One who knows does not speak. One who speaks does not know. Close your holes, shots your doors, Soften your sharpness, loosen your knots. Soften your glare and merge with the everyday. This is called mysteriously attaining oneness. Though you cannot possess it, you are intimate with it And at the same time, distant. Though [...]
One who remains rich in virtuous power Is like a newborn baby. Bees, scorpions and venomous snakes do not bite it, The wild beasts do not attack it. Birds of prey do not sink their claws into it. Though its bones are weak And muscles soft, Its grip is strong. Without knowing of the blending [...]
The well-established cannot be uprooted. The well-grasped doe not slip away. Generation after generation carries out the ancestor worship without break. Cultivate it in  yourself and virtue will be real. Cultivate it in the family and virtue will overflow. Cultivate it in town and virtue will be great. Cultivate it in country and virtue will [...]
If I had just a little bit of wisdom I should walk on the Great Path and fear only straying from it. Though the Way is quite broad People love shortcuts. The court is immaculate, While the fields are overgrown with weeds, And the granaries are empty. They wear silk finery, Carry sharp swords, Sate [...]
All things have a beginning, which we can regard as their Mother. Knowing the mother, we can know its children. Knowing the children, yet still cleaving to the mother You can die without pain. Stop up the holes Shut the doors, You can finish your life without anxiety. Open the doors, Increase your involvements, In [...]
Tao gives birth to it, Virtue rears it, Materiality shapes it, Activity perfects it. Therefore, there are none of the myriad things who do not venerate the Tao or esteen its virtue. This veneration of the Tao and esteeming of its virtue is something they do naturally, without being forced. Therefore, Tao gives birth. Its [...]
