Chapter II
(Chapter 2)

[------]

Ko Yuen Translation

The Energy - Source of the Self
1. All men know that beauty and ugliness are correlatives, as are skill and clumsiness; one implies and suggests the other.
2. So also existence and non-existence pose the one the other1; so also is it with ease and difficulty, length and shortness; height and lowness.  Also Music exists through harmony of opposites2; time and space depend upon contraposition.
3. By the use of this method, the sage can fulfil his will without action, and utter his word without speech3.
4. All things arise without diffidence; they grow, and none interferes; they change according to their natural order, without lust of result. The work is accomplished; yet continueth in its orbit, without goal. This work is done unconsciously; this is why its energy is indefatigable.

[------]

S. Mitchell Translation
When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess, acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

[------]

James Legge Translation
1. All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is.
2. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to (the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one (the idea of) the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another.
3. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
4. All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show itself; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership; they go through their processes, and there is no expectation (of a reward for the results).  The work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it (as an achievement).

The work is done, but how no one can see; 'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.

[------]

GNL not Lao Interpolation

Abstraction

When beauty is abstracted
Then ugliness has been implied;
When good is abstracted
Then evil has been implied.

So alive and dead are abstracted from nature,
Difficult and easy abstracted from progress,
Long and short abstracted from contrast,
High and low abstracted from depth,
Song and speech abstracted from melody,
After and before abstracted from sequence.

The sage experiences without abstraction,
And accomplishes without action;
He accepts the ebb and flow of things,
Nurtures them, but does not own them,
And lives, but does not dwell.

[------]

Previous Tao Teh King
Main Page		 Next

[------]

Ko Yuen Commentary
1. I.e., the thought of either implies its opposite.

Return to text
2. nay, even.  This shows how the Tao realizes itself through its projection in correlative phases, expressing 0 as + 1 + (-1); to speak like a Qabalist or an electrician.

Return to text
3. Our activity is due to the incompleteness of the summing-up of Forces.  Thus a man proceeds to walk East at four miles an hour, though he is already traveling in that direction at over 1,000 miles an hour!  The end of the Meditation on Action is the realization of Hadit; wherefore any action would be a disturbance of that perfection.  This being understood of the True Self, the Mind and Body proceed untrammeled in their natural path without desire on the part of the Self.

Return to text

[------]

Previous Tao Teh King
Main Page		 Next