In Ruling People and Serving Heaven, Nothing Beats Frugality
The Text
治人事天，莫若啬。夫唯啬，是谓早服；早服谓之重积德；重积德则无不克；无不克则莫知其极；莫知其极，可以有国；有国之母，可以长久。是谓深根固柢，长生久视之道。
In ruling people and serving heaven, nothing beats frugality. Only frugality is called submitting early. Submitting early — virtue accumulates; virtue accumulated — nothing cannot be overcome; nothing that cannot be overcome — no one knows its limit; no known limit — one can hold the state. The mother of a state held long — this is called deep-rooted, firm-based, the way of long life and enduring view.
Reading it
Frugality here is not stinginess but reserve — the deliberate margin between capacity and load. Submitting early means acting from surplus before necessity forces the issue. Deep roots and firm base are the only two recommendations in the book about institutions, and they are agricultural.
啬不是吝啬，是储备——能力与负载之间刻意留出的余量。「早服」是在必然性强迫之前、凭盈余行事。深根固柢是全书关于制度仅有的两条建议，而且都是农业的。
Find where you run at one hundred percent of capacity. Create a margin this week and notice what it buys.
找出你按百分之百容量运转的地方。这周造出一个余量，看它买来什么。