Religion
Chapter 4
Translated by James Legge (1891) · From The Tao Teh King (1891)
The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!
I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Prose translation of a largely rhymed original, with occasional rhymed renderings by Legge; words in parentheses are his supplied additions.
Cite this poem
MLA
Laozi (Lao Tzu). “Chapter 4.” Translated by James Legge. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/laozi/3/.
Chicago
Laozi (Lao Tzu). “Chapter 4.” Translated by James Legge. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/laozi/3/.
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