Tao Te Ching

This chapter is how something is made up of nothing. For example, the hub into which the spokes of a wheel fit are empty holes, and one must mold clay around nothing to create a vessel that will hold something. Doors and windows surround the nothingness that makes up a room. To create something, one must start with nothingness.

This chapter is about keeping life bland, as too much color, noise, and taste can overwhelm our senses. If people ride and hunt, they are liable to go crazy with excitement, and if we try to get rare goods, we waste our time. Instead, the sage, or good ruler, only tries to meet the requirements of basic life, including the belly, instead of trying to engage in too much spectacle. 

In this chapter, the author states that gaining too much favor can lead to a decline and to earning disgrace. It’s another way of saying that what goes up must come down. These are startling experiences. In addition, if one earns high rank, then one has trouble, just as one has trouble when one has a body (but not afterward). Those who can be trusted with leadership value only the necessities of life—their bodies—but not power or dominion.