The Ancestor of All Things, Great Obscurity, 無源
"The Dao appears to be emptiness but it is never exhausted.
Oh, it is profound!
It appears to have preceded everything.
It dulls its own sharpness, unravels its own fetters, softens its own
brightness, identifies itself with its own dust.
Oh, it is tranquil!
It appears infinite.
I do not know from what it proceeds.
It even appears to be antecedent to the Lord."
- Translated by Dwight Goddard
and Henri Borel, 1919,
Chapter 4
"The Tao is full, exhaustless and complete; yet in
operation as though not self-elated.
In its origin it is as it were the Ancestor of All Things.
It chastens asperity; it unravels confusion; it moderates the radiance,
And and it identifies itself with the sordid ones of the earth.
It enables a man to associate with the base without being defiled.
Pellucid like a spreading ocean, it yet has the semblance of permanence.
I know not whose offspring it is.
Its ειδωλον existed before God was."
- Translated by Frederic H. Balfour, 1884, Chapter
4
Translated by Eva Wong 
Translated by Philip Ivahoe
By James Miller
Translated by Stephen Bokencamp
By Alexander and Annellen Simpkins
Translated by Thomas Cleary
By Livia Kohn
"Dao chang,
er yong zhi huo bu ying.
Yuan xi,
si wan wu zhi zong.
Cuo qi rui,
jie qi fen;
he qi guang,
tong qi chen;
zhan xi,
si huo cun.
Wu bu zhi shui zhi zi,
xiang di zhi xian."
- Pinyin
romanized transliteration, Chapter 4
By Alexander Simkins
By Derek Lin
By Ming-Dao Deng.
By Benjamin Hoff.
By Ming-Dao Deng
Translated by Thomas Cleary
"The Tao is like the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we
must be on our guard against all fullness.
How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honored Ancestor of all
things!
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things;
We should temper 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!
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God."
- Translated by
James Legge, 1891,
Chapter 4
Translation and elucidation by Hua Ching Ni
Translated by Brian Walker
Translated by Arthur Waley
Translated by Lionel and and Herbert Giles
By Eva Wong
"Existence, by
nothing bred,
Breeds everything.
Parent of the universe,
It smoothes rough edges,
Unties hard knots,
Tempers the sharp sun,
Lays blowing dust,
Its image in the wellspring never fails.
But how was it conceived?--this image
Of no other sire."
- Translated by
Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 4
By Hu Xuzehi
Annotated translation by Victor Mair 
By Ha Poong Kim
By Hans-Georg Moeller 
By Roger T. Ames and David T. Hall
By Wes Burgess
By Arthur Waley
"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 soothed.
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 it existed before the Ancestor."
- Translated by
Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 4
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
Translated by Livia Kohn
Dao De Jing: The Book of the Way
"The Way is empty, yet never refills with use;
Bottomless it is, like the forefather of the myriad creatures.
It files away sharp points,
unravels tangles,
diffuses light,
mingles with the dust.
Submerged it lies,
seeming barely to subsist.
I know not whose child it is,
only that it resembles the predecessor of God."
- Translated by
Victor H. Mair, 1990, Chapter 4
Walking the Way: 81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching
The Tao of Zen
Tao Te Ching: Zen Teachings on the Taoist Classic
Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China
"Tao is infinite.
If we use It, we find It inexhaustible,
Deep!
It appears to be Ancestor of all things.
It rounds our angles. It unravels our difficulties. It harmonizes our Light. It brings our atoms into Unity.
Pure!
It appears to be everlasting in principle.
I do not know whose Son It is,
It existed before God was manifest in Form."
- Translated by
Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 4
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Chapter and Thematic Index to the Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Commentary, Interpretations, Research Tools, Resources
Chapter 4
Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition
By Jonathan Star. Translation, commentary and research tools. New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Penguin, 2001. Concordance, tables, appendices, 349 pages. A
new rendition of the Tao Te Ching is provided, then a verbatim translation with
extensive notes. Detailed tables for each verse provide line number, all
the Chinese characters, Wade-Giles romanization, and a list of meanings for
each character. An excellent reference tool!
Yellow Bridge
Dao De Jing Comparison Table, Chapter 4 Provides side by side comparisons of translations of the Tao Te
Ching by James Legge,
D. T. Suzuki, and Dwight Goddard. Chinese characters for each paragraph in
the Chapter are on the left; place your cursor over the Chinese characters to
see the Pinyin romanization of the Chinese character and a list of meanings.
The Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching & Hua Hu Ching
Tao Te Ching Commentaries - Google Search
Tao Te Ching: A
Bibliography and Index of Translations on the Web
Chapter 4 in the
Rambling
Taoist Commentaries by Trey Smith. The
Rambling Taoists are Trey Smith and Scott Bradley.
By Hu Xuzehi. Seven Star Communications, 2006, 240 pages.
The Philosophy of the Daodejing
Das Tao Te King von Lao Tse
The largest collection of very nicely formatted complete versions of the Tao
Te Ching. The
collection includes 209 complete versions in 27 languages,
plus 28 Chinese versions. There are 112 English language
versions of the
Tao Te Ching available at this website. A variety of search methods and comparision methods are provided, as well a a detailed
index.
Offline on 5/12/2013.
Tao Te Ching
English Translations from Terebess Asia Online.
Over 30 translations.
Lao-tzu's Taoteching
Reading Lao Tzu: A Companion to the Tao Te Ching with a New Translation
Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation
Thematic Index to the
81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu: Te-Tao Ching - A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui
Texts (Classics of Ancient China)
Gushen Grove Notebooks for the Tao Te Ching
Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Grove, Gushen Grove Notebooks, Red Bluff, California
This webpage was last modified or updated on May
12, 2013.
This webpage was first distributed online on February 6, 2011.
Brief Biography of Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.
Valley Spirit Grove, Red Bluff, California
Ripening Peaches: Daoist
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One Old Druid's Final Journey: Notebooks of the Librarian of Gushen Grove
The Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) circa 500 BCE
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