There are a lot of things that you can chalk up to translator's license, but if the message of Laozi is to be interesting and useful, it has to be different tha

There are a lot of things that you can chalk up to translator's license, but if the message of Laozi is to be interesting and useful, it has to be different than the Western mainstream message. Why bother reading a difficult text if it just says what non-difficult texts also say! Western thought is into "love" because of Christianity, and the meaning of "love" has different aspects at different times in Western history, like romantic love, chivalrous love, love of parents for children (in TFA), etc. Laozi absolutely does not think you should have feelings of affection towards others. He is against having strong attachments generally, and thinks we should evaluate things seen as negative more positively. So the whole thrust of the passage (you can win battles by being gentle and weak) is lost if you erase everything about Laozi and make him into a quasi-Christian nice parent. Ugh! I'm not necessarily against syncretism or reading e.g. Buddhist 慈悲 compassion as a form of love to make a Christian-Buddhist hybrid thought, but in the specific case of Laozi, I cannot believe that any of what Laozi is saying has gotten through to someone who thinks you can use "love" in this passage.