19. Returning to Simplicity

1. Abandon your saintliness; put away your prudence; and the people will gain a hundredfold!

2. Abandon your benevolence; put away your justice; and the people will return to filial piety and paternal devotion.

3. Abandon smartness; give up greed; and thieves and robbers will no longer exist.

4. These are three things for which culture is insufficient. Therefore it is said:

"Hold fast to that which will endure,
Show thyself simple, preserve thee pure,
And lessen self with desires fewer."

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