Tao Te Ching by Laozi, a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The original excerpt is as follows:
Jianghai can be the king of all the valleys, just because of his kindness. If you want to go to the people, you must say it; If you want to be an ancestor, you must be behind you. It is based on the position of saints and the fact that people are not important and people are not harmful.
The translation is as follows:
The reason why Jianghai can make the Baichuan Canyon possess itself is that it can bend under the Baichuan Canyon and swim in it, so it possesses itself.
Therefore, if you want all the people to join you, you must think of all the people and dare to speak for them; If you want to lead the people, you must put your own affairs after the people's affairs; Therefore, people who can always be called sages are in high positions, so that people will not feel the heavy burden of life; A virtuous person stands in front of the people calmly, and the people will not find him frightening and alienate him.
Extended data:
Appreciation of works:
Laozi's original intention was to teach people how to practice Buddhism. Morality is the foundation, and Taoism is the sublimation of morality. Without the foundation of virtue, you are likely to fail in dealing with people, managing your family and governing the country, and you will not be able to "cultivate Buddhism." Therefore, cultivating "virtue" is to create a good external environment for monasticism, which may also be needed by people;
"Tao" is the overall simplicity, and "Wan Qi Gate" and "Tao" have produced all things and are included in all things. "Tao" is in things, and things are in "Tao". Everything comes to the same goal by different routes, and it leads to the Tao.
Tao is not only a tangible substance, a thoughtful spirit, a rational law, but also an invisible and intangible cosmic source, which leads to all this. Material, spirit and law are all derivatives of Tao. Tao is inherently infinite. Tao is the ancestor of nature, the source of all things in the universe and the foundation of all things in the universe.