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This was immensely interesting to read, though I found myself somewhat aggravated by the passivism that ran through the writing.

It's almost like a poetical treatise on humility, but what of ambition and a drive to make the world a better place? Should we all accept our station in life and never aim to improve? I think not. It accepts things as they are (however they are) and cannot conceive of a better future. Everything should stay the same, and exist within the natural order of things.

But how do we define the natural?

VI

The Spirit of the valley never dies
This is called the mysterious female.
The gateway of the mysterious female
Is called the route of heaven on earth.
Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there,
Yet use will never drain it.

The poem speaks of mother nature as replenishing and everlasting; she will always endure and is the gateway to heaven on earth, to our own nirvana. We can never completely spend her. The metaphor is for the path as Taoism and nature are one and the same here. For the speaker, Taoism (or the way) is the most natural of things we can partake in. We will also never drain the benefits of it and they will also last perpetually. And these ideas for me felt strong and real, but the writing also muses over empire.

XXIX

Whoever takes the empire and wishes to do anything to it
I see will have no respite. The Empire is a sacred vessel and
nothing should be done to it. Whoever does anything to it
will ruin it; whoever lays hold of it will lose it.
Hence some things lead and some follow;
Some breath gently and some breathe hard;
Some are strong and some are weak;
Some destroy and some are destroyed.
Therefore the sage avoids excess, extravagance and arrogance.

I take so much issue with this quote. In what way can we ever refer to an Empire as natural? Empire's are always built with the blood of someone else. The quote also shows how people are all different, though it concludes that this is simply the way of things. A weak person should not try to make himself strong. Such a thing is an excess. We should simply stay humble and never challenge the norms of an Empire. (Seriously?)

And that's when I stopped listening to what the book had to say. As an historical piece it's interesting to study, but I take absolutely no stock in the words.