The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness.

道冲而用之或不盈，

How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!

渊兮似万物之宗。

We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things;

挫其锐，解其纷，

we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others.

和其光，同其尘。

How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!

湛兮其若存，

I do not know whose son it is.

吾不知谁之子，

It might appear to have been before God.

象帝之先。

《道德经》又名《老子》、《五千言》，相传是老子避祸出函谷关，应当地总兵尹喜之邀，留下的五千言文字。多为修身、治国、用兵、养生之道。