Superior Virtue Is Not Virtuous
The Text
上德不德，是以有德；下德不失德，是以无德。上德无为而无以为；上仁为之而无以为；上义为之而有以为。上礼为之而莫之应，则攘臂而扔之。故失道而后德，失德而后仁，失仁而后义，失义而后礼。夫礼者，忠信之薄，而乱之首。前识者，道之华，而愚之始。是以大丈夫处其厚，不居其薄；处其实，不居其华。
Superior virtue is not virtuous — that is why it has virtue. Inferior virtue never loses virtue — that is why it has none. Superior virtue is effortless and without aim; inferior virtue acts with aim in view. Superior benevolence acts but aims at nothing; superior righteousness acts and aims. Superior ritual acts, and when no one responds, bares its arm and forces compliance. So: when the way is lost, virtue appears; virtue lost, benevolence; benevolence lost, righteousness; righteousness lost, ritual — the thinning of loyalty, the first stirring of disorder. Foreknowledge is the flower of the way and the beginning of folly. So the great dwell in the thick, not the thin; in the fruit, not the flower.
Reading it
A descent ladder: each stage is the memorial of the previous one. The precision is in the aiming — virtue with an audience is already inferior virtue, and by ritual the audience is all there is. Choose the fruit over the flower is the whole instruction.
一架下行的梯子：每一级都是上一级的纪念碑。精确处在于「以为」——面向观众的德已是下德，到了礼，观众就是全部。选果不选花，就是全部指令。
Do one virtuous-seeming act and then delete its only audience. What remains is which kind it was.
做一件有德之相的事，然后删掉它唯一的观众。剩下的是什么，它就是哪种。