Chapter 47 — Seeing far鑑遠

事有宗，而物有主，途雖殊而同歸也，慮雖百而其致一也。道有大常，理有大致，執古之道，可以御今，雖處於今，可以知古始，故不出戶闚牖而可知也。

Affairs have their head (宗) and things have their master, so though the roads differ they return to the same place, and though thoughts be a hundred what they reach is one. The Dao has its great constancy and principle its great reaching, so one may grasp the Dao of old and govern today, and dwelling in today may know the beginning of old. So one can know without going out the door or looking through the window.

聖人不出戶以知天下者，以己身知人身，以己家知人家，所以見天下也。

That the sage knows all under heaven without going out the door is because he knows another's body by his own body and another's household by his own household, and in this way sees all under heaven.

天道與人道同，天人相通，精氣相貫。人君清淨，天氣自正，人君多欲，天氣煩濁。吉兇利害，皆由於己。

The Dao of heaven is the same as the Dao of man: heaven and man pass into each other, and their vital essence runs through both. If the ruler is clear and still, the breath of heaven is of itself upright; if the ruler's wants are many, the breath of heaven grows troubled and muddied. Good fortune and ill, benefit and harm, all come out of oneself.

無在於一，而求之於眾也，道視之不可見，聽之不可聞，搏之不可得，如其知之，不須出戶，若其不知，出愈遠愈迷也。

It is because he does not rest in the one but seeks it in the many. The Dao is looked at and cannot be seen, listened for and cannot be heard, grasped at and cannot be held. If he knows it, there is no need to go out the door; if he does not know it, the farther he goes the farther off he is, and the farther off, the more he strays.

謂去其家觀人家，去其身觀人身，所觀益遠，所見益少也。

It means that he leaves his own household to look at another's and leaves his own body to look at another's, so that the farther off he looks, the less he sees.

得物之致，故雖不行而慮可知也。識物之宗，故雖不見，而是非之理可得而名也。

He gets what things reach to, and so though he does not travel he can know by thought; he knows the head of things, and so though he does not see he can get the principle of right and wrong and name it.

聖人不上天，不入淵，能知天下者，以心知之也。

The sage neither climbs to heaven nor goes down into the deep, and yet he can know all under heaven: he knows it with his mind.

上好道，下好德；上好武，下好力。聖人原小知大，察內知外。

When those above love the Dao, those below love virtue; when those above love arms, those below love force. The sage traces the small and so knows the great, examines what is within and so knows what is without.

明物之性，因之而已。故雖不為而使之成矣。

He is clear about the nature of things and only follows it. So though he does not act, he makes them complete.

上無所為，則下無事，家給人足，萬物自化就也。

When there is nothing done above, there is nothing to trouble those below: every household has enough and every person is satisfied, and the ten thousand things transform of themselves and come to completion.