第四章
道冲而用之，或不盈。
渊兮，似万物之宗。（挫其锐，解其纷，和其光，同其尘。）湛兮，似或存。
吾不知谁之子，象帝之先。
Chapter4
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，以万物为刍狗；圣人不仁，以百姓为刍狗。
天地之间，其犹橐籥乎！虚而不屈，动而愈出。
多言数穷，不如守中。
Chapter5
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，是谓玄牝。
玄牝之门，是谓天地根。
绵绵若存，用之不勤。
Chapter6
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.
