Chapter 25 · Something Undefined and Complete

Tao Te Ching (Legge, 1891) · chapter title added by Learn the Dao

Learn the Dao: a quiet practice for learning the thing that can’t be known.

The chapter’s first line

There was something undefined and complete,

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This chapter in plain modern English — David Kooi’s rendering ↓

There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of all things. I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Tao (the Way or Course). Making an effort (further) to give it a name I call it The Great. Great, it passes on (in constant flow). Passing on, it becomes remote. Having become remote, it returns. Therefore the Tao is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; and the (sage) king is also great. In the universe there are four that are great, and the (sage) king is one of them. Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

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Chapter 25, in a second rendering

Before Heaven and Earth

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

There was something with no edges, complete in itself, around before heaven and earth. Silent. Empty. Standing on its own, not changing, running through everything and never running down. Call it the mother of the whole show. I don't have its real name, so I write "the Dao" and, if I have to, "the big one." Big means it keeps moving. Moving means it goes far. Going far means it comes back around. The Dao is big. So is the sky, the earth, and a person who's awake. Four big things, and a person is one of them. People take their cue from the earth, earth from the sky, sky from the Dao - and the Dao takes its cue from how things already are. It follows itself. That last part is the whole game.

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