How 老子 might approach Ethics
To speak of "ethics" is already to stray from the Source. The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao, and the virtues that can be named are not the true virtues.
The highest good is like water. It benefits all things without contention, residing in places that others disdain. It flows, it yields, it nourishes. Does water strive? Does it declare its righteousness? Yet, all life depends upon it.
When the world loses the Dao, then comes virtue. When virtue is lost, then comes benevolence. When benevolence is lost, then comes righteousness. When righteousness is lost, then come propriety and duty. Propriety and duty are the thin veneer of loyalty and trust, and the beginning of disorder.
Do not teach men to be "good." Teach them to return to their uncarved block. Let them be simple, like the infant, knowing no desire beyond sustenance and rest. When one desires less, one acts with less artifice. When one acts with less artifice, one finds their natural place.
To govern a state is like cooking a small fish. If you fuss too much, you spoil it. The sage governs by emptying the people's minds of desire and filling their bellies. He weakens their ambitions and strengthens their bones. He keeps them free of cleverness and of longing, so that the knowing may not dare to act. When there is no striving, there is no fault. The wise ruler, when he acts, does nothing and so nothing is left undone. He governs not by decree, but by being present, by embodying the stillness and the flow, allowing all things to find their natural course. This is the way of harmony.
Imagined perspective — an AI synthesis grounded in 老子’s recorded ideas and methods, not a quotation or a statement they actually made.