Source: Chapter 25 of Laozi's Tao Te Ching.
Original text:
Chapter 25 of Tao Te Ching
Author Laozi
the Spring and Autumn Period
Things are mixed, born naturally, lonely, independent and unchanged, and can be the mother of heaven and earth.
I don't know its name, but the word Dao is stronger than the name. ? Death is great, death is far away.
Far is the opposite. ? The old road is big, big, big, and the king is big. ? There are four in the domain, and Wang Juyi is one of them.
Man's law is based on the earth, the earth is based on the sky, the sky is based on the Tao, and the Tao is natural.
translate
A thing is mixed and existed before the formation of heaven and earth. You can't hear its sound or see its shape. It is silent and empty, independent and eternal, without any external force, cyclical and never exhausted, which can be regarded as the foundation of everything.
I don't know its name, but I reluctantly called it "Tao" and then reluctantly named it "Da". It runs endlessly, running endlessly into the distance, into the distance and back to its original place.
So, there are big, big, big, big people. There are four universes and people live in one of them. Man takes the method of land, the method of land takes the method of heaven, and heaven takes the method of "Tao". Tao is purely natural.
Extended data:
Tao Te Ching is a philosophical work of Lao Zi (Li Er) in the Spring and Autumn Period, also known as Tao Te Ching, Lao Zi's Five Thousand Words and Lao Zi's Five Thousand Articles. It is a work before the separation of pre-Qin philosophers in ancient China and an important source of Taoist philosophical thoughts.
Tao Te Ching is divided into two parts. The first part of the original text is the Tao Te Ching, and the second part is the Tao Te Ching, without chapters. Later, it was changed to the Tao Te Ching in the first 37 chapters, and the Tao Te Ching in the last 38 chapters, divided into 8 1 chapters.
The text of Tao Te Ching takes "morality" in the philosophical sense as the main line, and discusses the ways of self-cultivation, governing the country, using troops and keeping in good health, but most of them aim at politics. It is the so-called "inner sage and outer king" theory, which has profound meaning and wide tolerance and is known as the king of all classics.
Tao Te Ching is one of the greatest works in the history of China, which has a profound influence on traditional philosophy, science, politics and religion.
According to the statistics of UNESCO, the Tao Te Ching is the most widely translated and published cultural masterpiece except the Bible.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Tao Te Ching