4. The Empty Source
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
道冲而用之或不盈。
English translation
The Way is empty, yet in use it seems never to be filled.
Its emptiness means it is not confined to a fixed form; because it leaves room, its capacity to receive and function is not exhausted.
Original Chinese text
渊兮似万物之宗。
English translation
How deep it is, as though it were the source of all things.
The image of depth suggests something beyond full comprehension; “source” points to a shared origin, not a personal ruler.
Original Chinese text
挫其锐，解其纷，和其光，同其尘。
English translation
It blunts what is sharp, untangles what is knotted, softens what is glaring, and mingles with the dust.
The four images describe a way that does not display itself or press against things: sharpness and confusion ease, brilliance is tempered, and life joins the ordinary world.
Original Chinese text
湛兮似或存。
English translation
Deep and still, it seems somehow to be there.
The Way cannot be identified like a concrete object, yet the workings of things make it seem undeniably present.
Original Chinese text
吾不知谁之子，象帝之先。
English translation
I do not know whose offspring it is; it seems to have existed before the Lord on High.
The line asks where the Way came from but assigns it no higher creator. Even what people imagined as the highest power appears to come after it.