道冲，而用之或不盈。
1The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness.
渊兮，似万物之宗；挫其锐，解其纷，和其光，同其尘，湛兮，似或存。
2How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!
3We 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.
吾不知谁之子，象帝之先。
4How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!
5I do not know whose son it is.
6It might appear to have been before God.