Learning Adds, the Way Subtracts
The Text
为学日益，为道日损。损之又损，以至于无为。无为而无不为。取天下常以无事，及其有事，不足以取天下。
Pursuing learning, one gains daily. Pursuing the way, one loses daily — losing and losing, until one arrives at not-doing. Not-doing, yet nothing is left undone. The world is won by letting things take their course; by interfering, the world is lost.
Reading it
Two syllabi. Learning is accumulation and works exactly as advertised. The way is curatorial: subtraction daily until the residual action is only what was ever necessary. The last line makes it political — the ruler who keeps subtracting interference ends up governing a place that mostly governs itself.
两份课表。学习是累积，且名实相符。道是策展：每天减，减到剩下的行动只是本来必要的。末句使它成为政治——不断减去干预的治理者，最终治理着一个大体自治的地方。
Subtract one recurring obligation, meeting, or habit this week. Note what remained undone that mattered.
这周减掉一项固定的义务、会议或习惯。看是否真有要紧的事没做。