第五十八章      福祸相连

其政闷闷，其民淳淳；其政察察，其民缺缺。
祸兮福之所倚，福兮祸之所伏。孰知其极？其无正。正复为奇，善复为妖。人之迷，其日固久。是以圣人方而不割，廉而不刿，直而不肆，光而不耀。

The Cycle of Fortune and Misfortune

If a country is governed withtolerance,

the people are comfortable andsincere.

If a country is governed with repression,

the people are depressed andcrafty.

Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on, Good fortune is what badfortune hides in.Who knows the ultimate end of this process? there is no fixednorm of correctness. Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal, And the goodagain will become evil.Andpeople indeed are bewilded by this

for a long, long time.

Thus the Enlightened Individualsare:

Square without sharpness,

honest without offending,

straightforward without hurting,

radiant without dazzling.

 [译文]

以德为政，民风淳朴。 强权为政，百姓狡狤。 灾祸呀，福分依傍其中，福分呀，灾祸隐藏其中。谁知福祸的转换呢？没有一个固定模式。和谐会转化为反常，善行可转化为恶绩。对此，人们已经迷惑很久了。

真正悟道的人有规矩方圆却不显露于外， 尖锐而不刺人，耿直而不放肆，坦荡光明却不耀眼。