The power-technical aspects and the methods of governance of Laozi’s workare the less widely discussed topics of sinological literature on classical Chinese philosophy. The tension caused by the duality in the paradoxes in connection with the textual cohesion problems in the Daodejing’s reading isthe starting point for our analysis. An inherent way to resolve the tension wasmade possible by an original text-critical distinction, in which we can examinethe divergent and convergent aspects of the shengren-teaching that constitutesthe Daoist concept of governance. With the help of an analytical techniquebased on a close reading of the texts, in addition to the systematic discussionof the chapter relevance, Laozi’s first man, the sage shengren can be recognized and portrayed in four different roles: as a wise hermit, as a kind ofrulers’ helper, as a ruler who becomes a shengren and as a shengren whobecomes a ruler. These descriptions make it easier for us to understand thecomplex-heterogeneous system of the Daodejing’s governance.