The Great Way Is Very Smooth, but People Love Byways
This chapter switches from abstract paradox into sharp social criticism, contrasting an easy, straightforward path with the appeal of shortcuts, and then describing exactly what a court that has taken those shortcuts looks like.
Laozi begins in the first person, an unusual move for the text: if he had even the slightest knowledge, walking on the great Tao, the only thing he would fear is straying onto a byway (施) — and he observes that the great Tao is very smooth and level (大道甚夷), yet people are drawn to the byways anyway. The chapter then turns concrete and, for the Tao Te Ching, unusually pointed: when the court is extremely splendid, the fields are extremely weedy and the granaries extremely empty; yet officials wear ornamented clothes, carry sharp swords, are stuffed with food and drink, and possess excessive wealth. Laozi names this directly — "the extravagance of robbery" (盜夸) — flatly denying it has anything to do with the Tao. Unlike the more purely metaphysical chapters, this one functions as social commentary, using the "smooth road versus attractive byway" image to explain why a ruling class drifts, predictably and repeatedly, from a simple, sustainable path toward ostentatious excess that hollows out the society supporting it.
The great Tao is very smooth, but people love byways.
Tao Te Ching