Shen Tao's alleged / accepted fragments have been translated before, but am reading this kind of worked for the first time, hence did not find it irrelevant. It's condensed with brief summaries on interpretation followed by translation,

Memorable ideas / fragment items:

Confucians such as Xunzi: find one right person for government / rule. Xunzi believes an appropriately qualified prime minister will have all the qualities necessary to allow him to find all the other right people necessary to work for state. However, Shen Dao believes that a single person’s intelligence is insufficient for finding all the right people for all positions in the political bureaucracy government. the political system requires multiple people, including those who are not particularly moral. you need technical competency than moral one for many tasks. Xunzi would say virtuous man should oversee technicians. She Dao would say technical knowledge not virtue is required.

Are people more important than procedures? Xunzi says yes. Shen Dao is for procedure.

Being worthy is not sufficient to make the masses bow down, positional power and status is.

The position of lord is created to serve the state, not the other way around. The position of prime minister is established to serve the officials, the officials were not created to serve the PM.

Bad laws are better than no laws but laws must change as circumstances change.

Heaven is concerned with human beings and their acts/ future and uses ghosts and spirits to exert its will and to lead people towards its will (as opposed to Kongzi/ Confucius and Mengzi / Mencius: It’s a conscious active intentional force that not only has a plan for people but provides guidelines for action too).

If nothing important happens during the day, then one will have no dreams at night.

Interesting concept: Laozi’s ideal society.