The way and its name

A Way that can be spoken and a name that can be named point out particular matters and establish forms; these are not what is constant. Therefore the constant cannot be spoken or named. Everything that exists begins in nonbeing. Thus, when there is 'no form' and 'no name,' it is the beginning of all things. When there are 'form' and 'name,' it grows them, nourishes them, establishes them, and brings them to maturity: it is their mother. Through formlessness and namelessness, the Way begins and completes all things. It begins and completes them without our knowing how this is so: this is mystery upon mystery.

'Marvelous' means the utmost subtlety. All things begin in the subtle and then become complete; they begin in nonbeing and then arise. Thus, by remaining always without desire, empty and open, one can observe the wonder with which it begins things. 'Boundary' means the final return. Wherever being provides a benefit, nonbeing must supply its use. What desire rests upon can succeed only by according with the Way. Thus, by remaining always with desire, one can observe the boundary at which it completes things.

'The two' are the beginning and the mother. 'Emerging together' means that both emerge from the mysterious. 'Different names' means that their applications cannot be the same: at the outset it is called the beginning, and at the end it is called the mother. 'The mysterious' is dark, silent nonbeing, from which beginning and mother emerge. It cannot be given a name. Hence the text cannot say that their common name is 'the mysterious.' It says they are 'called mysterious,' drawing on the fact that what it calls this cannot be apprehended. Calling it so does not mean fixing it as one particular mystery. If it were fixed as one mystery, this would be a name, and one would have strayed far from it. Hence 'mystery upon mystery.' All wonders emerge from it; hence 'the gateway of all wonders.'