Dao De Jing – Chapter 60

Chapter 60 takes “governing a large state as delicately as cooking small fish” as its core metaphor, emphasizing that state governance must follow the natural laws of the Dao—minimizing intervention and maintaining prudence to preserve society’s intrinsic balance.

Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish—
too much stirring will spoil it.

When the Dao presides over the world,
spirits lose their power to harm.
It is not that the spirits lack power,
but that their power does no harm to people;
and not only do they do no harm to people,
the sage likewise does no harm to people.

Since neither harms the other,
virtue naturally converges and abides in harmony.

Note

Laozi further extends this principle to the relationship between heaven and humanity, asserting that when the Dao is truly practiced, all latent conflicts (including supernatural “ghosts and gods” and human-inflicted harm) will naturally dissolve. Here, “ghosts” symbolize inner demons of the mind, while “gods” represent their efficacious influence. As our spiritual cultivation draws closer to the Dao, we transcend the constraints of these inner obstacles.

Simultaneously, in contrast to demonic forces stand divine beings or enlightened sages. They embody clarity and harmony. However, we must remain vigilant against attachment to the names and forms of sages or divine entities, for such attachments breed new obstructions. This fixation, too, must be relinquished.

Side notes

In Buddhism, attachment is categorized into “self-attachment” and “dharma-attachment”.

• ‌Self-attachment‌ denotes a distorted belief in the inherent reality of the self, manifesting as obsessive focus on bodily sensations and rigid adherence to subjective perceptions‌.
• ‌Dharma-attachment‌ refers to inflexible interpretations of spiritual practices or the material world, treating them as fixed truths‌.

These dual attachments create cognitive constraints that obscure the arising of wisdom‌.

Further Reading

• Chapter 54: Shares a common lineage in the relationship between self-cultivation and governing a state. Chapter 54 proposes the logic of extending from the self to others — “observe oneself through the self, observe the family through the family.” This chapter then applies this logic of cultivation from the inner to the outer to state governance, emphasizing “governing the world with the Tao.”
• Chapter 43: Echoes each other in the dialectical logic of non-action (wuwei). Chapter 43 mentions “teaching without words, the benefit of non-action.” This chapter, through the outcome of “neither harming the other, so that virtue merges and returns,” demonstrates that governing through non-action can lead to a harmonious state where virtues converge.

　　治大国，若烹小鲜。以道莅天下，其鬼不神。非其鬼不神，其神不伤人。非其神不伤人，圣人亦不伤人。夫两不相伤，故德交归焉。