1. The Tâo in its regular course does nothing (for the sake of doing it), and so there is nothing which it does not do.

道常無為而無不為。

2. If princes and kings were able to maintain it, all things would of themselves be transformed by them.

侯王若能守之，萬物將自化。

3. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity.

化而欲作，吾將鎮之以無名之樸。

4. Simplicity without a name

Is free from all external aim.

With no desire, at rest and still,

All things go right as of their will.

無名之樸，夫亦將無欲。不欲以靜，天下將自定。

為政, 'The Exercise of Government.' This exercise should be according to the Tâo, doing without doing, governing without government.

The subject of the third paragraph is a feudal prince or the king, and he is spoken of in the first person, to give more vividness to the style, unless the  吾, 'I,' may, possibly, be understood of Lâo-dze himself personating one of them.