There is something that contains everything. Before heaven and earth it is. Oh, it is still, unbodied, all on its own, unchanging.

all-pervading, ever-moving. So it can act as the mother of all things. Not knowing its real name, we only call it the Way.

If it must be named, let its name be Great. Greatness means going on, going on means going far, and going far means turning back.

So they say: “The Way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and humankind is great; four greatnesses in the world, and humanity is one of them.”

People follow earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Way, the Way follows what is.

Note UKLG: I’d like to call the “something” of the first line a lump — an unshaped, undifferentiated lump, chaos, before the Word, before Form, before Change. Inside it is time, space, everything; in the womb of the Way. The last words of the chapter, tzu jan, I render as “what is.” I was tempted to say, “The Way follows itself,” because the Way is the way things are; but that would reduce the significance of the words. They remind us not to see the Way as a sovereignty or a domination, all creative, all yang. The Way itself is a follower. Though it is before everything, it follows what is.