Chapter 4

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

This verse is particularly appropriate since I've been reading a book about the origins of "zero," including a great deal of discussion about philosophical implications. The idea of "emptiness" as a positive attribute still meets with resistance, even if zero is no longer considered heretical. Empty: ready to accept whatever comes, or nothing if nothing comes.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

Interestingly, Mitchell seems to have skipped a line, or else paraphrased it so completely that it's no longer recognizable. As for these two lines, there is a great deal of variety on the word Mitchell translates as "God". Cleary says Tao predates "the creation of images"; Gibbs says it "existed before the Ancestor"; Pine says "before the Ti". I have a physical copy of Red Pine's translation with some commentary on this issue. "Ti is the Lord of Creation. All of creation comes after Ti except the Tao, which comes before." There's also a comment about the missing lines: "Because of problems associated with their interpretation of the first four lines, some commentators don't think lines five through eight belong here."

With that in mind, here is Red Pine's translation, with those lines included:

The Tao is so empty those who use it never become full again
and so deep as if it were the ancestor of us all
dulling our edges untying our tangles softening our light merging our dust
and so clear as if it were present
I wonder whose child it is it seems it was here before the Ti

And Tam Gibbs:

The Tao is empty, yet when applied it is never exhausted.
So deep it is, it seems to be the ancestor of all things.

Blunting sharp edges, resolving confusions,
Diffusing glare, uniting the world:
Such depth, something seems to exist there.

I do not know whose child it is.
It seems to have existed before the Ancestor.

There's a hint of the "something" within the "nothing" in those missing lines. There's also a sense of the yin-yang symbol, with the dot of yang within the yin. Go deep enough in one direction and you come out the other side. Sharpen something too much, and it dulls.