The Greater Whole大體
古之全大體者：望天地，觀江海，因山谷，日月所照，四時所行，雲布風動；不以智累心，不以私累己；寄治亂於法術，託是非於賞罰，屬輕重於權衡；不逆天理，不傷情性；不吹毛而求小疵，不洗垢而察難知；不引繩之外，不推繩之内；不急法之外，不緩法之内；守成理，因自然；禍福生乎道法，而不出乎愛惡；榮辱之責在乎己，而不在乎人。故至安之世，法如朝露，純樸不散，心無結怨，口無煩言。故車馬不疲弊於遠路，旌旗不亂於大澤，萬民不失命於寇戎，雄駿不創壽於旗幢，豪傑不著名於圖書，不録功於盤盂，記年之牒空虚。故曰：利莫長於簡，福莫久於安。使匠石以千歲之壽操鈎，視規矩，舉繩墨，而正太山；使賁、育帶干將而齊萬民，雖盡力於巧，極盛於壽，太山不正，民不能齊。故曰：古之牧天下者，不使匠石極巧以敗太山之體，不使賁、育盡威以傷萬民之性。因道全法，君子樂而大姦止。澹然間靜，因天命，持大體。故使人無離法之罪，魚無失水之禍。如此，故天下少不可。
Those of old who kept the great frame whole gazed on heaven and earth, looked at the rivers and the sea, and went by the mountains and the valleys. They went by what the sun and moon shine on, what the four seasons walk through, the spreading of the clouds and the moving of the wind. They did not burden the heart with cleverness, nor burden themselves with private ends. They lodged order and disorder in law and method, entrusted right and wrong to reward and punishment, and hung light and heavy on the balance. They did not go against the pattern of heaven, nor injure the feelings and the nature. They did not blow the hair apart to look for small flaws, nor wash off the grime to examine what is hard to know. They did not draw a man outside the marking line, nor push him inside it. They did not press beyond the law, nor slacken within it. They kept to patterns already made and went by what is so of itself. Disaster and good fortune were born of the way and the law and did not come out of love and hate, and the burden of glory and disgrace lay with oneself and not with another. So in an age of the utmost peace the law was like the morning dew, plainness was not scattered, no resentment was bound in the heart, and no vexing words were in the mouth. So carts and horses were not worn out on long roads, banners were not thrown into confusion in the great marshes, the ten thousand people did not lose their lives to bandits and war, the bold and the swift did not have their years cut short beneath the flags, men of great parts did not have their names set down in pictures and writings, their merits were not recorded on basins and bowls, and the tablets that record the years stood empty. So it is said, for profit there is nothing longer than what is simple, and for good fortune nothing more lasting than peace. Let Carpenter Shi, with a life of a thousand years, take up his hook, look to compass and square, raise the marking line, and set Mount Tai straight. Let Meng Ben and Xia Yu gird on the sword Ganjiang and make the ten thousand people even. Though they use their craft to the full and fill out their years to the utmost, Mount Tai will not be set straight and the people cannot be made even. So it is said, those of old who herded all under heaven did not let Carpenter Shi carry craft to its limit and so ruin the body of Mount Tai, and did not let Meng Ben and Xia Yu use their might to the full and so injure the nature of the ten thousand people. Go by the way and keep the law whole, and the gentleman is glad and great wickedness stops. Calm and at leisure and still, they went by the command of heaven and held the great frame. So they made it that men had no crime of leaving the law and fish had no disaster of losing the water. Because it was like this, there was little in all under heaven that could not be done.
上不天則下不遍覆，心不地則物不必載。太山不立好惡，故能成其高；江海不擇小助，故能成其富。故大人寄形於天地而萬物備，歴心於山海而國家富。上無忿怒之毒，下無伏怨之患，上下交樸，以道爲舍。故長利積，大功立，名成於前，德垂於後，治之至也。
If the one above is not like heaven, what is below is not covered everywhere. If his heart is not like the earth, things are not all carried. Mount Tai sets up no likes and dislikes, and so it can complete its height. The rivers and the sea do not turn away the small streams that add to them, and so they can complete their abundance. So the great man lodges his shape in heaven and earth, and the ten thousand things are complete; he lets his heart range over mountain and sea, and the state is rich. Above there is no poison of rage, below there is no trouble of hidden resentment; high and low meet in plainness and take the way for their house. So long profit piles up, great merit is established, the name is completed in front and virtue hangs down behind. This is the utmost of government.