Daodejing Chapter 1: a Dao that can be spoken of…

A Dao that can be spoken of
Is not the eternal Dao.
A name that can be named
Is not the eternal name.
The origin of heaven and earth
Has no name.
The mother of the myriad things
Has a name.
Free of desire,
Observe the inner marvel.
Filled with desire,
Observe the outer radiance.
Both spring from the same source,
But they have different names.
Both are a mystery.
The mystery of mysteries.
The gateway to all marvels.

「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。」

The Daodejing was written during a very turbulent time of Chinese history towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) when rulers of a veritable patchwork of feudal states and fiefdoms were vying with each other for supremacy and the glorious culture of the ancient Zhou Dynasty was in terminal decline.

Laozi (Old Master), the unknown author of the text, was one of numerous intellectuals who engaged in furious debate over how to restore peace and prosperity to the war-ravaged land and to rebuild the shattered foundations of society. Together with Confucius, he not only emerged as the most prominent thinker of his time but also went on to receive widespread acclaim for the wisdom of his teachings right until the present day.

The philosophies of Confucius and Laozi are like Yin and Yang. Whereas Confucius promoted the restoration of the strict yet elaborate rituals that he believed were practiced during the (no-doubt-mythical) golden age that marked the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, Laozi argued for a return to a (no-doubt-equally-mythical) primordial time when humanity lived in perfect harmony with heaven, earth, and the animals and plants that comprised the myriad things.

Unlike Confucius, whose teachings were compiled in the Analects by successive generations of followers, Laozi is reputed to have written the text of the Daodejing himself. It is thus a much more cohesive work, not to mention a much shorter one at only 5,000 characters. The beauty of the language and metaphors he employs also puts the pithy but occasionally blustering aphorisms of his counterpart well and truly in the shade.

The literary genius of Laozi is immediately apparent in the first chapter of the received edition of the Daodejing. Rather than hitting you over the head with a blunt rhetorical hammer, he invites you to contemplate the marvels or wonders (妙/miào) of the creation of the universe and the parallel nameless (無名/wúmíng) and named (有名/yǒumíng) tracks that emerged from it.

If that is not enough to send the cogs and gears in your brain spinning, Laozi goes on to throw out the idea that you can only observe the mysteries of the Dao “free of desire” (無欲/wúyù) yet at the same time you can only observe the manifestations of the Dao “filled with desire” (有欲/yǒuyù).

How to resolve this parallel paradox? In contrast to Confucius, Laozi refuses to give you a clear and direct answer to this question. Perhaps by simply describing the Dao as “the mystery of mysteries” (玄之又玄/xuánzhīyòuxuán), he is telling you that the only way you’ll ever find it is by searching for it yourself.