Chapter 53

If I have even the slightest understanding, while walking on the Great Way, my greatest fear is straying onto a deviant path. The Great Way is perfectly smooth and level, yet people delight in taking narrow byways. The court is utterly corrupt, the farmlands are completely overgrown, the granaries are entirely empty; yet they wear splendid clothes, carry sharp swords, feast on exquisite food and drink, and amass excessive wealth and goods—this is the conduct of a bandit chieftain. This is by no means the Way!