Chapter 32 of the Tao Te Ching

If we call it Tao, it is only because we have tried to give a name to that which has no name.

The body (pǔ) of the Tao is extremely fine; but as soon as we use it, it becomes immensely great.

Lao-tseu means that the Tao is infinitely honorable and sees nothing above it.

Liu-kie-fou: Heaven and earth needed it to begin to be born; all beings rely on it to live. Who would dare subjugate the one from whom they derive their origin and life?

Heaven and earth, men and beings all derive their origin from the Tao. This is why they can influence each other and correspond with each other in turn. If vassals and kings can truly preserve the Tao, all beings will come to submit to them; heaven and earth will naturally enter into good harmony, and the hundred families (the peoples) will spontaneously pacify themselves.

The words shǐ zhì (here, to begin to divide) correspond to the word pǔ (simple nature) in the second phrase, and the words yǒu míng (to have a name) correspond to the words wú míng (it has no name) in the first.

The simple nature (pǔ) of the Tao has no name. After it began (shǐ) to be divided, then the Tao had a name.

The word zhì (commonly to do) means here that its simple nature (pǔ) has been (so to speak) carved, divided, fragmented to form beings.

The Tao, says Sie-hoeï (chap. I), is by nature empty and immaterial. At the time when beings had not yet begun to exist, one could not give it a name. But when its divine influence wrought transformations, and being emerged (or beings emerged) from non-being, then it received its name from beings. Indeed, as soon as heaven and earth received existence, all beings were born from the Tao; this is why it is regarded as the mother of all beings.

The sense of 'it is necessary,' given to jiāng, is also found in Meng-tseu, book I, p. 91, l. 7.

The Tao only had a name after it manifested itself in the world through the birth of beings. Thus this phrase: 'Once this name is established,' seems to implicitly contain this one: 'Once beings are created.' Then one must know how to stop, that is to say, according to C and Pi-ching, one must not let oneself be carried away and seduced by sensible things, one must remain in perfect tranquility and be sufficient unto oneself; then one will be exposed to no danger.

The Tao is spread throughout the universe; there is no creature that does not possess it, no place where it is not found.

The phrase: 'Just as the water of rivers necessarily returns to the sea,' means that in the universe, all things necessarily return to the Tao.

Sou-tseu-yeou: Rivers and seas are the place where waters gather; rivers and streams of mountains are portions and as subdivisions of the waters.

The Tao is the origin of all beings; all beings are branches of the Tao.

All rivers and streams of mountains return to the central point where waters gather, and likewise all beings go to their origin (that is, return to the Tao from which they emerged).

This last passage aims to strongly inculcate in vassals and kings the obligation to preserve the Tao, whose practice will ensure them the protection of heaven and the submission of men.

I added the words 'beings return to it' to put my translation in harmony with the best comments. Otherwise, without this implication, it would be impossible to give meaning to the last sentence of this chapter.