THE TAO TEH KING, OR THE TAO AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯
Translated by James Legge
Book 2
Chapter 60
(1) Governing a great state is like cooking small fish.
(2) Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes
of the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. It is not
that those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will not be
employed to hurt men. It is not that it could not hurt men, but neither
does the ruling sage hurt them.
(3) When these two do not injuriously affect each other, their good
influences converge in the virtue (of the Tao).