CHINESE ORIGINAL
谷神不死，是谓玄牝。
玄牝之门，是谓天地根。
绵绵若存，用之不勤。
ENGLISH · JAMES LEGGE, 1891
The valley spirit dies not, aye the same; The female mystery thus do we name. Its gate, from which at first they issued forth, Is called the root from which grew heaven and earth. Long and unbroken does its power remain, Used gently, and without the touch of pain.
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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The Way
The source that cannot be fully named. Explore the language of emptiness, return, and the patterns through which things arise.
The Way