The way and its name

This refers to the ways of classical learning, political institutions, and instruction, rather than the Way of spontaneous growth. The constant Way nourishes the spirit through nonaction and settles the people through freedom from meddling. It contains its light, conceals its radiance, effaces its traces, and hides its beginnings; it cannot be proclaimed in words. The name in question refers to wealth, rank, honor, distinction, and a reputation surpassing the world, rather than a name that naturally endures. The constant name should resemble an infant that has not spoken, an egg before its contents differentiate, a bright pearl within a clam, or fine jade within stone: inwardly luminous, outwardly appearing foolish and dull.

'The nameless' means the Way. The Way has no form, so it cannot be named. 'Beginning' means the root of the Way: it exhales qi and spreads transformation, emerging from emptiness and nonbeing to become the original beginning of heaven and earth. 'The named' means heaven and earth. They have form and position, yin and yang, softness and hardness; thus they have names. 'The mother of all things' means that heaven and earth contain qi and generate all things, growing and ripening them as a mother nourishes her children.

'Wonder' means the essential. If people can always remain without desire, they can observe the essential of the Way. The essential means the One. The One emerges and spreads forth, called the Way; it assists in ordering things and clarifies right and wrong. 'Boundary' means the return. People who constantly have desires can observe where worldly pursuits lead.

'The two' means having desire and having no desire. 'Emerging together' means that both emerge from the human heart. 'Different names' means that each is named differently: those called desireless endure, while those called desirous lose their lives. 'The mysterious' means heaven: people with desire and people without desire alike receive qi from heaven. There is another heaven within heaven. The qi received varies in fullness and thinness. Receiving the nourishing fluids of central harmony produces worthies and sages; receiving disorderly and polluted qi produces the greedy and lustful. To know that heaven contains another heaven and that received qi varies in fullness, and to remove passions and desires while preserving central harmony, is to know the gateway to the essentials of the Way.