Line by Line - Verse 30, Lines 14-15

he strikes it, but not from a wish for mastery.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Achieve results,
Because this is the natural way.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Achieves result but only out of necessity
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

And don't do it the way you think it should be done,
do it the way it needs to be.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

Red Pine translate these lines (as one line) this way: "Win when you have no choice."

Viewed from this perspective, we could say that a person should not set out to win, but, if you find yourself in an adversarial circumstance in which there will be a winner and a loser, then you should try to win.

Of course, we should endeavor NOT to get ourselves into adversarial situations in the first place.

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