Chapter 41

When the highest scholar hears the Way, he diligently practices it;when the middling scholar hears the Way, it seems now present, now gone;when the lowest scholar hears the Way, he laughs aloud at it.Were it not laughed at, it would not be sufficient to be the Way.Thus established sayings have it: the luminous Way seems dark;the advancing Way seems to retreat;the level Way seems uneven;highest virtue seems a valley;great purity seems sullied;wide virtue seems insufficient;steadfast virtue seems feeble;substantial truth seems changeable;the great square has no corners;the great vessel is late in completion;the great sound has rarefied voice;the great Image has no form;the Way lies hidden and nameless.Only the Way is good at giving and bringing to completion.

When the finest students hear of the Way, they practice it diligently;when middling students hear of it, they seem to keep it, seem to lose it;when the lowest students hear of it, they burst out laughing.If no one laughed at it, it would not deserve to be called the Way.So the old sayings have it: the radiant Way seems dark;the Way advancing seems to retreat;the level Way seems knotted;the highest integrity seems like a valley;the purest white seems stained;the broadest integrity seems lacking;integrity firmly grounded seems lax;what is solid and true seems to shift;the greatest square has no corners;the greatest vessel takes longest to finish;the greatest note is barely heard;the greatest image has no form;the Way remains hidden and nameless.Only the Way gives freely and brings all things to fulfillment.

1. Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class, when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not (thus) laughed at, it would not be fit to be the Tao.

2. Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:--

'The Tao, when brightest seen, seems light to lack;Who progress in it makes, seems drawing back;Its even way is like a rugged track.Its highest virtue from the vale doth rise;Its greatest beauty seems to offend the eyes;And he has most whose lot the least supplies.Its firmest virtue seems but poor and low;Its solid truth seems change to undergo;Its largest square doth yet no corner showA vessel great, it is the slowest made;Loud is its sound, but never word it said;A semblance great, the shadow of a shade.'

3. The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them complete.