Tao Te Ching

The First 14 of 81 Chapters
Translated from the Chinese circa 1891
by James Legge

1.
1. The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and
unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the
enduring and unchanging name.
2. (Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator
of heaven and earth; (conceived of as) having a name, it is
the Mother of all things.
3. Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.
4. Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as
development takes place, it receives the different names.
Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is
the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.

2.
1. All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and
in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they
all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have
(the idea of) what the want of skill is.
2. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the
one to (the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease
produce the one (the idea of) the other; that length and
shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that
(the ideas of) height and lowness arise from the contrast of
the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones
become harmonious through the relation of one with
another; and that being before and behind give the idea of
one following another.
3. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing
anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of
speech.
4. All things spring up, and there is not one which
declines to show itself; they grow, and there is no claim
made for their ownership; they go through their processes,
and there is no expectation (of a reward for the results). The
work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it (as an
achievement). The work is done, but how no one can
see;’Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.

3.
1. Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the
way to keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not
to prize articles which are difficult to procure is the way to
keep them from becoming thieves; not to show them what is
likely to excite their desires is the way to keep their minds
from disorder.
2. Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government,
empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills,
and strengthens their bones.
3. He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge
and without desire, and where there are those who have
knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it).
When there is this abstinence from action, good order is
universal.

4.
1. The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our
employment of it we must be on our guard against all
fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the
Honoured Ancestor of all things!
2. We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the
complications of things; we should attemper our brightness,
and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of
others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so
continue!
3. I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have
been before God.

5.
1. Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any
wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs
of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish
to be) benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of
grass are dealt with.
2. May not the space between heaven and earth be
compared to a bellows?
’Tis emptied, yet it loses not its power;
’Tis moved again, and sends forth air the more.
Much speech to swift exhaustion lead we see;
Your inner being guard, and keep it free.

6.
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.

7.
1. Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The
reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and
continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for,
themselves. This is how they are able to continue and
endure.
2. Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it
is found in the foremost place; he treats his person as if it
were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved. Is it
not because he has no personal and private ends, that
therefore such ends are realised?

8.
1. The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The
excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and
in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low
place which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to (that
of) the Tao.
2. The excellence of a residence is in (the suitability of)
the place; that of the mind is in abysmal stillness; that of
associations is in their being with the virtuous; that of
government is in its securing good order; that of (the
conduct of) affairs is in its ability; and that of (the initiation
of) any movement is in its timeliness.
3. And when (one with the highest excellence) does not
wrangle (about his low position), no one finds fault with
him.

9.
1. It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt
tocarry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has
been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its
sharpness.
2. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot
keep them safe. When wealth and honours lead to
arrogancy, this brings its evil on itself. When the work is
done, and one’s name is becoming distinguished, to
withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.

10.
1. When the intelligent and animal souls are held together
in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one
gives undivided attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it
to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender)
babe. When he has cleansed away the most mysterious
sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw.
2. In loving the people and ruling the state, cannot he
proceed without any (purpose of) action? In the opening and
shutting of his gates of heaven, cannot he do so as a female
bird? While hisintelligence reaches in every direction,
cannot he (appear to) be without knowledge?
3. (The Tao) produces (all things) and nourishes them; it
produces them and does not claim them as its own; it does
all, and yet does not boast of it; it presides over all, and yet
does not control them.This is what is called ’The mysterious
Quality’ (of the Tao).

11.
1. The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the
empty space (for the axle), that the use of the wheel
depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their
empty hollowness, that their use depends. The door and
windows are cut out (from the walls) to form an apartment;
but it is on the empty space (within), that its use depends.
Therefore, what has a (positive) existence serves for
profitable adaptation, and what has not that for (actual)
usefulness.

12.
1. Colour’s five hues from th’ eyes their sight will take;
Music’s five notes the ears as deaf can make;
The flavours five deprive the mouth of taste;
The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste
Make mad the mind; and objects rare and strange,
Sought for, men’s conduct will to evil change.
2. Therefore the sage seeks to satisfy (the craving of) the
belly, and not the (insatiable longing of the) eyes. He puts
from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former.

13.
1. Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared;
honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal
conditions (of the same kind).
2. What is meant by speaking thus of favour and
disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position (after the
enjoyment of favour). The getting that (favour) leads to the
apprehension (of losing it), and the losing it leads to the fear
of (still greater calamity): - this is what is meant by saying
that favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared.
And what is meant by saying that honour and great
calamity are to be (similarly) regarded as personal conditions?
What makes me liable to great calamity is my having
the body (which I call myself); if I had not the body, what
great calamity could come to me?
3. Therefore he who would administer the kingdom,
honouring it as he honours his own person, may be
employed to govern it, and he who would administer it with
the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted
with it.

14.
1. We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it ’the
Equable.’ We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name
it ’the Inaudible.’ We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it,
and we name it ’the Subtle.’ With these three qualities, it
cannot be made the subject of description; and hence we
blend them together and obtain The One.
2. Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not
obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and
then it again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the
Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible;
this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.
3. We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and
do not see its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old
to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know
it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding)
the clue of Tao.