The Tao Te Ching
By Lao Tzu
translation by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2003 All Rights Reserved.
Unapologetically ripped from poetryintranslation.
Chapter 1
The Way - cannot be told.
The Name - cannot be named.
The nameless is the Way of Heaven and Earth.
The named is Matrix of the Myriad Creatures.
Eliminate desire to find the Way.
Embrace desire to know the Creature.
The two are identical,
But differ in name as they arise.
Identical they are called mysterious,
Mystery on mystery,
The gate of many secrets.
Chapter 2
The world knows beauty as beauty,
So there is then ugliness.
The world knows good as good,
So there is then the bad.
As is and is-not create each other,
The hard and easy define each other,
The long and short delimit each other,
The high and low depend on each other,
Voice and music harmonise with each other,
Last and next follow each other.
So the wise adhere to action through non-action,
And communicate the teaching without words.
From the Way come the myriad creatures
Yet it imposes no authority.
It gives them life without possession.
It benefits them but asks no thanks.
It does its work but claims no merit.
Because it claims no merit
Merit is never lacking in it.
Chapter 3
Don’t give honours to the worthy,
Protect people from ambition.
Don’t value scarce things,
Protect the people from envy.
Don’t show what’s desired,
Keep people from temptation.
So, in governing, the wise
Empty the mind
But fill the stomach,
Weaken ambition
But strengthen the bones,
Keep things free of
Desire and learning,
So the clever take no action.
Act without taking action
And things will be in order.
Chapter 4
The Way is full: use won’t empty it.
Deep is the matrix of the myriad creatures.
Blunt the sharp:
Loosen the knots:
Dim the glare:
Follow old tracks.
Shadowy, it seems hardly there.
I don’t know whose child it is.
It seems like the ancestral form.
Chapter 5
Heaven and earth are ruthless,
Trampling the myriad creatures like straw dogs.
The wise are ruthless,
Considering the people as straw dogs.
The space between earth and heaven,
Isn’t it like a bellows?
It’s empty but never exhausted.
The more it works the more flows out.
Much speech leads in the end to silence.
Better to hold fast to the Void.
Chapter 6
The spirit of the valley never dies.
It is called the mysterious female.
The gate of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth.
Barely seen, it hardly seems there,
Yet use will never exhaust it.
Chapter 7
Heaven and Earth endure,
By not endowing themselves with life.
Then they can be long-lived.
So the wise place Self last,
And it comes first,
Call it other than themselves,
And it persists.
By not thinking of Self
The personal goal is achieved.
Chapter 8
The highest virtue is like water.
Since water helps the myriad creatures,
And settles, without contention,
Where no one wishes to live,
It is near to the Way.
In a house position matters.
In mental quality depth matters.
In friends kindness matters.
In speaking honesty matters.
In government order matters.
In transactions ability matters.
In actions promptness matters.
By not contending it never errs.
Chapter 9
Rather than filling it overfull
Better to stop in time.
Sharpen it to a point
The edge won’t last forever.
Gold and jade may fill the house
But no one can retain them.
Boasting of wealth and virtue,
Brings trouble on oneself.
Reticence when the job is done,
Is the Way of heaven.
Chapter 10
Carrying your spiritual body on your head
Can you embrace the One and not let go?
Concentrating the breath
Can you become supple as a child?
Can you polish the mysterious mirror
And leave no mark?
Can you love the people and rule the state
Without indulging in action?
When the gates of heaven open and close,
Can you keep to the female role?
When your mind penetrates the four directions
Are you able to know nothing?
It gives them life and nurtures.
It gives them life without possession.
It benefits them but asks no thanks.
It holds but imposes no authority.
Such is the mysterious virtue.
Chapter 11
Thirty spokes
Round one hub.
Employ the nothing inside
And you can use a cart.
Knead the clay to make a pot.
Employ the nothing inside
And you can use a pot.
Cut out doors and windows.
Employ the nothing inside
And you can use a room.
What is achieved is something,
By employing nothing it can be used.
Chapter 12
The five colours blind us.
The five notes deafen us.
The five tastes deaden us.
Pursuing and catching
Disturb the mind.
Wanting scarce things
Delays our progress.
So the wise are:
For the stomach
And not the eye.
Taking the one, they leave the other.
Chapter 13
Favour and loss of it both disturb us.
Rank and body are both a problem.
What’s meant by ‘favour and loss of it both disturb us’?
Favour disturbs the subject when it’s given
As much as it does when it’s taken away.
That’s what’s meant by ‘favour and loss of it both disturb us’.
What’s meant by ‘rank and body are both a problem’?
I’ve problems because I have a body.
When I’ve no body where’s my problem?
Who values the body even more than the empire,
Can be trusted with the empire.
Who loves the body even more than the empire,
Can be a custodian of the empire.
Chapter 14
What cannot be seen is called indistinguishable.
What cannot be heard is called indistinct.
What cannot be touched is called indefinite. The three can’t be comprehended
So they’re confused and considered one.
Its surface is not bright.
Its depths are not obscured.
Dimly seen it can’t be named
So returns to the insubstantial.
This is the shapeless shape,
The form without substance.
This is called blurred and shadowy.
Approach it you can’t see its face.
Follow it you can’t see its back.
Hold fast to the ancient Way
In order to control the present.
Knowing the source of the ancient,
Is the thread that runs through the Way.