Opening Casket (2)
胠篋（二）
1 Tao Te Ching by Laotse mentions that “Fish should be left in the deep pool, and sharp weapons of the state should be left where none can see them”. We should make clear that the so-called sages in our society just are the sharp weapons of the state so we must ban their indulgence in the loud and empty talk in public all days.
老子在「道德經」中告訴我們，「魚不可脫於淵，國之利器不可以示人」，我們應清楚地認識到，社會上那些所謂的聖人，正是國之利器，因此我們決不能讓他們每天繼續在那兒公開地高談闊論。
2 On the basis of this recognition, the sages and the confusing knowledge should be deserted, only by this way the bandits would be vanished; when we thrown away those valuable and luring jewels, then the thief would disappear; ID card should be burned and the jade seal of kings and dukes should be crushed, which may enable people return to the life of simplicity and purity.
基於這樣的認知，我們應該捨棄那些聖人，丟掉那些混淆視聽的知識，只有這樣，盜匪才會消失；再將那些值錢的、誘惑人心的珠寶、玉石通通丟掉，小偷就不見了；燒掉身分證、將象徵國徽皇位的玉璽一把摔爛了，老百姓就會重歸純樸。
3 The measure tools should be destroyed to make people generous and tolerant; all constitutions and systems should be abolished to make people know the truth of Tao.
將那些量具毀棄掉，百姓就不會斤斤計較，吵個不停；只有將所有的典章制度、法律規章等都廢除掉了以後，我們才有可能跟百姓們討論道的真義。
故曰：「魚不可脫於淵，國之利器不可以示人。」彼聖人者，天下之利器也，非所以明天下也。故絕聖棄知，大盜乃止；擿玉毀珠，小盜不起；焚符破璽，而民朴鄙；掊斗折衡，而民不爭；殫殘天下之聖法，而民始可與論議。
4 Six pitches should be annulled, all instruments should be burn off and musician’s ears should be plugged to stop their playing, by which people can restore his original listening ability.
我們只有廢掉六律，將所有的樂器都燒之盡毀，將師曠這些樂手的耳朵堵塞起來，使得他們不能演奏，在消除掉了所有這些干擾的因素之後，我們才有可能恢復原始的聽力。
5 Enjoyment of colorful and luxuriant decoration should be abandoned, regulation of color match should be forgotten and the eyes of color carper, such as Li Zhu, should be covered, by which people’s sight recovers.
不要追求五顏六色的華麗裝潢，忘掉五色調配的那些死板的規則，將離朱這位對顏色非常挑剔者的眼睛遮蓋起來，我們才有可能恢復人類固有的視力。
6 The measure tools, such as ruler, compasses and plumb, should be deserted and the fingers of skillful craftsmen, such as Gong Chui should be cut off, by which people possibly exert their own inherent craft.
將尺子、圓規、量繩等廢棄掉，將工倕那樣巧匠的手指頭砍下來，我們才能得以發揮每一個人天生原有的技藝。
擢亂六律，鑠絕竽瑟，塞瞽曠之耳，而天下始人含其聰矣；滅文章，散五采，膠離朱之目，而天下始人含其明矣；毀絕鉤繩而棄規矩，攦工倕之指，而天下始人有其巧矣。
7 It is said that the greatest exquisiteness looks clumsiness. Let’s confine actions of the people such as Shi You and Zeng Can and shut the continuously debating mouths of the people such as Yangzhu and Mozi, which make people’s virtue recover, melt into and return to the Nature.
不是有人這麼說嗎?「大巧若拙」，讓我們限制曾史等人的行動，鉗制楊朱墨子之流一天到晚辯論不休的嘴巴，揚棄仁義，惟其如此，普天下百姓才有可能恢復其原有之德性，才有可能與大自然合而為一，重歸大自然的懷抱。
故曰：大巧若拙。削曾、史之行，鉗楊、墨之口，攘棄仁義，而天下之德始玄同矣。
8 If everyone doesn’t show off his talent, people would not be perplexed.
如果每一個人都不炫耀其智能，天下就不會迷亂了。
9 If everyone doesn’t boast of his intelligent, our environment will be in peace.
如果每一個人都不誇耀其聰明，那天下就不會有憂患了。
10 If everyone could conserve his original wisdom, he would not live in confusion and at a loss.
如果每一個人都能保有其原始的智慧，世人就不會生活在困惑之中，惶惶終日不知如何是好。
彼人含其明，則天下不鑠矣；人含其聰，則天下不累矣；人含其知，則天下不惑矣；人含其德，則天下不僻矣。
11 If everyone could highlight his original virtue, the operation of Nature would be set on right and smooth path. Those people such as Zeng Can, Shi You, Yang Zhu, Mo Qu, Jie Kuang, Gong Chui, Li Zhu, threw away their original virtues to develop acquired craft and technique so they made this world messy. Their petty craft and technique, constitutions and laws, and the codes of conduct are nothing but harm to all of us.
如果每一個人都能彰顯其原始的德性，自然的運作就能避免超出正軌，風調雨順。像曾、史、楊、墨、師曠、工倕、離朱之流，他們都是拋棄其原有的德性，各自發展他們後天的技能，因而將這個世界帶入一團混亂之中。他們的那些雕蟲小技、法律規章、行為標準等等，實在是百害而無一利，對大家都沒有好處的。
彼曾、史、楊、墨、師曠、工倕、離朱者，皆外立其德，而以爚亂天下者也，法之所無用也。
12 The most ideal society is this: people live simple and plain lives and they knot ropes to record something without written language to accumulate knowledge. Therefore, people of pure and simple thinking live with other creatures under the condition of relatively balance field.
理想的社會應該是這樣的：全體百姓都過著簡單樸素的生活，他們結繩記事，沒有文字去累積知識，因此思想單純，得以與萬物共同生存在一個比較均衡的狀態之下，人類與萬物和平相處，大家都有一定的空間生活。
13 They don’t need to take their ingenuity for food because any food that can quench hunger is delicious. They don’t require the best food and don’t waste any food, for which lives are respected to some extent. People don’t kill shark just for its fins. Thus shark is protected from extinction.
任何能解決飢餓的食物都是甘美的，他們不會為了吃而大費週章，食物不求其精所以浪費就少了，生命也得到一定的尊重，人們不會為了魚翅將鯊魚翅割下而放棄整條鯊魚，這樣鯊魚的生命就有一定的保障而不會滅亡。
14 Clothes that can keep body warm are good and beautiful. A deer hide that is cast on body in winter can keep people warm; where a small piece of it to cover some part of body in summer. It is unnecessary to dress much clothes, waste, heavy and clumsy.
衣服能遮體保暖就是美、就是好; 冬天一張吃剩的鹿皮做成衣服披在身上，身體就暖了。夏天將皮切割小些遮住重點即可，衣服其實是不必穿上一大堆，既笨重，又浪費。
15 In their wardrobe, modern people have a lot of clothes, some of which they don’t wear a time in years. Use of clothes had been more than its function of warmness.
現代人衣櫃裡一大堆衣服，有些幾年也難得穿上一回，衣服的意義老早已超過遮體避寒的功能。
16 The custom is formed by the habits; all people living in the certain area will accept and do it accordingly. For example, people celebrate the new year of lunar calendar in China, how they pass the last evening; how to prepare the dishes for it and how to display the sacrifice on the first day etc. All of those are serious and strictly written in terms of a certain style and in a certain time. Custom becomes the power to unify people and enforce them to live together tightly.
隨著習慣而形成的風俗習慣，大家都接受。人們喜歡按照一定的模式，定時照樣舉行; 諸如，過年時怎麼準備年菜？如何渡過除夕的夜晚？大年初一怎麼拜年，祭祠等都絲毫不馬虎的舉行，讓風俗習慣成為團結國民的力量，增強彼此間的向心力;
17 The society where the custom dismisses and even vanishes will collapse. People live peacefully and enjoy their works in villages. If nobody had induced them to immigrate to other place, the big cities would not have come into being, there would not have vagrants who gather in the corner of cities to be the source of crime, and the kids and the old would have not been left in the lonely villages.
風俗散亂消失的社會，是一個即將分崩離析的社會。百姓們在本地鄉村裡安居樂業，沒有人去引誘他們遷移他處; 這樣大城市就不會形成，遊民不會聚集在城市的角落裡成為犯罪的淵藪，鄉下也不會成為老年幼兒的孤獨村落。
18 Members of family stay together. The proportion of the old, the young and the kids is rational. Thus life of village becomes vigorous and active.
家中成員都聚在一起，鄉村中老中青幼人口合理的分配，鄉村生活就會活潑而有生氣。
19 The sound of poultry and livestock in nearby tribes are heard each other. People live happily in their own field. Nobody has the concept of emigration. Thus the distribution of population all around the country becomes even and the ecological environment is conserved.
聚落與聚落間雖雞狗之聲相聞，他們各具生活範疇，在各自的生活圈子中快樂的生活，沒有人會生移民他鄉之念，各地人口之分佈就平均，而自然生態則得以保存矣！
甘其食，美其服，樂其俗，安其居，鄰國相望，雞狗之音相聞，民至老死而不相往來。
20 This ideal society prevailed in the ancient time, such as the ages of Rongcheng Shi, Dating Shi, Bohuang Shi, Zhongyang Shi, Lilu Shi, Lichu Shi, Xuanyuan Shi, Hexu Shi, Zunlu Shi, Zhurong Shi, Fuxi Shi, and Shengnong Shi. However now nobody knows it.
這種社會在古時容成氏、大庭氏、伯皇氏、中央氏、栗陸氏、驪畜氏、軒轅氏、赫胥氏、尊盧氏、祝融氏、伏羲氏、神農氏等世代都盛行過，而今卻已不為人知久矣！
子獨不知至德之世乎？昔者容成氏、大庭氏、伯皇氏、中央氏、栗陸氏、驪畜氏、軒轅氏、赫胥氏、尊盧氏、祝融氏、伏犧氏、神農氏，當是時也，民結繩而用之。
21 In Chuang Tzu’s utopia, the most important principle is that people are fixed to the earth and are prudent in migration, with an easy and simple life indifferent to fame or benefit. It should be condemned and avoided to encourage people migration.
在莊子的理想國度裡，百姓重土安遷，在一定的範圍裡過著平易恬淡的生活是最重要的原則，任何促使百姓大舉遷徙動盪的動機，都是應該加以遣責而避免的。
22 When the leaders of a country employed new ways and concept of governance to improve people’s life and strengthen the economic power, the people around the country leave their houses and scramble to immigrate into it in various ways. On the road of immigration, their morale fluctuates. The old immigrants repel and bully the new one, for which the new ones have much difficulty in making living. They have to think out various and odd ways to make living. The society disorders under the condition of messy morale.
因此，當某一個國度的領導者，他採用了新的生產方式、新的治國理念，圖使國富民強，因而造成了大批的老百姓，爭先恐後的運用各種可能的手段，拋家棄子前往移民時；百姓往返于擁擠的道路上，往往造成民心浮動，舊移民排斥新移民，欺侮新移民；新移民在謀生不易的情況下，想出各種奇招，以求安身立命。民心在一片混亂之下，社會秩序就不可收拾矣。
若此之時，則至治已。今遂至使民延頸舉踵，曰「某所有賢者」，贏糧而趣之，則內棄其親，而外去其主之事，足跡接乎諸侯之境，車軌結乎千里之外。則是上好知之過也。上誠好知而無道，則天下大亂矣。
23 The reason that people can’t keep a clam, peaceful and auspicious mood, originates from those new tools or knowledge employed by some politician in position.
百姓不能保有一顆沉穩，安寧，祥和之心的原因，追根究底，就在某位執政者巧用新的工具、發明新的知識所造成的。
24 From the eighteenth century, civilization of human being made a big leap, which caused the development of the civilization to exceed the progress of total knowledge in past thousands of years. Propelled by the new knowledge, the miserable earth suffered enormously.
十八世紀以來，人類文明大幅躍進，促使這二百多年人類文明的進展遠遠超過過去幾千年人類知識進步的總和，在這種新知識的推波助瀾下，我們可憐的地球蒙受了巨大的傷害。
25 For example, when the slinger was improved, birds became unsafe.
所以當弓箭進步後，鳥兒就不得安寧了;
26 When the equipment of fishery was updated as well as GPS was used, fishes in sea were exposed.
當釣魚、捕魚的設備更新，再加上衛星定位技術進步，海中的魚兒就無處可逃了;
27 When the tools of preying were ameliorated, fox and deer in suburban vanished.
當捕捉野獸的工具進步後，郊外的狐狸、梅花鹿就消失了。
28 When the tricks were innovated, people’s discretion of goodness and evilness, the true and the false were weakened.
當狡猾、欺詐、蒙騙的手法翻新後，百姓對辨識真偽、善惡的能力就減弱矣。
29 Knowledge was mixed with tactics, tricks and intrigue. The interaction disordered our society.
知識混雜著機巧、謀略、欺詐的手段，在交互影響下，社會秩序就大亂了。
何以知其然邪？夫弓弩畢弋機變之知多，則鳥亂於上矣；鉤餌罔罟罾笱之知多，則魚亂於水矣；削格羅落罝罘之知多，則獸亂於澤矣；知詐漸毒、頡滑堅白、解垢同異之變多，則俗惑於辯矣。故天下每每大亂，罪在於好知。
30 We may see that unfairness and sadness in the slums all around the world’s big cities, turned into the source of crime. The cause is that the prosperity of knowledge lures people all around the country to throng into the cities. They become vagrants who produce disorder.
我們看世界各大都市中，貧民區裡人們的不平與悲忿，以及該區淪為犯罪之淵等現象，究其成因，始做俑者，就是知識所造成的表面繁榮景象，誘導各地百姓蜂湧而至，最終成為都市遊民後所造成的混亂。
31 The planting and breeding proficiency of people in villages can support themselves to live an easy and simple life indifferent to fame or benefit. However after TV sets come into villages and knowledge comes into their minds by books and newspapers, their children become unsettled. Giving up the agricultural technique that is inherited from their parents, they throng into cities to learn unfamiliar knowledge to become craftsman, servant, technician, teacher and politician.
鄉下百姓對耕地、養豬、種菜知之甚詳，而這些知識均足以供應他們過一個平易恬淡的生活。可是電視進入農村，現代知識藉由報紙、書籍進入農民的心後，他們的子女再也不能安於現狀，他們放棄了父母傳下來的農耕技術，湧入都市去學習工匠、服務生、技師、書匠、政客等他們不熟悉的新知識。
32 They give up their proficient technique of living to seek unfamiliar ones. They finally bring disturbance and disorder to the society. The society is filled with enormous complaints, anger, and hatred, which disturbs the operations of Nature.
放棄熟悉的謀生技能，以追求不熟悉的生計，他們最後為社會帶來不安與混亂，怨天尤人、不平之氣、憤怒之心充滿天地，將天地自然運作的氣氛步驟也給擾亂了。
33 From the beginning of civilization of human, the disorder caused by employing new knowledge and tools have lasted to today. People sniff at the easy and simple life indifferent to fame or benefit, considering it as the life of a stale and pedantic scholar. They scrabble for tactics, powers and intrigues. The peaceful and tranquil life is replaced with that of a concept of sophism and rivalry, which people should know it is the main cause of today’s social disorder.
自有人類文明以來，這種因開發及運用新知、新工具而帶來的混亂就一直存在迄今，人們對平易恬淡的生活嗤之以鼻，認為是腐儒的表現，對權謀機巧則趨之若騖，沉穩安寧的生活理想，被熱愛詭辯爭強好勝的人生觀所取代，而這種轉變正是現今社會混亂的主要因素，大家不可不防。
故天下皆知求其所不知而不知求其所已知者，皆知非其所不善而不知非其所已善者，是以大亂。故上悖日月之明，下爍山川之精，中墮四時之施；惴耎之蟲，肖翹之物，莫不失其性。甚矣夫好知之亂天下也！自三代以下者是已，舍夫種種之機而悅夫役役之佞；釋夫恬淡無為而悅夫啍啍之意，啍啍已亂天下矣！