Yin Chih Wen: The Tract of the Quiet Way

Traditional Qing Daoist Text

Translated by Teitaro Suzuki and Paul Carus

16 chapters · about 16 min

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The opening

THE TRACT OF THE QUIET WAY.

The Lord says:

For seventeen generations I have been incarnated as a high mandarin, and I have never oppressed my people nor makreated my subordinates. I have helped them in misfortune; I have rescued them from poverty; I have taken compassion on their orphans; I have forgiven their transgressions; I have extensively practised secret virtue (yin chih) which is attuned to heaven above. If you are able to keep your hearts as I have kept mine, Heaven will surely bestow upon you blessings. Therefore, these are the instructions I declare unto mankind:

He who wants to expand the field of happiness, let him lay the foundation of it on the bottom of his heart.

Practise benevolence wherever you find an opportunity, and let your deeds of merit be unheeded (yin).

The whole book is in the Sphinx app.

About this edition

The words
Teitaro Suzuki and Paul Carus's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 3 places
  • The library's stamps and barcode on the scanned copy (U.C. Berkeley Library, UC-NRLF) (4 blocks)
  • Half title, and a speck on the frontispiece page (the picture itself is not in the text) (3 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 4 places
  • The index
  • The library's due-date slip and back-cover specks (20 blocks)
  • Half title of the commentary (its heading is repeated on the next page)
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices