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a. ［先王］以［至德要道］順天下

“[The former kings] by means of [utmost virtue pivotal Way] made compliant all
the world.”

b. 民用［=以］［先王之順天下者］和睦

“The people, on account of [the former kings’ making compliant the world], were
in harmonious cooperation.”

In a. the subject is implicit (先王), whereas it is explicit in b. (民). The similar verbs 以
and 用 turn out to have very different implicit objects. The verb in a. is transitive with an
object; in b. it is a binomial stative verb (和睦).

In the case of this passage, the likely error into which false parallelism may guide the reader
is the assumption that the objects of 以 and 用 are identical (that is: 至德要道).

5.3 The use of sǔo 所

No single word causes more confusion than 所. There is no reason why this should be so.
Sǔo performs a simple grammatical function and is used with great consistency.

Basically, 所 acts as a substitute for the object of a verb; it precedes that verb, and in
doing so, creates a noun phrase denoting “that which is Verbed”. A 所 sentence often
represents the transformation of a straightforward S-V-O sentence into a sentence with a
complex noun as subject and a predicate which either identifies or characterizes that
subject. Here is an example of how 所 transforms a simple sentence:

吾 教 王
wú jiao wáng “I instruct the king.”
S V O

吾 所 教 者 王 也
wú sǔo jiao zhĕ, wáng yĕ “He whom I instruct is the king.”
|____________| |______|
nominal subj. predicate

The use of 所 allows the writer to refer to an object whose name is unknown, or whose
identity he wishes to withhold:

汝 所 教 者 誰 也
rǔ sǔo jiao zhĕ, shéi yĕ “Who is it whom you teach?”
[Voc.: 誰 shéi (Pronoun) who]