James Legge
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).
Victor H. Mair
Reversal is the movement of the Way; Weakness is the usage of the Way. All creatures under heaven are born from being; Being is born from nonbeing.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
The movements of the Tao are cyclical; the sufficiency of the Tao is latency. [^1]
All that is, [^2] exists in being (bhava), being in non-being. [^3]
“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth; and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. The earth yieldeth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof.” “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”
[^1] Literally “weakness,” the weakness of latent strength.
[^2] Literally “heaven, earth, the myriad existences.”
[^3] The yet unformed ships exist in the forest trees.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Return is how the Way moves. Weakness is how the Way works.
Heaven and earth and the ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of nothing.