Laozi's Dao De Jing

the constant warfare among the various small Sinophone states that would eventually unify into China.

As a writer myself, I’m keenly aware of the instability of texts and the futility of tracing and enforcing authority.

I cannot teach my son what I know no matter how long I talk, and he cannot learn the soul of my craft no matter how hard he listens. That is why, even though I’m already seventy, I’m still here making wheels myself.”

However, the meaning that can be discerned from the words are mere trails, left behind by what cannot be expressed. People make books because they value words, but I think words are not themselves worthy.

To birth, to nourish, to create without possessing, to give without expecting, to nurture without dominating: these are the qualities of the Ineffable De.

So the Dao-aware forget themselves and find constancy in change.

Because they don’t strive against others, no one strives against them.

Water in deep pools is still.

Do by not doing; Matter by not mattering;