| 1 |
道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物。 |
The Dao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three;
Three produced All things.
|
Reason begets unity; unity begets duality; duality begets trinity; and trinity
begets the ten thousand things.
|
Tao produces unity; unity produces duality; duality produces trinity; trinity
produces all things.
|
| 2 |
萬物負陰而抱陽，沖氣以為和。人
之所惡， |
All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and
go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which
they have emerged), while they are harmonised by
the Breath of Vacancy.
|
The ten thousand things are sustained by Yin [the negative principle]; they are
encompassed by Yang [the positive principle], and
the immaterial breath renders them harmonious.
|
All things bear the negative principle (yin) and embrace the positive principle
(yang). Immaterial vitality, the third principle
(chi), makes them harmonious.
|
| 3 |
唯孤、寡、不谷，而王公以為稱。故物或損之而益， |
What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as
carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which
kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are increased
by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased.
|
That which the people find odious, to be orphaned, lonely, and unworthy, kings
and princes select as their titles. Thus, on the
one hand, loss implies gain, and on the other hand,
gain implies loss.
|
Those things which are detested by the common people, namely to be called orphans,
inferiors, and unworthies, are the very things kings
and lords take for titles. There are some things
which it is a gain to lose, and a loss to gain.
|
| 5 |
人之所教，我亦教之。強梁者不得其死，吾將以為教父。 |
The violent and strong
do not die their natural death. I will make this the basis of my teaching. |
The strong and aggressive do not die a natural death; but I will obey the doctrine's
father. |
But the strong and aggressive: ones do not obtain a natural death (i.e., self-confident
teachers do not succeed). I alone expound the basis
of the doctrine of the Dao. |
