40. Return
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
反者道之动；弱者道之用。
English translation
Returning is the movement of the Way; yielding is the way the Way works.
Things that develop to an extreme turn back toward their source, while enduring influence often works through softness and without forceful contention.
Original Chinese text
天下万物生于有，有生于无。
English translation
All things under heaven arise from what is present and formed; what is present and formed arises from what is not yet formed.
Concrete things emerge through existing forms and conditions, while those forms themselves arise from open, undetermined possibility. “Nonbeing” here is not mere blankness, but the unformed ground from which being can appear.