one another with spittle does not arise.

六紀絕，親戚不合，乃有孝慈相牧養也。

When the six bonds of kinship were severed and relatives could no longer live in harmony, filial piety and kindness came to be how they cared for and nurtured one another.

政令不明，上下相怨，邪僻爭權，乃有忠臣匡正其君也。此言天下太平不知仁，人盡無欲不知廉，各自潔己不知貞。大道之世，仁義沒，孝慈滅，猶日中盛明，眾星失光。

Government and its orders were not clear, high and low resented one another, and crooked men fought over power; only then did loyal ministers come forward to set their ruler right. This is to say that when all under heaven is greatly at peace no one knows benevolence, that when everyone is without craving no one knows integrity, and that when each keeps his own person clean no one knows uprightness. In an age when the great Dao prevails, benevolence and righteousness are buried and filial piety and kindness die away, just as the host of stars lose their light when the sun blazes at midday.