Learning lessons especially when we feel we have no choice but to defend ourselves and Sun Tzu’s tactics on warfare as the pre-eminent standard followed throughout history.
Taoism and Lao Tzu
Most commentaries over the centuries agree that Chapters or Verses thirty and thirty-one are closely related and likely began as one piece before being separated. Both focus on themes of power, weapons, and war—how we sometimes spend our energy in unwise ways and how we respond when under attack, especially when we feel we have no choice but to defend ourselves.
Lao Tzu tells us that weapons of ill omen are not the instrument of gentlemen. That when wielded with no choice in the matter it’s best to remain tranquil and calm. We find that someone who follows the Way has no interest in beauty only for its own sake and takes no pleasure in the killing of others.
Especially in the taking possessions of another person and we are to view all killing as though we are attending a funeral in sorrow and grief. Finally in victory, we are to see the occasion as a wake, or funeral ceremony.
When I think of warfare in ancient China and how Lao Tzu tried to steer people from constant warfare over obtaining more land, even the building of walls and what would later become the Great Wall to keep invaders from the north out, I think of Binzhou City in northern Shandong Province. Binzhou City was the hometown of Sun Tzu, the famous author of the Art of War.
It was also home of many of my students at the university in Qufu where I was teaching. I’d often ask them what they knew of Sun Tzu and that he was from their hometown. Almost in unison the students from Binzhou spoke of yes, they knew who Sun Tzu was from high school. Their number one take away was that you must come to know yourself first.
Many felt my English class was their window to the world and almost all dreamed of becoming teachers as well. But first and foremost, they were proud to be from Shandong Province growing up in the shadow of Confucius and now students in Confucius hometown. One even said that they felt “doubly blessed”.
I’ve commented before in trying to visualize the times when descriptive oral and written history were like sections of this ancient wall before they were joined together. Also, at the time of Lao Tzu what was followed as something orally or written down was in literature seen as philosophy, storytelling, or even as military treatises.
This was where Sun Tzu’s tactics on warfare became pre-eminent and the standard. With Sun Tzu there were the five essentials:
1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. and
5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. Victory depends on these five points.
Hence the saying: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb every battle.”
Before we go on with Verse number 31 of 81, it’s worth noting that the title of the book we’re adding commentary to—Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching—is my own version, titled “Thoughts on Becoming a Sage: The Guidebook to Leading a Virtuous Life.” It’s important to note that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in the sixth century BC, while I wrote mine in May and June of 2000 and published it in China in 2006.
Verse 31 – Remaining centered with the Tao
Learn not to expand your energies or passion on things of little or no consequence.
Remaining still and reserved as if you are pre-occupied with your own enthusiasm. To those around you, simply smile at what living brings to greet you each day and to trouble say ah so!
Not as one considered as self-centered with ego, but as Tao centered spreading your joy and enthusiasm to all you meet. Letting joy for knowing your place in the universe become your foremost point of engagement.
Learn not to let situations control you. Instead, remain in control by not allowing events to cloud your vision as you lead others with dispassion, humility and self-control.
When you can respond as if events were gnats, too small to even notice, then you may begin to see over the next horizon as your destiny becomes clear…
31. 在道的中央
不要在区区小事上花费精力和情感。保持宁静和体力，尽管你充满了热忱。对你周围的人和对每
天的生活报予微笑，对麻烦也是如此。
不要以我为中心，但当道成为中心时，你把快乐和笑声带给众人，为找到你在宇宙的地位而高兴，这应该成为你人生最大的事情。
不要被事态控制你。相反，你要控制大局。不要被发生的事件遮住你的视线，你才能够以冷静，谦恭和自控的心态率领众人。
当你有能力对琐碎事情作出反应的时候，你就开始看见下一个地平线，你的命运更加明朗。
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