第一章：道可道，非常道;名可名，非常名。無名，天地之始;有名，萬物之母。故常無欲，以觀其妙;常有欲，以觀其徼。此兩者，同出而異名，同謂之玄。玄之又玄，眾妙之門。
The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way; The names that can be named are not unvarying names. It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. Truly, ’Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences’ ; He that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. These two things issued from the same mould, but nevertheless are different in name. This ’ same mould’ we can but call the Mystery, Or rather the ’Darker than any Mystery’, The Doorway whence issued all Secret Essences.
第二章：天下皆知美之為美，斯惡已;皆知善之為善，斯不善已。故有無相生，難易相成，長短相形，高下相傾，音聲相和，前后相隨。是以圣人處無為之事，行不言之教，萬物作焉而不辭，生而不有，為而不恃，功成而弗居。夫唯弗居，是以不去。
It is because every one under Heaven recognizes beauty as beauty,that the idea of ugliness exists. And equally if every one recognized virtue as virtue, this would merely create fresh conceptions of wickedness. For truly ’Being and Not-being grow out of one another; Difficult and easy complete one another. Long and short test one another; High and low determine one another. Pitch and mode give harmony to one another. Front and back give sequence to one another’. Therefore[1] the Sage relies on actionless activity, Carries on wordless teaching, But the myriad creatures are worked upon by him; he does not disown them. He rears them, but does not lay claim to them, Controls them, but does not lean upon them, Achieves his aim, but does not call attention[2] to what he does; And for the very reason that he does not call attention to what he does He is not ejected from fruition of what he has done.
[1]Because ’action’ can only make one thing high at the expense of making something else low, etc.
[2]Literally, ’does not place (i.e.classify) himself as a victor’. cf. MenciusⅡ, Ⅰ;
第三章：不尚賢，使民不爭;不貴難得之貨，使民不為盜;不見可欲，使民心不亂。是以圣人之治，虛其心，實其腹;弱其志，強其骨。常使民無知無欲，使夫智不敢為也。為無為，則無不治。
If we stop looking for ’persons of superior morality’ (hsien) to put in power, there will be no more jealousies among the people. If we cease to set store by products that are hard to get , there will be no more thieves. If the people never see such things as excite desire, their hearts will remain placid and undisturbed. Therefore the Sage rules
By emptying their hearts
And filling their bellies,
Weakening their intelligence[1]
And toughening their sinews
Ever striving to make the people knowledgeless and desireless.
Indeed he sees to it that if there be any who have knowledge, they dare not interfere. Yet through his actionless activity all things are duly regulated.
[1]Particularly in the sense of ’having ideas of one’s own’.
第四章：道沖而用之，或不盈。淵兮，似萬物之宗。(挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。)湛兮，似或存。吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。
The Way is like an empty vessel That yet may be drawn from Without ever needing to be filled. It is bottomless; the very progenitor of all things in the world. In it all sharpness is blunted, All tangles untied, All glare tempered, All dust[1] smoothed. It is like a deep pool that never dries. Was it too the child of something else? We cannot tell. But as a substanceless image[2] it existed before the Ancestor.[3]
[1]Dust is the Taoist symbol for the noise and fuss of everyday life.
[2]A hsiang, an image such as the mental images that float before us when we think.
[3]The Ancestor in question is almost certainly the Yellow Ancestor who separated Earth from Heaven and so destroyed the Primal Unity, for which he is frequently censured is Chuang Tzu.
第五章：天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗;圣人不仁，以百姓為芻狗。天地之間，其猶橐籥乎!虛而不屈，動而愈出。多言數窮，不如守中。
Heaven and Earth are ruthless; To them the Ten Thousand Things are but as straw dogs. The Sage too is ruthless; To him the people are but as straw dogs. Yet[1] Heaven and Earth and all that lies between Is like a bellows In that it is empty, but gives a supply that never fails. Work it, and more comes out . Whereas the force of words[2] is soon spent. Far better is it to keep what is in the heart[3].
[1]Though ruthless nature is perpetually bounteous.
[2]Laws and proclamations.
[3]For chung as ’what is within the heart’, see Tso Chuan, Yin Kung 3rd year and Kuan Tzu,37, beginning. The comparison of Heaven and Earth to a bellows is also found in Kuan Tzu (P’ien 11, beginning).
第六章：谷神不死，是謂玄牝。玄牝之門，是謂天地根。綿綿若存，用之不勤。
The Valley Spirit never dies. It is named the Mysterious Female. And the Doorway of the Mysterious Female Is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.[1]
[1]Lieh Tzu quotes these lines as coming from the Book of the Yellow Ancestor; but it does not follow that the Tao Ching is actually quothing them from this source. They may belong to the general stock of early Taoist rhymed teaching. For ch’ in compare below, Chapter 52, line 9, and Huai-nan Tzu I, fol.2.
第七章：天長地久，天地所以能長且久者，以其不自生，故能長生。是以圣人后其身而身先，外其身而身存。非以其無私邪?故能成其私。
Heaven is eternal, the Earth Everlasting. How come they to be so? Is it because they do not foster their own lives; That is why they live so long. Therefore the Sage Puts himself in the background; but is always to the fore. Remains outside; but is always there. Is it not just because he does not strive for any personal end That all his personal ends are fulfilled?
第八章：上善若水，水善利萬物而不爭。處眾人之所惡，故幾于道。居善地，心善淵，與善仁，言善信，正善治，事善能，動善時。夫唯不爭，故無尤。
The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of water is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures; yet itself does not scramble, but is content with the places that all men disdain. It is this that makes water so near to the Way. And if men think the ground the best place for building a house upon, If among thoughts they value those that are profound, If in friendship they value gentleness, In words, truth; in government, good order; In deeds, effectiveness; in actions, timeliness- In each case it is because they prefer what does not lead to strife,[1] And therefore does not go amiss.
[1]Even ordinary people realize the importance of the Taoist principle of ’water-like’ behaviour, i.e. not striving to get on top or to the fore.
第九章：持而盈之，不如其已;揣而銳之，不可長保。金玉滿堂，莫之能守。富貴而驕，自遺其咎。功遂身退，天之道也!
Stretch a bow[1] to the very full, And you will wish you had stopped in time; Temper a sword-edge to its very sharpest, And you will find it soon grows dull When bronze and jade fill your hall It can no longer be guarded. Wealth and place breed insolence That brings ruin in its train. When your work is done, then withdraw! Such is Heaven’s[2] Way.
[1] the expression used can also apply to filling a vessel to the brim; but ’stretching a bow’ makes a better parallel to ’sharpening a sword’.
[2] as opposed to the Way of man
