The great Tao faded and there was benevolence and righteousness. Worldly wisdom and shrewdness appeared and there was much dissembling. 1
The family relationships no longer harmonious, there was filial piety and paternal love. The state and the clans in anarchy, there was loyalty and faithfulness. 2
"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again." (II Cor. v, 14-15.)
32:1 The spiritual intuition of the primitive ages—"the Golden Age" described by Plato in the fourth book of his Laws—having vanished, ethical science in which the phantasms of righteousness, benevolence, etc., loomed large became the vogue. The omnipresent Unity, the great Tao, having disappeared, the veil of Maya showed multiple minor reflections, and these shadows being mistaken for substance the evils mentioned in the text arose, because, to borrow the explanation of the commentator, Kuan-yin-tzu, "Although in themselves true, these moral qualities, when substitutes for the Tao, become false."
32:2 Given a normal condition of affairs and obedience and love in the family, loyalty and faithfulness in the State, may be taken for granted, as the ceaseless heating of the heart, or the continual flow of blood through the healthy body. The special mention therefore of loyalty and love indicate disease.
Cf. The review of "Life and Labor of the People of London; Religious Influences," by Charles Booth in The Athenæum for May, 16, 1903, and the article thereon in The Theosophical Review, vol. xxxii. 515.