1. the tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. how deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the honoured ancestor of all things!

2. we should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. how pure and still the tao is, as if it would ever so continue!

3. i do not know whose son it is. it might appear to have been before god.

道沖，而用之或不盈。淵兮，似万物之宗；湛兮，似或存。吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。

【译文】

道是虚无的，但它的作用却似乎无穷无尽。它是那样的幽深莫测，像是一切存在的本源依归。它消磨了锋角，排解了纠纷，柔和了光芒，浑同于尘俗。它无形无迹呵，像是很不确定的存在。我不知道在它之上还能有什么更本源的存在，只觉得它存在于天帝之前。