1The 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!

2We 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!

3I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before     God.