Laozi
知其雄，守其雌，為天下谿。 為天下谿，常德不離，復歸於嬰兒。 知其白，守其黑，為天下式。 為天下式，常德不忒，復歸於無極。 知其榮，守其辱，為天下谷。 為天下谷，常德乃足，復歸於樸。 樸散則為器，聖人用之則為官長。 故大制不割。
James Legge
Who knows his manhood’s strength, Yet still his female feebleness maintains; As to one channel flow the many drains, All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky. Thus he the constant excellence retains; The simple child again, free from all stains.
Who knows how white attracts, Yet always keeps himself within black’s shade, The pattern of humility displayed, Displayed in view of all beneath the sky; He in the unchanging excellence arrayed, Endless return to man’s first state has made.
Who knows how glory shines, Yet loves disgrace, nor e’er for it is pale; Behold his presence in a spacious vale, To which men come from all beneath the sky. The unchanging excellence completes its tale; The simple infant man in him we hail.
The unwrought material, when divided and distributed, forms vessels. The sage, when employed, becomes the Head of all the Officers (of government); and in his greatest regulations he employs no violent measures.
Victor H. Mair
Know masculinity, Maintain femininity, and be a ravine for all under heaven. By being a ravine for all under heaven, Eternal integrity will never desert you. If eternal integrity never deserts you, You will return to the state of infancy. Know you are innocent, Remain steadfast when insulted, and be a valley for all under heaven. By being a valley for all under heaven, Eternal integrity will suffice. If eternal integrity suffices, You will return to the simplicity of the unhewn log. Know whiteness, Maintain blackness, and be a model for all under heaven. By being a model for all under heaven, Eternal integrity will not err. If eternal integrity does not err, You will return to infinity. When the unhewn log is sawn apart, it is made into tools; When the sage is put to use, he becomes the chief of officials. For Great carving does no cutting.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
One conscious of virility, maintaining muliebrity, is a world-channel. From a world-channel the unchanging energy never departs. This is to revert to the state of infancy.
One conscious of brightness, placid in shade, is a world-model. In a world-model the unchanging energy remains undiminished. This is to revert to the unlimited.
One conscious of merit, content in disgrace, is a world-valley. In a world-valley the unchanging energy is sufficient. This is to revert to simplicity.
Simplicity scattered becomes capacity, and in the hands of the Holy Man, administrators.
Thus the Supreme Mandate may not be sundered.
True power is the power to be without power. The highest perfection is “infancy,” “simplicity”—the surrender of the individual to the universal. Man is greatest when he stoops. The simplicity of the divine is more potent than the multiplied devices of human effort. Do we not read of Wisdom that “being but one she can do all things” (Wisdom of Solomon vii, 27); and did not the Christ choose “little children” as types of His kingdom? That man who is wise enough to emulate the simplicity of the child will, by the purity of his life and the strength of his thought, be an administrator and distributor of spiritual treasure, a great principle and mighty power which no evil force can divide.
In a word, the Kingdom of God will be established when the strong are willing to be weak; when the radiant are satisfied though clouded; when the meritorious though unknown are contented.
”When will Christ’s kingdom be realized?” is one of the questions found in an uncanonical gospel. The answer is “When ye shall trample on the garment of shame, when the two shall be one and the male as the female, neither male nor female.” In the end all consciousness of separation will be superseded, a state our author well calls—the unchanging energy.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Knowing man and staying woman, be the riverbed of the world. Being the world’s riverbed of eternal unfailing power is to go back again to be newborn.
Knowing light and staying dark, be a pattern to the world. Being the world’s pattern of eternal unerring power is to go back again to boundlessness.
Knowing glory and staying modest, be the valley of the world. Being the world’s valley of eternal inexhaustible power is to go back again to the natural.
Natural wood is cut up and made into useful things. Wise souls are used to make into leaders. Just so, a great carving is done without cutting.
Note UKLG: The simplicity of Lao Tzu’s language can present an almost impenetrable density of meaning. The reversals and paradoxes in this great poem are the oppositions of the yin and yang — male/female, light/dark, glory/modesty — but the “knowing and being” of them, the balancing act, results in neither stasis nor synthesis. The riverbed in which power runs leads back, the patterns of power lead back, the valley where power is contained leads back — to the forever new, endless, straightforward way. Reversal, recurrence, are the movement, and yet the movement is onward.