DAO · THE WAY / CHAPTER 21

Following the way

第21章 · 虚心 · 道经

CHINESE ORIGINAL

孔德之容,惟道是从。

道之为物,惟恍惟惚。

惚兮恍兮,其中有象;恍兮惚兮,其中有物。

窈兮冥兮,其中有精;其精甚真,其中有信。

自今及古,其名不去,以阅众甫。

吾何以知众甫之状哉?

以此。

ENGLISH · JAMES LEGGE, 1891

21.

The grandest forms of active force From Tao come, their only source. Who can of Tao the nature tell? Our sight it flies, our touch as well. Eluding sight, eluding touch, The forms of things all in it crouch; Eluding touch, eluding sight, There are their semblances, all right. Profound it is, dark and obscure; Things' essences all there endure. Those essences the truth enfold Of what, when seen, shall then be told. Now it is so; 'twas so of old. Its name--what passes not away; So, in their beautiful array, Things form and never know decay.

How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By this (nature of the Tao).

Legge’s translation uses nineteenth-century English. Parentheses are the translator’s; English chapter headings are editorial reading aids. Sources & method ↗

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