昔之得一者:
天得一以清;
地得一以寧;
神得一以靈;
谷得一以盈;
萬物得一以生;
侯王得一以為天下貞。其致之。
1. The things which from of old have got the One (the Dào) are—
Heaven which by it is bright and pure;
Earth rendered thereby firm and sure;
Spirits with powers by it supplied;
Valleys kept full throughout their void;
All creatures which through it do live;
Princes and kings who from it get
The model which to all they give.
All these are the results of the One (Dào).
天無以清,將恐裂; 地無以寧,將恐發; 神無以靈,將恐歇; 谷無以盈,將恐竭; 萬物無以生,將恐滅; 侯王無以貴高,將恐蹶。
2. If heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend;
If earth were not thus sure, 'twould break and bend;
Without these powers, the spirits soon would fail;
If not so filled, the drought would parch each vale;
Without that life, creatures would pass away;
Princes and kings, without that moral sway,
However grand and high, would all decay.
故貴以賤為本,高以下為基。是以侯王自稱孤、寡、不穀。此非以賤為本耶?非乎?故致數輿無輿。不欲琭琭如玉,珞珞如石。
3. Thus it is that dignity finds its (firm) root in its (previous) meanness, and what is lofty finds its stability in the lowness (from which it rises). Hence princes and kings call themselves 'Orphans,' 'Men of small virtue,' and as 'Carriages without a nave.' Is not this an acknowledgment that in their considering themselves mean they see the foundation of their dignity? So it is that in the enumeration of the different parts of a carriage we do not come on what makes it answer the ends of a carriage. They do not wish to show themselves elegant-looking as jade, but (prefer) to be coarse-looking as an (ordinary) stone.
Legge's Comments
法本, 'The Origin of the Law.' In this title there is a reference to the Law given to all things by the Dào, as described in the conclusion of chapter 25. And the Dào affords that law by its passionless, undemonstrative nature, through which in its spontaneity, doing nothing for the sake of doing, it yet does all things.
The difficulty of translation is in the third paragraph. The way in which princes and kings speak depreciatingly of themselves is adduced as illustrating how they indeed got the spirit of the Dào; and I accept the last epithet as given by Héshàng Gōng, 'naveless' (轂), instead of 穀 (= 'the unworthy'), which is found in Wáng Bì, and has been adopted by nearly all subsequent editors. To see its appropriateness here, we have only to refer back to chapter 11, where the thirty spokes, and the nave, empty to receive the axle, are spoken of, and it is shown how the usefulness of the carriage is derived from that emptiness of the nave. This also enables us to give a fair and consistent explanation of the difficult clause which follows, in which also I have followed the text of Héshàng Gōng. For his 車, Wáng Bì has 輿, which also is found in a quotation of it by Huáinán Zǐ; but this need not affect the meaning. In the translation of the clause we are assisted by a somewhat similar illustration about a horse in the twenty-fifth of Zhuāngzǐ's Books, par,. 10.