四章
道沖，而用之或不盈。淵兮，似萬物之宗。挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。湛兮，似或存。吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。
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.
道，以虚空作用于万物而不盈满。深不可测啊，像似万物的归依；幽隐澄寂啊，像似没有又实际存在。我不知道是从哪里来的，好像先于上帝之前就生成了。
注：“挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。”之解读见五十六章
原著：老子；Tr. James Legge; 精解：龍裔君
