Tao te Ching: 19

Abandon sageliness and discard wisdom;
Then the people will benefit a hundredfold.
Abandon humanity and discard righteousness;
Then the people will return to filial piety and deep love.
Abandon skill and discard profit;
Then there will be no thieves and robbers.
However, these three things are ornament (wen)
and not adequate.
Therefore let people hold onto these:
Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

Chapter 19 follows 18 closely, prescribing the Tao as an antidote to the ills that Confucianism contrives to correct. The fact that both use the term sage is a little confusing. Remember that the sage in Taoism is not the  chun-tzu of Confucianism. Chun-tzu embraces jen and all of his virtues flow forth from it, while the Taoist sage is impartial to all things.

The sage also has a dual meaning here—that of the learned man. Lao Tzu says to abandon the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. This strikes hollow for me, and I suspect on some level it strikes hollow for many Buddhists because Buddhism is an experimental doctrine. From Buddha to the most recent Dalai Lama encourage people to explore and test the precepts of Buddhism on their own and not to simply take the word of those that are supposedly further along the path to enlightenment. Still, there is something to what Lao Tzu said. We are the first generation of humans who have the capability to destroy humanity. Our reckless quest to gain knowledge enabled nuclear bombs, germ warfare, and nerve toxins. How odd that we might get these things from poisonous yellowcake ore, the plague-ridden dead, or South American frogs. Yet, if we hadn't, we would also miss out on CT scans, the polio vaccine, and plastics.

Still, Lao Tzu makes the case to abandon jen and yi and by doing so he assurts that we will return to hsiao automatically. Lao Tzu also addresses Hsün Tzu (not to be confused with Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War), the father of the rational (or slightly pessimistic) school of Confucianism. In either case, it was more pragmatic. Hsün Tzu believed mankind's essential nature to be wayward, which conflicts with the beliefs of Mencius (who felt mankind was essentially good.) Hsün Tzu thought that social conventions and codes of conduct were the way to correct this. This is eventually adopted by Han Fei Tzu. Yet at the same time, Hsün Tzu's view of the impartiality of nature harkens unto Taoism. This skill and knowledge is rebuked.

Yet, the skill and profit being rebuked are also the expensive things and great deeds that Lao Tzu cautions against praising in chapter 3. He offers a prescription against the flavors of Confucianism in his last 4 lines.