Tao Te Ching · Chapter 04: predecessor of everything that is happening

道德经 · 第四章

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 04

道沖，而用之有弗盈也。

Way-making being empty, You make use of it, But do not fill it up.

淵兮，似萬物之宗。

So abysmally deep- It seems the predecessor of everything that is happening.

挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。

It blunts the sharp edges, And untangles the knots; It softens the glare, And brings things together on the same track.

湛呵，似或存。

So cavernously deep- It only seems to persist.

吾不知其誰之子也，象帝之先。

I do not know whose progeny it is; It prefigures the ancestral gods.