Chapter 1 |
道可道,非常道,名可名,非常名。無名,天地之始,有名,萬物之母。故常無欲以觀其妙,常有欲以觀其徼,此兩者同出而異名,同謂之玄,玄之又玄,眾妙之門。 |
dao ke dao, fei chang dao |
The existing way of living is a way for people to follow, but that does not mean that it is the way which is going to last forever. |
ming ke ming, fei |
The existing knowledge is the scope of knowledge that we know, but that does not mean that it is the knowledge which is going to last forever. |
wu ming, tian di zhi |
By the very first moment when the early people began to have sensibility and be aware of this world, it was a world totally beyond their knowledge. Thus, the world beyond knowledge at that moment could be regarded as the beginning of the later world that people would know of. |
you ming, wan wu zhi mu |
After the early people began to be aware of this world, people then gave definitions to all things that they came across and established the world of knowledge. |
gu chang wu yu yi guan qi miao |
Therefore, we should always expel our obstinateness and expose ourselves to anything beyond our scope of knowledge. |
chang you yu yi guan |
And once we are aware of something new beyond, we should always establish an objective to explore and extend the edge of our scope of knowledge. |
ci liang zhe tong chu er yi ming |
The world beyond knowledge and the world of knowledge both mean the same world that we are living in. They just bear different definitions. |
tong wei zhi xuan |
That these two worlds mean the same world is beyond our imagination. |
xuan zhi you xuan |
Anything beyond our imagination is further beyond our imagination. |
zhong miao zhi |
Exploration of new knowledge is the gate to all marvels. |