Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 10
Chapter 10 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
載營魄抱一，能無離乎？專氣致柔，能嬰兒乎？滌除玄覽，能無疵乎？愛民治國，能無知乎？天門開闔，能為雌乎？明白四達，能無知乎？生之、畜之，生而不有，為而不恃，長而不宰，是謂玄德。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
Bearing body and soul, embracing the One, can you keep them from parting?Concentrating breath and reaching softness, can you be an infant?Cleansing the mysterious mirror, can you leave it without blemish?Loving the people and governing the state, can you be without knowing?As heaven’s gates open and close, can you be the female?In lucid understanding reaching everywhere, can you be without knowing?Give them life and nurture them; give them life without possessing them, act without relying on what you have done, raise them without ruling them: this is called mysterious virtue.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
Bearing spirit and body, holding to the One, can you keep them from parting?Gathering your vital breath until it grows supple, can you become soft as a newborn?Cleansing the mind’s dark mirror, can you leave it without a stain?Can you care for the people and govern the realm without resorting to calculation?As heaven’s gate opens and closes, can you assume the female role?When luminous understanding reaches in every direction, can you still do without cleverness?The Way gives life and nurtures: gives life without possessing, acts without laying claim, raises without ruling. This is called its hidden power.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender) babe. When he has cleansed away the most mysterious sights (of his imagination), he can become without a flaw.
2. In loving the people and ruling the state, cannot he proceed without any (purpose of) action? In the opening and shutting of his gates of heaven, cannot he do so as a female bird? While his intelligence reaches in every direction, cannot he (appear to) be without knowledge?
3. (The Tao) produces (all things) and nourishes them; it produces them and does not claim them as its own; it does all, and yet does not boast of it; it presides over all, and yet does not control them. This is what is called 'The mysterious Quality' (of the Tao).