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Tao Te Ching · 4 of 81

Chapter 4

The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!

We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!

I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.

Asked of Guide

Why does Lao Tzu compare the Tao to an empty vessel and say it is 'Honoured Ancestor'?

Lao Tzu compares the Tao to an empty vessel to show its usefulness through openness: its value comes from being receptive and unfilled, so things can enter and flow. Calling it the “Honoured Ancestor of all things” makes the Tao the silent source from which multiplicity arises, an origin that remains undiminished by giving.

He then instructs us to blunt sharp points, unravel complications, and attemper brightness so we match the Tao’s stillness and obscurity; this teaches practical humility and ease in action. This echoes Chuang Tzu, who also praises nonassertive harmony, and like Phaedo’s account of grounding powers, presents a formative, sustaining principle rather than an active will.

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Echoes elsewhere

Chuang Tzu · Taoism5. 1. Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wis Phaedo · Classicalby the heaven; another gives the air as a support to the earth, which is a sort of broad trough. Any power which in disposing them as they are disposes them for the best never ente Morals and Dogma · Esotericthat breathe upon the earth; and gives to each of them the character and habits most appropriate. By the action of this Force Heaven rules the condition of the Earth and of its fie