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道 Tâo
Chapter 34

1. All-pervading is the Great Tâo! It may be found on the left hand and on the right.

2. All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord;—it may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root and disappear), and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so;—it may be named in the greatest things.

3. Hence the sage is able (in the same way) to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them.

三 十 四 章

大 道 汜 , 其 可 左 右 。
萬 物 恃 之 以 生 而 不 辭 ,
成 功 不 名 有 。
愛 養 萬 物 不 為 主 ,
可 名 於 大 。
是 以 聖 人 終 不 為 大 , 故 能 成 其 大 。

Key Terms

Observations and Comments

Legge Translation Notes

###, 'The Task of Achievement! The subject is the greatness of what the Tâo, called here by Lâo's own name for it in ch. 25, does; and the unconscious simplicity with which it does it; and then the achievements of the sage who is permeated by the Tâo. Par. 2 is descriptive of the influence of the Tâo in the vegetable world. The statements and expressions are much akin to those in parts of chapters 2, 10, and 51, and for Ho-shang Kung's difficult reading of ### some copies give ###, as in chapter 2.