Chapter 42 — The transforming of the Dao道化

萬物萬形，其歸一也，何由致一，由於無也。由無乃一，一可謂無，已謂之一，豈得無言乎。有言有一，非二如何？有一有二，遂生乎三，從無之有，數盡乎斯，過此以往，非道之流，故萬物之生，吾知其主，雖有萬形，沖氣一焉。百姓有心，異國殊風，而得一者，王侯主焉。以一為主，一何可舍，愈多愈遠，損則近之，損之至盡，乃得其極。既謂之一，猶乃至三，況本不一而道可近乎，損之而益，豈虛言也。

The ten thousand things have ten thousand shapes, but what they return to is one. By what does one arrive at the one? It comes from nothing. Since it comes from nothing and so becomes one, the one may be called nothing. Yet once it has been called one, how can there be no word for it? There is a word and there is the one, so what is this but two? There is the one and there is the two, and so at last three comes to be. The count that goes from nothing to being is exhausted here, and to go on past this is not the current of the Dao. So in the birth of the ten thousand things I know their master: though there are ten thousand shapes, in the empty breath they are one. The people have their minds and each country its own customs, yet the one who has got the one becomes their master as king. Since the one is made master, how could the one be cast away? The more there is the further off it goes, and lessening brings it near, so only by lessening and lessening until all is spent is its utmost got. Even what has been called one still reaches three, so how much less can what was never one come near the Dao? That a thing is lessened and thereby gains, how could this be empty words?

道使所生者一也。

The Dao makes what it gives birth to be one.

一生陰與陽也。

The one gives birth to yin and yang.

陰陽生和、清、濁三氣，分為天地人也。

Yin and yang give birth to three breaths — the harmonious, the clear, and the turbid — and these divide to become heaven, earth, and man.

天地人共生萬物也，天施地化，人長養之也。

Heaven, earth, and man together give birth to the ten thousand things. Heaven bestows, earth brings forth, and man rears them to growth.

萬物無不負陰而向陽，迴心而就日。

There is nothing among the ten thousand things that does not carry yin on its back and turn toward yang; they turn their minds about and follow the sun.

萬物中皆有元氣，得以和柔，若胸中有藏，骨中有髓，草木中有空虛與氣通，故得久生也。

Within the ten thousand things there is always the primal breath (yuanqi 元氣), and by it they are made harmonious and soft. It is like the organs within the chest, the marrow within the bone, and the hollow places within grass and trees that let the breath pass through; and so they can live long.

孤寡不轂者，不祥之名，而王公以為稱者，處謙卑，法空虛和柔。

The orphaned one, the one of little virtue, and the one unworthy of grain are unblessed names, and yet kings and dukes take them as their titles: they dwell in humility and in the low place, taking emptiness, harmony, and softness as their model.

引之不得，推之必還。

Draw it toward you and you do not get it; push it away and it is sure to come back.

夫增高者志崩，貪富者致患。

He who adds to his height has his purpose collapse, and he who craves abundance calls trouble down on himself.

我之非強使人從之也，而用夫自然，舉其至理，順之必吉，違之必凶。故人相教，違之自取其凶也，亦如我之教人，勿違之也。

It is not that I force people to follow me; I use what is so of itself. Raise up its utmost principle: follow it and there is surely good fortune, go against it and there is surely ill. So when people teach one another, whoever goes against it takes that ill upon himself, which is just the same as my telling those I teach not to go against it.

謂眾人所教，去弱為強，去柔為剛。

This speaks of what the crowd teaches: to cast off weakness and so become strong, and to cast off softness and so become hard.

言我教眾人，使去強為弱，去柔為剛。

This says that I teach the crowd to cast off strength and so become weak, and to cast off softness and so become hard.

强梁則必不得其死。人相教為强梁，則必如我之教人不當為强梁也。舉其強梁不得其死以教邪。若云順吾教之必吉也，故得其違教之徒，適可以為教父也。

Be hard and violent and you will surely not die a natural death. If people teach one another to be hard and violent, that must come to the same as my teaching others that one ought not to be hard and violent. It is by raising up how the hard and violent do not die a natural death that he teaches. If one says that following my teaching brings sure good fortune, then it is just the crowd that goes against the teaching which may be taken as the father of the teaching.

強粱者，謂不信玄妙，背叛道德，不從經教，尚勢任力也。不得其死者，為天命所絕，兵刃所伐，王法所殺，不得以壽命死。

The hard and violent are those who do not believe in the far and the subtle, who turn their backs on the Dao and on virtue, who do not follow the teaching of the classics, and who exalt power and trust to force. Not to die a natural death is to have one's mandate cut off by heaven, to be cut down by the blade, to be put to death by the law of the state, and so not to die out one's allotted span.

父，使也。老子以強梁之人為教，誡之始也。

Fu (父) means to direct. Laozi (老子) raised up the hard and violent man and made him the teaching, and this is the beginning of warning.