Chapter XLI
(Chapter 41)

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Ko Yuen Translation

The Identity of the Differential
1. The best students, learning of the Tao, set to work earnestly to practice the Way.  Mediocre students now cherish it, now let it go.  The worst students mock at it.  Were it not thus mocked, it were unworthy to be Tao.
2. Thus spake the makers of Saws:  the Tao at its brightest is obscure.  Who advanceth in that Way, retireth.  Its smooth Way is rough.  Its summit is a valley.  Its beauty is ugliness.  Its wealth is poverty.  Its virtue, vice.  Its stability is change.  Its form is without form.  Its fullness is vacancy.  Its utterance is silence.  Its reality is illusion.
3. Nameless and imperceptible is the Tao; but it informeth and perfecteth all things.

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S. Mitchell Translation
When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.
If he didn't laugh,
it wouldn't be the Tao.

Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest are seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things.

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James Legge Translation
1. Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice.  Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it.  Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it.  If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the Tao.
2. Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:

'The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack;
Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;
Its even way is like a rugged track.
Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;
Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes;
And he has most whose lot the least supplies.
Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;
Its solid truth seems change to undergo;
Its largest square doth yet no corner show
A vessel great, it is the slowest made;
Loud is its sound, but never word it said;
A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.'
3. The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.

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GNL not Lao Interpolation

Following
When the great man learns the Way, he follows it with diligence;
When the common man learns the Way, he follows it on occasion;
When the mean man learns the Way, he laughs out loud;
Those who do not laugh, do not learn at all.

Therefore it is said:
Who understands the Way seems foolish;
Who progresses on the Way seems to fail;
Who follows the Way seems to wander.

For the finest harmony appears plain;
The brightest truth appears coloured;
The richest character appears incomplete;
The bravest heart appears meek;
The simplest nature appears inconstant.

The square, perfected, has no corner;
Music, perfected, has no melody;
Love, perfected, has no climax;
Art, perfected, has no meaning.

The Way can be neither sensed nor known:
It transmits sensation and transcends knowledge.

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