Dharma & Dao

Tao Te Ching · Chapter 42 of 81

Chapter 42

modern paraphrase of James Legge's 1891 translation

Modern paraphrase. This is an AI-generated retelling in contemporary English (model: claude-opus-4-7). It is not the James Legge translation. The original is one click away.

  1. The Tao gave birth to One; the One gave birth to Two; the Two gave birth to Three; and the Three gave birth to all things. All things leave behind the darkness from which they came and move toward the light into which they emerge, harmonized by the breath of emptiness.

  2. What people hate is to be called orphaned, lacking, or worthless—yet these are the very names kings and princes use for themselves. So some things gain by being lessened, and others are lessened by being added to.

  3. What others teach, I also teach: the violent and the strong do not die a natural death. I will take this as the foundation of my teaching.

For younger readers — books on this tradition

Browse the full library →