Chapter 40 — Setting use aside去用

高以下為基，貴以賤為本，有以無為用，此其反也。動皆知其所無，則物通矣。故曰「反者道之動」也。

The high takes the low as its ground, the noble takes the lowly as its root, and being takes nothing as its use: this is its returning. If in all movement one knows what it has nothing of, then things go through. Hence "Returning is the movement of the Dao."

反，本也。本者，道之所以動，動生萬物，背之則亡也。

Returning (反) is the root. The root is the ground on which the Dao moves, and by moving it gives birth to the ten thousand things. Turn your back on it and you perish.

柔弱同通，不可窮極。

The soft and weak are like what goes through, and cannot be used up to the end.

柔弱者，道之所常用，故能常久。

The soft and weak are what the Dao always uses, and so it can endure long.

天下之物皆以有為生，有之所始，以無為本，將欲全有，必反於無也。

The things under heaven all live by being. What being begins from takes nothing as its root; so to keep being whole, one must return to nothing.

天下萬物皆從天地生，天地有形位，故言生於有也。

The ten thousand things under heaven all come from heaven and earth, and heaven and earth have form and place; hence it is said that they come from being.

天地神明，蜎飛蠕動，皆從道生。道無形，故言生於無也。此言本勝於華，弱勝於強，謙虛勝盈滿也。

Heaven and earth and the spirits, down to the flying and the crawling insects, all come from the Dao. The Dao has no form; hence it is said that it comes from nothing. This says that the root is better than the flower, weakness better than hardness, and humility and emptiness better than being full.