经典著作 · 道德经 · 第一章
The way that can be spoken of
English
The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way.
The name that can be named is not the constant name.
That which has no name is the beginning of heaven and earth;
that which has a name is the mother of the ten thousand things.
So: constantly without desire, one sees its subtleties;
constantly with desire, one sees only its edges.
These two come out together and are named apart.
Call them both dark. Dark, and again dark —
the gate through which all subtleties pass.
Translation keeps the Chinese word order wherever it can be kept. Where it cannot, the term stays transliterated and is glossed below.
中文
道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。
无名天地之始；有名万物之母。
故常无欲，以观其妙；常有欲，以观其徼。
此两者，同出而异名，同谓之玄。玄之又玄，众妙之门。
据王弼本。异文从帛书甲乙本者，另出小注。
Glossary · 释名
Constancy, not eternity. The quality of not shifting with circumstances — what remains when a thing is not being pushed. Translations that say “eternal” import a metaphysics the text does not have.
The edge, the boundary, the rim of a thing. What you see when you approach the world with a desire in hand: outlines, uses, limits. Not an illusion — just not the whole.
Dark, deep, unfathomable — the colour of water in a deep well. In Daoist usage it is not “mystical” in the modern sense; it marks the point where description runs out.
The commentator whose recension and reading became standard. He reads the Daodejing as metaphysics rather than as technique — which is why later alchemical writers had to argue with him.
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