“Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish”: did Laozi say it?
Genuine: chapter 60
Yes: “Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish” is the first line of chapter 60 of the Dao De Jing, 治大国，若烹小鲜, translated word for word.
Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish.
What the Dao De Jing says
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治大国，若烹小鲜。
Govern a great state as you would cook a small fish.
What the Chinese says
治大国: “govern a great state”. 若烹小鲜: “like cooking a small fish”. 鲜 here is a small fresh fish. Our translation: “Govern a great state as you would cook a small fish.” The saying adds nothing.
What it means
The line does not say why. An early explanation is in the Han Feizi (3rd century BCE), in its chapter explaining Laozi: if you stir a small fish often, you spoil it; if you change the laws of a great state often, the people suffer. A small fish falls apart when it is turned over and over, so the cook leaves it alone. The advice to rulers is the book's constant one: do less, and do not keep interfering.
The line in its chapter
The rest of chapter 60 is about ghosts and spirits: when the Way presides over the world, ghosts have no power to harm people, and neither does the sage. The fish is the one image in a chapter about a ruler who governs so lightly that nothing is disturbed.