Lao Tzu: In war man sinks from his higher to his lower nature

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Lao Tzu
The Way of Life
Translated by Witter Bynner

(Thanks to Ken Freeland)

One who would guide a leader of men in the uses of life
Will warn him against the use of arms for conquest.
Weapons often turn upon the wielder,
An army’s harvest is a waste of thorns,
Conscription of a multitude of men
Drains the next year dry.

Let life ripen and then fall,
Force is not the way at all:
Deny the way of life and you are dead.

Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil,
A spread of plague,
And the way for a vital man to go is not the way of a soldier.
But in time of war men civilized in peace
Turn from their higher to their lower nature.
Arms are an instrument of evil,
No measure for thoughtful men
Until there fail all other choice
But sad acceptance of it.
Triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill,
And one with a will to kill
Shall never prevail upon the world.
It is a good sign when man’s higher nature comes forward,
A bad sign when his lower nature comes forward,

The death of a multitude is cause for mourning:
Conduct your triumph as a funeral.

…to a land where men cease from coveting
Peace comes of course.

Weapon after weapon conquers
Everything but chaos….

Look a man straight in the face and make no move,
Roll up your sleeve and clench no fist,
Open your hand and show no weapon,
Bare your breast and find no foe.
But as long as there be a foe, value him,
Respect him, measure him, be humble toward him;
Let him not strip from you, however strong he be,
Compassion, the one wealth which can afford him.