Line by Line - Verse 29, Line 5

He who would so win it destroys it;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The one who controls it will fail
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Those who try to change it destroy it.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

Take a look at our many environmental woes and this line speaks volumes!

To offer one example, we put dams on western rivers to generate cheap electricity and control flooding. This effort negatively impacted salmon runs which has severely degraded our general ecosystem.

Once we realized that the dams were one of the key problems, so-called fish ladders were installed and they have mitigated the problem somewhat, but these ladders kill other fish and attract seal lions. So, to protect the salmon, the authorities are killing the sea lions and, of course, this has negative implications too!

By trying to control the rivers for profit, we have created one mess after another.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.