Tao Te Ching

Chapter 61
[Original text]

Governing a big country is like cooking small fish[1].

Come to the world with Tao [2], its ghosts are not gods [3].It’s not that ghosts are not gods, and gods don’t hurt people; unless [4] gods don’t hurt people, saints don’t hurt people either.Husband and wife don't hurt each other, so the friendship of virtue[5] returns to Yan.

【Note】

[1] Xiaoxian: Small fish.

[2] Li: condescending, governance.

[3] God: apparition.

[4] Non: not only.

[5] Hand in: Both, successively, both.

【Analysis】

Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. (When cooking fish, don’t stir it at will. Frequent stirring will spoil the fish. You can’t do anything arbitrarily when governing a big country, as it will hurt the hearts of the people and damage the country.)
Use the thinking of "Tao" to rule the world, and those ghosts will not appear.It's not that the ghosts no longer show their spirits, but that they won't cause trouble after they appear; not only the ghosts won't hurt people, even the saints won't hurt the people.Both of them do not disturb the common people, and the merits and favors will naturally belong to the common people.

【Explanation by Famous Artists】

Mr. He Shang:
Fresh, fish too.When cooking small fish, don’t remove the intestines, scales, and dare not scratch it, for fear that it will be minced.If you govern the country, you will be in chaos, and if you govern the body, you will be fine.

Rule the world with morality, and ghosts will not dare to see their spirit and commit crimes.Its ghosts are not spiritless, evil cannot enter righteousness, and cannot harm natural people.Non-ghosts and gods cannot harm people.Because the sage does not harm people when he is in power, so ghosts and gods dare not do it.Neither ghosts nor saints hurt each other.If the husband and wife do not hurt each other, then the human can be governed by Yang, and the ghost can be governed by Yin; the human can preserve his life, and the ghost can preserve his spirit.

(End of this chapter)