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道 Tâo
Chapter 21

(needs a lot more work)

Opening (hole) of Teh contains
Only Tao correctly (the source from) follows (obeys)

the Way, it becomes a thing (seems to exist)
consider sudden insight
consider forgetting

forgetting...
sudden insight...

this (its) center
exists image

sudden insight...
forgetting...

this (its) center
exists thing

deep (profound)...
dark (obscure)...(1)

this (its) center
exists essence

this essence
very true (spiritual conversion)

this (its) center
exists trust

from present
reaching to ancient
its name
not removed

[by means of]
[examine all (crowd) man (father)]
[use examining the father of the crowd (mass)]
by means of examining common man

I who
[by means of know all (crowd) only (man, father)]
[use knowing the father of the crowd (mass)]
by means of knowing common man
describe it

[use this!]
by means of this!

二 十 一 章

孔 得 之 容
唯 道 是 從

道 之 為 物
唯 恍
唯 忽

忽 恍 中
有 象

恍 忽 中
有 物

珫 冥 中
有 精

其 精
甚 真

其 中
有 信

自 古
及 今
其 名
不 去

以 閱 眾 甫

吾 何
以 知 眾 甫 之 然

以 此

Key Terms

Notes:

1. Extra text from another source

Observations and Comments

21 is unusual in that Teh occurs in line 1, and Tao in line 2. This is worthy of attention.

Legge Translation Notes

###, 'The Empty Heart.' But I fail to see the applicability of the title. The subject of the chapter is the Tâo in its operation. This is the significance of the ### in the first clause or line, and to render it by 'virtue,' as Julien and Chalmers do, only serves to hide the meaning. Julien, however, says that 'the virtue is that of the Tâo; and he is right in taking ###, the last character of the second line, as having the sense of 'from,' 'the source from,' and not, as Chalmers does, in the sense of 'following.'

Lâo-dze's mind is occupied with a very difficult subject to describe the production of material forms by the Tâo; how or from what, he does not say. What I have rendered 'semblances,' Julien 'les images,' and Chalmers 'forms,' seems, as the latter says, in some way to correspond to the 'Eternal Ideas' of Plato in the Divine Mind. But Lâo-dze had no idea of 'personality' in the Tâo.