Chapter 43 — Use that reaches everywhere徧用
1The softest thing under heaven drives the hardest
天下之至柔，馳騁天下之至堅。
The softest thing under heaven drives the hardest thing under heaven.
note 2
氣無所不入，水無所不出於經。
There is nowhere that breath does not enter, and nowhere along its course that water does not come out.
至柔者，水也。至堅者，金石也。水能貫堅入剛，無所不通。
The softest thing is water. The hardest are metal and stone. Water bores through what is hard and enters what is solid, and there is nowhere it does not pass through.
2What has no substance enters where there is no gap
無有入無間，吾是以知無為之有益。
What has no substance enters where there is no gap, and by this I know the good of nonaction.
note 3
虛無柔弱，無所不通，無有不可窮，至柔不可折，以此推之，故知無為之有益也。
What is empty and without substance, soft and weak, passes through everywhere; nothing can never be exhausted; what is utmost soft cannot be broken. It is by reasoning out from this that one knows the good of nonaction.
無有謂道也。道無形質，故能出入無間，通神明濟群生也。
What has no substance means the Dao. The Dao has neither shape nor substance, and so it can go in and out where there is no gap, reach through to the divine intelligence, and save the host of living beings.
吾見道無為而萬物自化成，是以知無為之有益於人也。
I have seen that the Dao does nothing, and yet the ten thousand things of themselves become and are completed; by this I know that nonaction is of good to people.
3The teaching without words
不言之教，無為之益，天下希及之。
Few under heaven reach the teaching without words and the good of nonaction.
note 3
法道不言，師之以身。
He takes the Dao as his model and does not speak, and with his own person he becomes a teacher.
法道無為，治身則有益於精神，治國則有益於萬民，不勞煩也。
If one takes the Dao as one's model and does nothing, then in governing the body it is of good to the spirit, and in governing the state it is of good to all the people, without toil or trouble.
天下，人主也。希能有及道無為之治身治國也。
Under heaven means the ruler. Few are able to reach the governing of the body and the governing of the state by the Dao of nonaction.