{"collection":"Taoism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tao/ts/ts07.htm","path":"tao/ts/ts07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tao/ts/ts07.htm","text":"Yet[28] there are some people whose behavior is unrighteous. (317-322)\nTheir deportment is irrational.[29] (323-326)\nIn evil they delight.[30] (327-330)\nWith brutality they do harm and damage. (331-334)\nInsidiously they injure the good and the law-abiding. (335-338)\nStealthily they despise their superiors and parents. (339-342)\nThey disregard their seniors and rebel against those whom they serve. (343-350)\nThey deceive the uninformed. (351-354)\nThey slander their fellow-students. (355-358)\nLiars they are, bearing false witness, deceivers, and hypocrites; malevolent exposers of kith and kin[31]; mischievous and malignant; not humane; cruel and irrational; self-willed. (359-374)\n{p. 55}\nRight and wrong they confound. Their avowals and disavowals are not as they ought to be.[32] (375-382)\nThey oppress their subordinates and appropriate their merit. (383-386)\nThey cringe to superiors to curry favor. (387-390)\nInsentient to favors received, they remember their hatred and are never satisfied. (391-398)\nThey hold in contempt the lives of Heaven's people.[33] (399-402)\nThey agitate and disturb the public order. (403-406)\nThey patronize the unscrupulous and do harm to the inoffensive. (407-413)\nThey murder men to take their property, or have them ousted to take their places. (414-422)\nThey slay the yielding and slaughter those who have surrendered. (423-426)\nThey malign the righteous and dispossess the wise. (427-430)\nThey molest orphans and wrong widows. (431-434)\nDisregarders of law they are, and bribe takers. They call crooked what is straight, straight what is crooked, and what is light they make heavy. (435-450)\nWhen witnessing an execution, they aggravate it by harshness. (451-454)\n{p. 56}\nThough they know their mistakes they do not correct them; though they know the good they do not do it. (455-462)\nIn their own guilt they implicate others.[34] (463-466)\nThey impede and obstruct the professions and crafts.[35] (467-470)\nThey vilify and disparage the holy and the Wise. (471-474)\nThey ridicule and scorn reason and virtue.[36] (475-478)\nThey shoot the flying, chase the running, expose the hiding, surprise nestlings, close up entrance holes, upset nests, injure the pregnant, and break the egg. (479-494)\nThey wish others to incur loss. (495-498)\nThey disparage others that achieve merit. (499-502)\nThey endanger others to save themselves. (503-506)\nThey impoverish others for their own gain. (507-510)\nFor worthless things they exchange what is valuable. (511-514)\nFor private ends they neglect public duties. (515-518)\nThey appropriate the accomplishments of their neighbor and conceal his good qualities. They make known his foibles and expose his\n{p. 57}\nsecrets. They squander his property and cause divisions in his family.[37] (519-542)\nThey attack that which is dear to others. (543-547)\nThey assist others in doing wrong. (548-551)\nTheir unbridled ambition makes for power, and through the degradation of others they seek success. (552-558)\nThey destroy the crops and fields of others. (559-562)\nThey break up betrothals. (563-566)\nImproperly they have grown rich, and withal they remain vulgar. (567-570)\nImproperly they shirk[38] without shame. (571-574)\nThey claim having done acts of favor and disclaim being at fault. (575-578)\nThey give away evil in marriage[39] and they sell wrongs. (579-582)\nThey sell and buy vainglory. (583-586)\nThey conceal and keep a treacherous heart. (s87-59o)\nThey crush that which is excellent in others. (591-594)\nThey are careful in hiding their shortcomings. (595-598)\nBeing on a high horse they threaten and intimidate. (599-6012)\n{p. 58}\nWith unrestrained barbarism they kill and stab. (603-606)\nRecklessly they cut cloth to waste.[40] (607-610)\nWithout festive occasions they prepare cattle for food.[41] (611-614)\nThey scatter and waste the five cereals.[42] (615-618)\nThey trouble and annoy many people. (619-622)\nThey break into others' houses to take their property and valuables. (623-630)\nThey misdirect the water and light fires to destroy the people's homes. (631-638)\nThey upset others' plans so as to prevent their success. (639-646)\nThey spoil a worker's utensils to hamper his efficiency. (647-654)\nWhen seeing the success and prosperity of others they wish them to run down and fail. (655-662)\nSeeing the wealth of others, they wish them bankrupt and ruined. (663-670)\nThey cannot see beauty without cherishing in their hearts thoughts of seduction. (671-678)\nBeing indebted to others for goods or property, they wish their creditors to die. (679-686)\nWhen their requests are not granted they begin to curse and wax hateful. (687-694)\n{p. 59}\nSeeing their neighbor lose his vantage they gossip of his failure. (695-702)\nSeeing a man imperfect in his bodily features they ridicule him. (703-711)\nObserving the talent and ability of a man worthy of praise, they suppress the truth. (712-720)\nThey use charms[43] for the sake of controlling others.[44] (721-724)\nThey employ drugs to kill trees. (725-728)\nIll-humored and angry they are towards teachers and instructors. (729-732)\nThey resist and provoke father and elders. (733-736)\nWith violence they seize, with violence they demand. (737-740)\nThey delight in fraud, they delight in robbery, they make raids and commit depredations to get rich. (741-748)\nBy artful tricks they seek promotion. (749-752)\nThey reward and punish without justice. (753-756)\nThey indulge in comforts and enjoyments without measure. (757-761)\nThey harass and tyrannize over their subordinates. (762-765)\nThey terrify and threaten to overawe others. (766-768)\n{p. 60}\nThey accuse heaven and find fault with man. (769-772)\nThey blame the wind and rail at the rain. (773-776)\nThey stir up party strife and law suits. (777-780)\nUnprovoked they join factious associations.[45] (781-784)\nThey rely on their wives' and other women's gossip. (785-788)\nThey disobey the instructions of father and mother. (789-792)\nThey take up the new and forget the old. (793-796)\nTheir mouth asserts what their heart denies. (797-800)\nShamelessly greedy they are for wealth. (801-804)\nThey deceive their father and their superiors. (805-808)\nThey invent and circulate vile talk, traducing and slandering innocent men. (809-816)\nThey slander others, yet themselves feign honesty. (817-820)\nThey rail at spirits and claim to be right themselves. (821-824)\nThey reject a good cause and espouse a wrong cause, spurning what is near, longing for the distant.[46] (825-832)\n{p. 61}\nThey point at heaven and earth[47] to make them witnesses of their mean thoughts. (833-839)\nThey even call on bright spirits to make them witness their degrading deeds. (840-846)\nWhen they ever give charity they regret it afterwards. (847-850)\nThey borrow and accept without intention to return. (851-854)\nBeyond their due lot they scheme and contrive. (855-858)\nAbove their means they plot and plan. (859-862)\nTheir lusty desires exceed all measure. (863-866)\nTheir heart is venomous while they show a compassionate face. (867-870)\nWith filthy food they feed the poor. (871-874)\nWith heresies they mislead others. (875-878)\nThey shorten the foot, they narrow the measure, they lighten the scales, they reduce the peck. (879-886)\nThey adulterate the genuine, and they seek profit[48] in illegitimate business. (887-894)\nThey compel respectable people to become lowly. (895-898)\nThey betray and deceive the simple-minded. (899-902)\nThey are greedy and covetous without satiety. (903-906)\n{p. 62}\nThey curse and swear to seek vindication. (907-910)\nIndulging in liquor they become rebellious and unruly. (911-914)\nWith the members of their own family[37] they are angry and quarrelsome. (915-918)\nAs husbands[49] they are neither faithful nor kind. (919-922)\nAs wives[49] they are neither gentle nor pliant. (923-926)\nAs husbands they are not in harmony with their wives;[50] as wives they are not respectful to their husbands. (927-934)\nAs husbands they delight in bragging and conceit. (935-938)\nAlways as wives they practice jealousy and suspicion. (939-952)\nAs husbands they behave unmannerly toward their wives and children. (943-947)\nAs wives they lack propriety to their father-in-law and their mother-in-law. (948-952)\nThey make light of the spirit of their ancestor. (953-956)\nThey disobey and dislike the commands of their superiors. (957-960)\nThey make and do what is not useful. (961-964)\nThey harbor and keep a treacherous[51] heart. (965-968)\n{p. 63}\nThey curse themselves[52], they curse others. (969-972)\nThey are partial in their hatred and partial in their love. (973-976)\nThey step over the well and they step over the hearth. They jump over the food and jump over a person.[53] (977-984)\nThey kill the baby and cause abortion of the unborn. (985-988)\nThey do many clandestine and wrong deeds. (989-992)\nThe last day of the month and the last day of the year they sing and dance.[54] The first day of the month, the first day of the year, they start roaring and scolding. (993-1000)\nFacing the north, they snivel and spit; facing the hearth, they sing, hum and weep.[55] (1001-1012)\nFurther, with hearth fire they burn incense,[56] and with filthy fagots they cook their food. (1013-1018)\nIn the night they rise and expose their nakedness.[57] (1019-1022)\nOn the eight festivals of the seasons they execute punishment.[58] (1023-1030)\nThey spit at falling stars and point at the many-colored rainbow.[59] (1031-1036)\nIrreverently they point at the three\n{p. 64}\nluminaries;[60] intently they gaze at the sun and at the moon. (1037-1044)\nIn the spring they hunt with fire.[61] (1045-1048)\nFacing the north, they use vile language.[55] (1049-1052)\nCauselessly they kill tortoises and snakes. (1053-1058)","title":"A Description of Evil-Doers","type":"page"}