第六十七章   三寶護身

天下皆謂我道大，似不肖。夫唯大，故似不肖。若肖，久矣其細也夫！
我有三寶，持而保之：一曰慈，二曰儉，三曰不敢為天下先。 慈，故能勇；儉，故能廣；不敢為天下先，故能成事長。 今舍慈且勇，舍儉且廣，舍后且先，死矣！夫慈，以戰則勝，以守則固。天將救之，以慈衛之。

TheProtection of My Three Treasures

All the world says that my Tao is great, but seems queer, likenothing on earth. But it is just because my Tao is great that it is likenothing on earth!

If it can be conceived of,

it would heve become insignificant long ago.

I have three treasures to be maintained and cherished: the firstis love; the second is frugality; The third is daring not tobreak the Natural Laws.

With compassion one becomes courageous,

With moderation one becomes expansive,

In daring not to break the Natural Laws,

One becomes a leader to glorify Tao.

Now one is courageous without compassion；

expansive without moderation；

first to break the Natural Laws,

In this way he is doomed to failure.

For deep love helps one to win in the case of attack, And to befirm in the case of defence. When Heaven is to save a person, Heaven will protecthim through deep love.

 [譯文]

天下人都說我講的道大得無邊無際，不像任何具體東西。正是因為其大無外，故不能片面地用具體東西來描述。要真的像某一具體事物，早就微不足道了。我有三個法寶：一是慈愛，二是儉約，三是不張揚個人的私欲于宇宙道德之外。我因慈愛而無私無畏；因儉約而厚廣；不逞私欲，故能成就道的事業的長久。現在舍棄慈愛而取勇武，舍棄儉約而取厚廣，舍無爭而爭先，就必然走向死路。