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The Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
English version by
Arthur Waley, 1934
The Way and its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chine Thought , 1934
afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Daodejing
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1
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;doblo
The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind.
Truly, “Only he that rids himlf forever of desire can e the Secret Esnces”;
He that has never rid himlf of desire can e only the Outcomes.
The 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 Esnces.
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2
It is becau 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 quence to one another.
Therefore 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 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.
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3
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 cea to t store by products that are hard to get,
There will be no more thieves.
If the people never e such things as excite desire,
obc
Their hearts will remain placid and undisturbed.
Therefore the Sage rules
By emptying their hearts
And filling their hearts?
Weakening their intelligence
And toughening their sinews
Ever striving to make the people knowledgeless and desireless.
Indeed he es to it that if there be any who have knowledge,
They dare not interfere.
Yet through his actionless activity all things are duly regulated.
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4
The Way is like an empty vesl
That yet may be drawn from
大耳朵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 soothed.
It is like a deep pool that never dries.
席慕容一棵开花的树Was it too the child of something el?
We cannot tell.
But as a substanceless image it existed before the Ancestor.
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5
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 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 is soon spent.
Far better is it to keep what is in the heart.
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6
The Valley Spirit never dies.
It is named the Mysterious Female.
And the doorway of the Mysterious Female
Is the ba from which Heaven and Earth sprang.
It is there within us all the while;
Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.
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7
Heaven is eternal, the Earth everlasting.
How come they to be so?
It is becau they do not foster their own lives;
That is why they live so long.
Therefore the Sage
Puts himlf in the background; but is always to the fore.
Remains outside; but is always there.
Is it not just becau he does not strive for any personal end
That all his personal ends are fulfilled?
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8
The highest good is like that of water.
The goodness of is that it benefits the ten thousand creatures;
Yet itlf does not scramble,
But is content with the places that all men disdain.
It is this makes water so near to the Way.
And if men think the ground the best place for building a hou upon,
If among thoughts they value tho that are profound,
If in friendship they value gentleness,
In words, truth; in government, good order;
In deeds, effectiveness; in actions, timeliness -
In each ca it is becau they prefer what does not lead to strife,
And therefore does not go amiss.
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9
Stretch a bow 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 Way.
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10
Can you keep the unquiet physical-soul from straying,
Hold fast to the Unity, and never quit it?
Can you, when concentrating your breath,
Make it soft like that of a little child?
Can you wipe and clean your vision of the Mystery till all is without blur?
Can you love the people and rule the land,
Yet remain unknown?
Can you in opening and shutting the heavenly gates play always the female part?
Can your mind penetrate every corner of the land,
But you yourlf never interfere?
Rear them, then, feed them,
Rear them, but do not lay claim to them.
Control them, but never lean upon them;
Be chief among them, but do not manage them.
This is called the Mysterious Power.
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11
We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing
That the ufulness of the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vesl;
But it is on the space where there is nothing
That the ufulness of the vesl depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a hou;
And it is on the spaces where there is nothing
That the ufulness of the hou depends.
Therefore just as we take advantage of what is,
We should recognize the ufulness of what is not.考雅思好还是托福好
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12
The fives colours confu the eye,
The fives sounds dull the ear,
The five tastes spoil the palate.
Excess of hunting and chasing
Makes minds go mad.
Products that are hard to get
Impede their owner's movements.
Therefore the Sage
Considers the belly not the eye.
Truly, “he rejects that but takes this”.
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13
Favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness;
High rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt.”
What does it mean to say that favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness?
It means that when a rule's subjects get it they turn distraught,
When they lo it they turn distraught.
That is what is meant to by saying favour and disgrace goad as it were to madness.
What does it mean to say that high rank hurts keenly as our bodies hurt?
The only reason that we suffer hurt is that we have bodies;
If we had no bodies, how could we suffer?
Therefore we may accept the saying:
“He who in dealing with the empire regards his high rank
As through it were his body is the best person to be entrusted with rules;
He who in dealing with the empire loves his subjects as one should love one's body
Is the best person to whom one commit the empire.”
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14
Becau the eye gazes but can catch no glimp of it,
It is called elusive.
Becau the ear listens but cannot hear it,
It is called the rarefied.
itsmBecau the hand feels for it but cannot find it,
It is called the infinitesimal.
The three, becau they cannot be further scrutinized,
Blend into one,
Its rising brings no light;
Its sinking, no darkness.
Endless the ries of things without name
On the way back to where there is nothing.
They are called shapeless shapes;
Forms without form;
Are called vague mblance.
Go towards them, and you can e no front;
Go after them, and you e no rear.applet
Yet by izing on the Way that was
You can ride the things that are now.
For to know what once there was, in the Beginning,
This is called the esnce of the Way.
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15
Of old tho that were the best officers of Court
2012年网络流行语Had inner natures subtle, abstru, mysterious, penetrating,
Too deep to be understood.
And becau such men could not be understood
I can but tell of them as they appeared to the world:
Circumspect they emed, like one who in winter cross a stream,
Watchful, as one who must meet danger on every side.
Ceremonious, as one who pays a visit;
Yet yielding, as ice when it begins to melt.
Blank, as a piece of uncarved wood;
Yet receptive as a hollow in the hills.
Murky, as a troubled stream —–
(Tranquil, as the vast reaches of the a,
Drifting as the wind with no stop.)
Which of you an assume such murkiness,
To become in the end still and clear?
Which of you can make yourlf inrt,
To become in the end full of life and stir?
Tho who posss this Tao do not try to fill themlves to the brim,
And becau they do not try to fill themlves to the brim,
They are like a garment that endures all wear and need never be renewed.
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16
Push far enough towards the Void,
Hold fast enough to Quietness,
And of the ten thousand things none but can be worked on by you.
I have beheld them, whither they go back.
See, all things howsoever they flourish
shining
Return to the root from which they grew.
This return to the root is called Quietness;
Quietness is called submission to Fate;
What has submitted to Fate has become part of the always so.
To know the always-so is to be Illumined;
Not to know it, means to go blindly to disaster.
He who knows the always-so has room in him for everything;
He who has room in him for everything is without prejudice.
To be without prejudice is to be kingly;
To be kingly is to be of heaven;
To be of heaven is to be in Tao.
Tao is forever and he that posss it,
Though his body ceas, is not destroyed.
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17
Of the highest the people merely know that such a one exists;
The next they draw near to and prai.
The next they shrink from, intimidated; but revile.
Truly, “It is by not believing people that you turn them into liars”.
But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a single word
That when his task is accomplished, his work done,staff
Throughout the country every one says: “It happened of its own accord”.
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18
It was when the Great Way declined
That human kindness and morality aro;
It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared
That the Great Artifice began.
It was when the six near ones were no longer at peace
