wisdom of obscurity.

What you want to compress 
you must first allow truly expanding. 
What you want to weaken 
you must first allow growing truly strong. 
What you want to destroy 
you must first allow truly to truly flourishing. 
From whomever you want to take away 
to him you must first truly give. 
This is called ‘being clear about the invisible’. 
The soft wins victory over the hard. 
The weak wins victory over the strong. 
One must not take the fish from the deep. 
One must not show the people 
the means of furthering the realm. 

If you want to shrink something, 
you must first allow it to expand. 
If you want to get rid of something, 
you must first allow it to flourish. 
If you want to take something, 
you must first allow it to be given. 
This is called subtle perception 
of the way things are. 

The soft overcomes the hard. 
The slow overcomes the fast. 
Let your workings remain a mystery. 
Just show peoples the results. 

Should you want to contain something, 
you must deliberately let it expand. 
Should you want to weaken something, 
you must deliberately let it grow strong. 
Should you want to eliminate something, 
you must deliberately allow it to flourish. 
Should you want to take something away, 
you must deliberately grant it access. 

The lesson here is called 
the wisdom of obscurity. 
The gentle outlasts the strong. 
The obscure outlasts the obvious. 

Fish cannot leave deep waters, 
and a country’s weapons should not be displayed. 

What is over expanded becomes diminished. 
What is too strong becomes weakened. 
What is too high is cut down. 
What is over possessed becomes impoverished. 
It is in the nature of process that in the final stages, 
those who are overextended, 
over armed and over privileged 
shall be overcome. 

Disaster stalks the fish 
which swims up from its deep water home, 
and the army which threatens to conquer 
those beyond its own borders.