道德經 (Tao De Jing) is arguably the most important scripture in Chinese history that shaped Chinese Culture, believes and philosophy.
Translating 道德經 (Tao De Jing) is a virtual impossible task. Each Chinese word needed to be understood in much higher level than common day-to-day languages.
I attempted to translate the first three Chapters only.
【原文】
道可道，非常道；名可名，非常名。
无名，天地之始；有名，万物之母。
故常无，欲以观其妙；常有，欲以观其徼。
此两者同出而异名，同谓之玄。
玄之又玄，众妙之门。
Chapter one
The philosophy that can be described is not the actual philosophy that you want to describe. The "thing" that can be named is not the actual thing that you name. The nothingness is the birth place of all things ( the universe), the thingness is the mother of everything. Therefor, observe the elegance and magic of the nothingness, and the details of the thingness. These two are from the same place yet with different names. Both are magical, elegantly magical, are the source of all magics.
【原文】
天下皆知美之为美，斯恶矣；皆知善之为善，斯不善矣。
故有无相生，难易相成，长短相形，高下相倾，音声相和，前后相随……
是以圣人处无为之事，行不言之教，万物作焉而不辞，生而不有，为而不恃，功成而不居。
夫唯不居，是以不去。
Chapter two
The world knows what beauty is because it knows what awful means, knows what kindness is because it knows what unkindness means. So thingness and nothingness created each other, difficult and easy are born together, long and short are com-pared together, high and low stayed together, keys of music sound with harmony, front and back followed each other. That is why sages work on nothingness, teach without talking, flourished lives without managing, created goods without possessing, succeed without arrogance, accomplished but claimed no credit. Only when claiming no credit, lasting credit is awarded.
【原文】
不尚贤，使民不争；
不贵难得之货，使民不为盗；
不见可欲，使民心不乱。
是以圣人之治：虚其心，实其腹，弱其志，强其骨。
常使民无知无欲，使夫智者不敢为也。
为无为，则无不治
Chapter three
Not to glorify hero, so citizen would not compete, not to price up rarity so citizen would not steal. Temptations not to be seen, so greed is not tempted. Therefor the superior way of governing, is to relax their mind, fill their bellies, weaken their ambition, and strengthen their bones. Regularly reducing citizens smartness and ambition, so even the smart ones are not dare enough to step over the line. That is called "do nothing" governing, everything will be in order.
