Chapter 40 · The Movement of the Tao

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

The movement of the Tao

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

The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds. All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named).

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Your recall of a later line — for example

By contraries proceeds And weakness — missed marks the course

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Chapter 40, in a second rendering

Out of Nothing at All

Dao De Kooi — an original rendering by David Kooi

The Dao moves by coming back around. It works by yielding. Everything you can point to came out of something. And that something came out of nothing at all.

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