· 1880 - D.T. Suzuki & Paul Carus
· 1919 - Dwight Goddard & Henri Borel
· 1989 - Jane English & Gia-fu Feng
· 1993 - S. Addiss & S. Lombardo
1
REASON'S REALIZATION.
1. The Reason that can be reasoned is not the eternal Reason. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The Unnamable is of heaven and earth the beginning. The Namable becomes of the ten thousand things the mother.
Therefore it is said:
2. "He who desireless is found
The spiritual of the world will sound.
But he who by desire is bound
Sees the mere shell of things around."
3. These two things are the same in source but different in name. Their sameness is called a mystery. Indeed, it is the mystery of mysteries. Of all spirituality it is the door.
SELF-CULTURE.
1. Everywhere it is obvious that if beauty makes a display of beauty, it is sheer ugliness. It is obvious that if goodness makes a display of goodness, it is sheer badness. For
2. "To be and not to be are mutually conditioned.
The difficult, the easy, are mutually definitioned.
The long, the short, are mutually exhibitioned.
Above, below, are mutually cognitioned.
The sound, the voice, are mutually coalitioned.
Before and after are mutually positioned."
3. Therefore
The holy man abides by non-assertion in his affairs and conveys by silence his instruction. When the ten thousand things arise, verily, he refuses them not. He quickens but owns not. He acts but claims not. Merit he accomplishes, but he does not dwell on it.
"Since he does not dwell on it
It will never leave him."
KEEPING THE PEOPLE QUIET.
1. Not boasting of one's worth forestalls people's envy.
Not prizing treasures difficult to obtain keeps people from committing theft.
2. Not contemplating what kindles desire keeps the heart unconfused.
3. Therefore the holy man when he governs empties the people's hearts but fills their stomachs. He weakens their ambition but strengthens their bones. Always he keeps the people unsophisticated and without desire. He causes that the crafty do not dare to act. When he acts with non-assertion there is nothing ungoverned.
SOURCELESS.
1. Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In its profundity, verily, it resembleth the arch-father of the ten thousand things.
2. "It will blunt its own sharpness,
Will its tangles adjust;
It will dim its own radiance
And be one with its dust."
3. Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose son it is. Apparently even the Lord it precedes.
THE FUNCTION OF EMPTINESS.
1. But for heaven and earth's humaneness, the ten thousand things are straw dogs. But for the holy man's humaneness, the hundred families are straw dogs.
2. Is not the space between heaven and earth like unto a bellows? It is empty; yet it collapses not. It moves, and more and more comes forth. [But]
3. "How soon exhausted is
A gossip's fulsome talk!
And should we not prefer
On the middle path to walk?"
THE COMPLETION OF FORM.
1. "The valley spirit not expires,
Mysterious woman ’tis called by the sires.
The mysterious woman's door, to boot,
Is called of heaven and earth the root.
Forever and aye it seems to endure
And its use is without effort sure."
DIMMING RADIANCE.
1. Heaven endures and earth is lasting. And why can heaven and earth endure and be lasting? Because they do not live for themselves. On that account can they endure.
2. Therefore
The holy man puts his person behind and his person comes to the front. He surrenders his person and his person is preserved. Is it not because he seeks not his own? For that reason he can accomplish his own.
EASY BY NATURE.
1. Superior goodness resembleth water. The water's goodness benefiteth the ten thousand things, yet it quarreleth not.
2. Water dwelleth in the places which the multitudes of men shun; therefore it is near unto the eternal Reason
3. The dwelling of goodness is in lowliness. The heart of goodness is in commotion. When giving, goodness showeth benevolence. In words, goodness keepeth faith. In government goodness standeth for order. In business goodness exhibiteth ability. The movements of goodness keep time.
4. It quarreleth not. Therefore it is not rebuked.
PRACTISING PLACIDITY.
1. Grasp to the full, are you not likely foiled? Scheme too sharply, can you wear long? If gold and jewels fill the hall no one can protect it.
2. Rich and high but proud, brings about its own doom. To accomplish merit and acquire fame, then to withdraw, that is Heaven's Way.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
1. Who by unending discipline of the senses embraces unity cannot be disintegrated. By concentrating his vitality and inducing tenderness he can become like a little child. By purifying, by cleansing and profound intuition he can be free from faults.
2. Who loves the people when administering the country will practise nonassertion.
Opening and closing the gates of heaven, he will be like a mother-bird; bright, and white, and penetrating the four quarters, he will be unsophisticated. He quickens them and feeds them. He quickens but owns not. He acts but claims not. He excels but rules not. This is called profound virtue.
THE FUNCTION OF THE NON-EXISTENT.
1. Thirty spokes unite in one nave and on that which is non-existent [on the hole in the nave] depends the wheel's utility. Clay is moulded into a vessel and on that which is non-existent [on its hollowness] depends the vessel's utility. By cutting out doors and windows we build a house and on that which is non-existent [on the empty space within] depends the house's utility.
2. Therefore, existence renders actual but non-existence renders useful.
ABSTAINING FROM DESIRE.
1. "The five colors [combined] the human eye will blind;
The five notes [in one sound] the human ear confound;
The five tastes [when they blend] the human mouth offend."
2. "Racing and hunting will human hearts turn mad,
Treasures high-prized make human conduct bad."
3. Therefore
The holy man attends to the inner and not to the outer. He abandons the latter and chooses the former.
LOATHING SHAME.
1. "Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling.
Rank bodes great heartache. It is like the body."
2. What means "Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling?"
Favor humiliates. Its acquisition causes trembling, its loss causes trembling. This is meant by "Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling."
3. What means "Rank bodes great heartache, it is like the body?"
I suffer great heartache because I have a body. When I have no body, what heartache remains?
4. Therefore who administers the empire as he takes care of his body can be entrusted with the empire.
PRAISING THE MYSTERIOUS.
1. We look at Reason and do not see it; its name is Colorless. We listen to Reason and do not hear it; its name is Soundless. We grope for Reason and do not grasp it; its name is Bodiless.
2. These three things cannot further be analyzed. Thus they are combined and conceived as a unity which on its surface is not clear and in its depth not obscure.
3. Forever and aye Reason remains unnamable, and again and again it returns home to non-existence.
4. This is called the form of the formless, the image of the imageless. This is called the transcendentally abstruse.
5. In front its beginning is not seen. In the rear its end is not seen.
6. By holding fast to the Reason of the ancients, the present is mastered and the origin of the past understood. This is called Reason's clue.
THE REVEALERS OF VIRTUE.
1. Those of yore who have succeeded in becoming masters are subtile, spiritual, profound, and penetrating. On account of their profundity they can not be understood. Because they can not be understood, therefore I endeavor to make them intelligible.
2. How cautious they are! Like men in winter crossing a river. How reluctant! Like men fearing in the four quarters their neighbors. How reserved! They behave like guests. How elusive! They resemble ice when melting. How simple! They resemble rough wood. How empty! They resemble the valley. How obscure! They resemble troubled waters.
3. Who by quieting can gradually render muddy waters clear? Who by stirring can gradually quicken the still?
4. He who cherishes this Reason is not anxious to be filled. Since he is not filled, therefore he may grow old; without renewal he is complete.
RETURNING TO THE ROOT.
1. By attaining the height of abstraction we gain fulness of rest.
2. All the ten thousand things arise, and I see them return. Now they bloom in bloom but each one homeward returneth to its root.
3. Returning to the root means rest. It signifies the return according to destiny. Return according to destiny means the eternal. Knowing the eternal means enlightenment. Not knowing the eternal causes passions to rise; and that is evil.
4. Knowing the eternal renders comprehensive. Comprehensiveness renders broad. Breadth renders royal. Royalty renders heavenly. Heaven renders Reason-like. Reason renders lasting. Thus the decay of the body implies no danger.
SIMPLICITY IN HABITS.
1. Of great rulers the subjects do not notice the existence. To lesser ones people are attached; they praise them. Still lesser ones people fear, and the meanest ones people despise.
2. For it is said:
"If your faith be insufficient, verily, you will receive no faith."
3. How reluctantly they [the great rulers] considered their words! Merit they accomplished; deeds they performed; and the hundred families thought: "We are independent."
THE PALLIATION OF VULGARITY.
1. When the great Reason is obliterated, we have benevolence and justice. Prudence and circumspection appear, and we have much hypocrisy.
2. When family relations no longer harmonize, we have filial piety and paternal devotion. When the country and the clans decay through disorder, we have loyalty and allegiance.
RETURNING TO SIMPLICITY.
1. Abandon your saintliness; put away your prudence; and the people will gain a hundredfold!
2. Abandon your benevolence; put away your justice; and the people will return to filial piety and paternal devotion.
3. Abandon smartness; give up greed; and thieves and robbers will no longer exist.
4. These are three things for which culture is insufficient. Therefore it is said:
"Hold fast to that which will endure,
Show thyself simple, preserve thee pure,
And lessen self with desires fewer."
DIFFERENT FROM THE VULGAR.
1. Abandon learnedness, and you have no vexation. The "yes" compared with the "yea," how little do they differ! But the good compared with the bad, how much do they differ!
2. If what the people dread cannot be made dreadless, there will be desolation, alas! and verily, there will be no end of it.
3. The multitudes of men are happy, so happy, as though celebrating a great feast. They are as though in springtime ascending a tower. I alone remain quiet, alas! like one that has not yet received an omen. I am like unto a babe that does not yet smile.
4. Forlorn am I, O so forlorn! It appears that I have no place whither I may return home.
5. The multitude of men all have plenty and I alone appear empty. Alas! I am a man whose heart is foolish.
6. Ignorant am I, O, so ignorant! Common people are bright, so bright, I alone am dull.
7. Common people are smart, so smart, I alone am confused, so confused.
8. Desolate am I, alas! like the sea. Adrift, alas! like one who has no place where to stay.
9. The multitude of men all possess usefulness. I alone am awkward and a rustic too. I alone differ from others, but I prize seeking sustenance from our mother.
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