|
All under heaven know beauty as beauty, |
|
and so there is ugliness. |
|
All know goodness as goodness, |
|
and so there is badness. |
|
Thus, being and non-being produce each other, |
|
hard and easy complete each other, |
|
long and short contrast each other, |
|
high and low lean into each other, |
|
sound and tone harmonize. |
|
Front and back follow one another. |
|
Therefore the sage abides in non-action, |
|
practices a wordless teaching; |
|
the ten thousand things arise, and he does not refuse; |
|
gives life, yet does not possess; |
|
acts, yet does not lean on it; |
|
the work is done, yet he does not dwell there. |
|
Precisely because he does not dwell, |
|
therefore it does not leave. |