Interlinear

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​Line 1

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The vast Power

of the Way

appears to us in its

many forms,

and each one is in accord

with the Way alone.*

 

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​​孔kǒng     德dé   之zhī    容róng

​​great, hole, opening,    power     (poss)   appearance, form   

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唯wéi    道tào    是shī    從cóng

only        Way         to be/this         follow

The appearances of the

empty power of the Way
only follow the Way.

 

      Here Lao Tzu makes a  distinction between the 道Tào Way itself, and what the Way does--its 德dé Power. He tells us that all the things 容róng appearing in the world around us--ourselves included, do so through the Way's 德dé Power; and that, after making their appearance, these continually abide in the Way, and the Way alone.

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     But while the distinction between the 道Tào Way and its 德dé Power may be a helpful  one, it is only a mental distinction. As Lao Tzu makes clear in this lesson and others, the 德dé Power of the Way--that is, what the Way is doing upon each instant, is no different from the Way itself.

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     Take, as an analogy, the marathon runner.  Is the runner apart from his or her running? Remove the runner, and there’s no running. Take away the running, and there’s no runner. In that act of running, they are the same.

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      That the manifested world  is an ongoing doing of the Way, is the point of Lao Tzu's very first lesson as well as each lesson after that. For example, in Lesson 1 Lao Tzu asserts that, yes, the Way is timeless, nameless, and mysterious; and yet if we look around us, we we see and experience the "teeming" world of many things.

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     The next line is crucial, and the key to each of Lao Tzu's lessons.

                        "These two are actually the same."

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​​​​Note: 德dé, "Power," has also been translated as “virtue” and “integrity.” But these imply a kind of moral quality rather than suggesting that the 德dé Power of the Way is an impersona and indwelling power.  For that reason, I prefer Waley’s translation as “Power.”  (Waley, Arthur, trans.The Way and Its Power, Grove Press, 1958.)

 

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*There is a little different understanding of this line if the character 孔kǒng is understood in its other meaning, "small cave," "hole," and "empty."  As Wang Bi says. "孔 means hollow. Only by means of hollowness (becoming empty to ourselves) are we able to follow the Way."    孔kóng  空kōng  也yě  唯wéi 以yǐ 空kōng  為wèi  德dé 然rán 後hǒu  乃nǎi 能néng  動dóng  作zuò  從cóng 道tào

 

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