Chapter 43

What is softest in the world penetrates what is hardest in the world.
Nonbeing enters where there is no room.
From this I know the riches of nonaction.
Wordless teaching and the riches of nonaction is matched by very little in the world.

Chapter 42

Tao gives rise to one.
One gives rise to two.
Two gives rise to three.
Three gives rise to all things.
All things carry yin and embrace yang,
Drawing Chi together into harmony.
What the world hates is the widow and orphan without support.
But lords and rulers name themselves these.
Do not seek gain from losing, nor loss from gaining.
What people teach, after discussion becomes doctrine.
Those who excel in strength do not prevail over death.
I would use this as the father of teaching.

Chapter 41

When eminent persons hear of Tao,
They practice it faithfully;
When average persons hear of Tao,
It seems that they practice it, and it seems they do not;
When inferior persons hear of Tao,
They ridicule it.
Without such ridicule, it would not be Tao.
Thus, the aphorism that suggests the way is:
Knowing the Tao seems costly.
Entering Tao seems like retreating.
Becoming equal with Tao gives birth to paradoxes.
Eminent action is like a valley.
Complete understanding resembles being disgraced.
Vast action seems yielding.
Action that builds up seems remiss.
Pure integrity seems perverse.
The great square has no angles.
The great talent matures late.
The great voice sounds faint.
The great image has no form.
The Tao is praised but is unnameable.
Only Tao is good at beginning and good at completion.

Chapter 40

Tao moves by returning.
Tao functions by weakness.
All things under heaven are born of being.
Being is born of nonbeing.

Chapter 39

Those from the past have attained Oneness.
By attaining Oneness, heaven is clear.
By attaining Oneness, earth is at peace.
By attaining Oneness, the spirit is quickened.
By attaining Oneness, the valley is filled.
By attaining Oneness, the king puts order in the whole world.
All these result from Oneness.
Without its clarity, heaven is liable to explode.
Without its peace, earth is liable to erupt.
Without its quickening, the spirit is liable to die out.
Without its fullness, valleys are liable to dry out.
Without proper esteem, the king is liable to fall.
Esteem is rooted in the humble.
The high is founded upon the low.
This is why the lords and rulers call themselves widows and orphans without support.
Is this is not the root of being humble?
Much praise amounts to no praise.
Without preference, Being is as resonant as Jade and as gravelly as stone.

Chapter 38

Eminent action is inaction,
For that action it is active.
Inferior action never stops acting,
For that reason it is inactive.
Eminent action is disengaged,
Yet nothing is left unfulfilled;
Eminent humanness engages,
Yet nothing is left unfulfilled;
When eminent righteousness engages,
It reduces the results of engagements;
Eminent justice engages, but does not respond adequately to situations.
For that reason it is frustrated.
When Tao is lost,
It becomes Action;
When Action is lost,
It becomes benevolence;
When benevolence is lost,
It becomes justice.
When justice is lost,
It becomes propriety.
Propriety is the veneer of faith and loyalty,
And the forefront of troubles.
Foresight is the vain display of Tao,
And the forefront of foolishness.
Therefore, the man of substance
Dwells in wholeness rather than veneer,
Dwells in the essence rather than the vain display.
He rejects the latter, and accepts the former.

Chapter 37

Tao is eternally nameless.
If lords and rulers would abide by it,
All things would evolve of themselves.
What evolves desires to act.
I, then, suffuse this with nameless simplicity.
Suffusing with nameless simplicity is eliminating humiliation.
Without humiliation, peace arises.
Heaven and earth regulate themselves

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Chapter 36

When you want to constrict something,
You must first let it expand;
When you want to weaken something,
You must first enable it;
When you want to eliminate something,
You must first allow it;
When you want to conquer something,
You must first let it be.
This is called the Fine Light.
The weak overcomes the strong.
Fish cannot live away from the source.
The sharp weapon of the nation should never be displayed.

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Chapter 35

Holding on to the great Symbol,
The whole world carries on.
On and on without doing harm.
Being happy at peace,
Enjoying greatly the music and food,
Travelers stop by.
When the Tao is spoken forth plainly
It has no flavor at all.
Look, but that is not sufficient for seeing.
Listen, but that is not sufficient for hearing.
Use it, but it is not exhausted

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Chapter 34

As the Tao is all-pervading,
It operates on both the left and the right.
Success is consequent to all affairs.
It does not proclaim its own existence.
All things return.
Yet there is no claim of ownership,
So it is forever desireless.
This can be called small.
All things return.
Yet there is no claim of ownership,
This can he called great.
The sage accomplishes greatness in not acting great.
Thus can he accomplished what is great.

Chapter 33

To know others is to be knowledgeable,
To know oneself is enlightenment;
To master others is to have strength,
To master oneself is to be powerful.
To know what is sufficient is to be rich.
To act with determination is to have will.
Not to lose one’s substance is to endure.
To die, but not be forgotten is to be immortal.

Chapter 32

Tao is eternally nameless.
Though simplicity is small,
The world cannot treat it as subservient.
If lords and rulers can hold on to it,
Everything becomes self-sufficient.
Heaven and earth combine and allow sweet dew.
Without rules, people will naturally become equal.
At the outset, the rule must be expressed.
Once it exists, stop speaking of it.
The result of not speaking of it is to eliminate danger.
In a manner of speaking, Tao is to the world
As the rivers are to oceans and seas.

Chapter 31

The army is the mechanism of bad luck.
The elements of the world may oppose.
So those who have ambitions cannot rest.
Therefore the nobleman takes his place on the left side,
And the commander on the right side.
So the army is not the nobleman’s weapon.
As a mechanism of bad luck,
He uses it only as the last resort.
Then the best way is to use it quickly and destructively.
Do not enjoy this.
To take delight in it is to enjoy killing people.
Those who enjoy killing people do not attract the favor of the world.
The good inclines to the left,
The bad inclines to the right.
Thus the intelligent officer stays on the left,
The army commander stays on the right.
Speaking in an image of sadness,
After killing the people, every one stands in mourning.
Victory is celebrated as a funeral service.
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Chapter 30

Using the Tao as the rule for governing the people,
Do not employ the army as the power of the world.
For this is likely to backfire.
Where the army has marched, thorns and briars grow.
Being good has its own consequence,
Which cannot be seized by power.
Achieving without arrogance,
Achieving without bragging,
Achieving without damage,
Achieving without taking ownership.
This is called achieving without force.
Matter becomes strong, then old.
This is called “Not-Tao.”
Dying young is “Not-Tao.”

Chapter 29

I see that those who want to take over the world and manipulate it do not succeed.
The sacred mechanism of the world cannot be manipulated.
Those who manipulate it will fail,
Those who hold on to it will lose it.
Matter
Either leads or follows,
Either heats or chills,
Either strengthens or weakens,
Either enhances or destroys.
So the sage abandons extremes, extravagance, multiplicity.

Chapter 28

Understanding the male and holding onto the female
Enables the flow of the world.
This being the flow of the world, the eternal action abides.
Knowing that the eternal action abides is to return to childhood.
Understanding the pure and holding on to the impure
Enables the cleansing of the world.
With the cleansing of the world, ongoing action suffices.
When ongoing action suffices, it returns to simplicity.
Understanding the white and holding on to the black
Enables the formation of the world.
Being the formation of the world, ongoing action does not stray.
When ongoing action does not stray, it returns to the infinite.
This simplicity takes shape as a mechanism.
The sage makes it the head ruler.
Great ruling never divides.

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Chapter 27

A good traveler leaves no tracks.
A good speaker is without flaw.
A good planner does not calculate.
A good doorkeeper does not lock, yet it cannot be opened.
A good knotter does not use binding, yet it cannot be undone.
Therefore, the sage is good at his earnest demands upon people.
So no one is left out.
No talent is wasted.
This is called being in the tow of enlightenment,
And it ensures the good person.
For everything that is good is the teacher of the good person.
Everything that is bad becomes a resource for the good person.
No need to honor the teachers.
No need to love the resources.
Though knowing this is a great paradox,
It is the subtle principle.

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Chapter 26

The heavy is the root of the light.
Tranquility is the master of the restless.
Thus, the noble person will travel all day without leaving his seat.
Though the center of the highest authority,
And surrounded by luxury,
He remains clear-minded.
How could the king of myriad chariots treat his body with less care than he gives the country?
Being careless loses the foundation.
Being restless loses mastery.

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Chapter 25

Matter is formed from chaos.
It was born before heaven and earth.
Silent and void.
Standing alone, without territory,
Able to be mother to the world.
I do not yet know its name,
I call it Tao.
With reluctance I deem it to be Great.
Great refers to the symbol.
The symbol refers to what is remote.
What is remote refers to returning.
Tao is great.
Heaven is great.
Earth is great.
Kingship is great.
These are the four great things in the world,
Kingship is one of them.
Humankind takes its origin from earth.
Earth takes her origin from heaven.
Heaven takes its origin from Tao.
Tao takes its origin from Nature.

Chapter 24

Those who boast of themselves lose their stance.
He who displays himself is not seen.
He who justifies himself is not understood.
He who lashes out does not succeed.
He who builds himself up does not endure.
In the sense of Tao,
This is said to be eating too much and acting too much.
It results in disgust.
Those who desire will not endure.
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Chapter 23

Natural speech consists of few words.
Gusty winds do not last all morning,
Cloudbursts do not last all day.
What makes this so?
Heaven and earth will not last forever,
How could a human being last!
So the person who works according to Tao unites with Tao.
In the same way he unites with action.
In the same way he unites with loss.
Uniting with action, the Tao becomes action.
Uniting with loss, the Tao becomes loss.

Chapter 22

Yield, and retain integrity.
In the depths of whirling, there is stillness.
The hollow enables the plentiful.
The old gives way to the new.
The small allows for increase.
Excess breeds confusion.
Therefore the sage holds oneness as the shepherd of the world.
He who does not display himself is seen.
He who does not justify himself is understood.
He who does not lash out succeeds.
He who does not build himself up endures.
Therefore,
Only the spirit of noncompetition makes things noncompetitive.
So the old saying, “yield, and retain integrity,” is but a few words,
But when rightly understood, integrity returns.

Chapter 21

The marks of profound action follow only from the Tao.
The substance of Tao is boundless and unfathomable.
Unfathomable and boundless,
In its center there is form;
Boundless and unfathomable,
In its center there is an object;
Embryonic and dark,
In its center there is essence;
The essence is very pure,
In its center there is trust.
From now to the days of old,
Its name never dies,
Because it creates all things in their beginning.
How do I know the source of all beginnings?
From this.

Chapter 20

How much difference is there between yea and nay?
How much difference is there between beautiful and ugly?
What one fears is what he cannot help but fear.
One is in the wilderness without central ground.
Ordinary people are fulfilled,
Eating delicious food,
Reaching the climax of romance.
I am desireless and without anticipation,
Like a baby who does not yet.
Gathering energy together, entering the abyss beyond the point of no return.
Ordinary people have more than enough,
I am a fool at heart, as a water droplet is to the spring.
People of affairs are bright and intelligent.
I alone am unintelligent.
People of affairs are cunning and clever.
I alone am dull and unsophisticated,
Unnoticed in the depth of the sea,
Looked for in an endless horizon.
Ordinary people are productive,
I alone maintain the living essence within.
I alone stay with a unitary source, as if stubborn.
I want to be wholly different from everyone else,
By taking my sustenance from the mother source.

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Chapter 19

Get rid of wisdom, abandon intelligence, and
People will benefit a hundredfold.
Get rid of benevolence, abandon justice, and
People will return to filial piety and kindness.
Get rid of skill, abandon profit, and
Thieves will disappear.
These three are inadequate.
So just let things be.
Observe the plain and embrace the simple.
Do not think much and do not desire much,
Get rid of learning and worry will disappear.

Chapter 17

The eminent has consciousness of self.
The next down are loved and praised.
The next down are feared,
At the bottom is the source.
When faith is weak, there is distrust.
Especially in the worth of speech.
Results speak for themselves.
This, people call me Nature.

Chapter 18

When the Great Tao is abandoned,
There is benevolence and righteousness.
When intelligence arises,
There is a great deal of manipulation.
When there is disharmony in the family,
There comes about filial piety.
When the country is in big trouble,
There arises patriotism.

Chapter 17

The eminent has consciousness of self.
The next down are loved and praised.
The next down are feared,
At the bottom is the source.
When faith is weak, there is distrust.
Especially in the worth of speech.
Results speak for themselves.
This, people call me Nature.

Chapter 16

Reaching the ultimate emptiness,
Concentrating on the central stillness,
All things work together.
From this I observe their returning.
All things under heaven flourish in their vitality,
Yet each returns to its own root.
This is stillness.
Stillness means returning to its destiny.
Returning to its destiny is steadfastness.
To know steadfastness means enlightenment.
Not to know steadfastness is to act forcefully.
Acting forcefully brings disaster.
Knowing the steadfast implies acceptance.
Acceptance is impartial.
Impartial is regal.
Regal is heaven.
Heaven is Tao.
Tao is beyond danger even when the body perishes.

Chapter Chapter 15

The ancient sages of Tao are subtle and mysteriously penetrating.
Their depth is beyond the power of will.
Because it is beyond the power of will,
The most we can do is describe it:
Thus, full of care, as one crossing the wintry stream,
Attentive, as one cautious of the total environment,
Reserved, as one who is a guest,
Spread open, as when confronting a marsh,
Simple, like uncarved wood,
Opaque, like mud,
Magnificent, like a valley.
From within the murky comes the stillness.
The feminine enlivens with her milk.
Keeping such a Tao, excess is undesirable.
Desiring no excess, work is completed without exhaustion.