Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching

李息斋 Lǐ Xīzhāi : As long as the Tao was concentrated within itself, one was not yet born. One not yet born, how could there be two? Two did not exist because one had not yet divided and spread (throughout the universe to form beings). As soon as there was one (that is, as soon as the Tao manifested itself outward), two immediately followed.

E : One produced two, that is, one divided into the principle of 阴 yīn “feminine” and the principle of 阳 yáng “masculine”.

E : Two produced three (that is, two produced a third principle): the feminine principle and the masculine principle united and produced harmony.

E : Three, that is, this third principle, the breath of harmony condensed and produced all things.

Several interpreters explain the word 负 fù as “turn away from, shun,” and the word 抱 bào as “turn toward, seek”. According to E, the word 阴 yīn here denotes “stillness,” 阳 yáng “movement”.

童思敬 Tóng Sījìng relates this passage to plants and trees, and renders the words 阴 yīn and 阳 yáng as “cold” and “warmth”. He says that plants turn away from the cold and turn toward the warmth, and an empty breath (vital principle) circulates within them.

The word 气 qì “breath” has in part the scope of the Latin word “anima,” which means both “breath” and “vital principle”; but it is not used, like “anima,” to refer to “the intelligent soul of man”.

河上公 Héshàng Gōng : The word 冲 chōng means “empty, immaterial”. This breath of harmony is the root of all things; but it is empty, soft, and weak; it is not of the same kind as beings.

严君平 Yán Jūnpíng : That which is small, narrow, soft, and weak (the Tao) has been the origin of heaven and earth and the mother of all things; but men hate weakness, narrowness, imperfection; yet princes and kings draw names from these conditions. Is it not because they regard humility and weakness as the most powerful springs of the world!

河上公 Héshàng Gōng : These names that kings call themselves are terms of humility. If princes and kings did not humble themselves, the empire would not submit to them. That is why the emperors 尧 Yáo and 舜 Shùn occupied the throne as if it were foreign to them; their benefits extended without bounds, and to this day their virtue is celebrated. Whoever humbles himself is raised up by men.

刘歆 Liú Xīn : Those who, in ancient times, created the humble designations by which princes should designate themselves, borrowed them from the conditions that men generally despise. They wanted by this that, despite their nobility and elevation, kings not forget the abject and commoner condition from which they come.

B : Kings call themselves by these names because diminution is the root of augmentation, because, by impoverishing and humbling themselves externally, one enriches and elevates oneself internally.

河上公 Héshàng Gōng : 桀 Jié and 纣 Zhòu used for themselves alone the riches and power of the empire; they tyrannized the people and satisfied their passions; they thought only of themselves, without caring for other men; so, although they occupied the throne, the whole empire abandoned them. From this we see that those who exalt themselves are humbled by men.

河上公 Héshàng Gōng : What men teach, I have never failed to teach. But ordinary men do not know how to teach others. They only think to increase their knowledge; they make them proud, arrogant; and this presumption leads them to violent acts. They ignore that violent men never die naturally. I teach men to decrease their desires each day, to maintain humility and modesty, to preserve the virtue of harmony that is the foundation and support of their life.

A, B : The common people teach to leave weakness for strength, softness for firmness; I teach to leave strength for weakness, the firm that resists for the soft that yields to obstacles.

According to interpreters A and B, it seems that the text should read: “I teach the opposite of what the common people teach.”

Several commentators have omitted this passage because of the impossibility of resolving the contradiction it presents. Perhaps it is better to adopt the reading of an ancient text cited in the variants of G: “What men have taught me, I in turn teach to other men.”

E : 教父 jiàofù : It is as if he said “The first of all (my) instructions.” One sees that E renders 父 fù as 先 xiān “what comes before,” the first thing. 老子 Lǎozǐ says that “Violent men do not obtain a good death.” Although the men of his time professed this doctrine, they did not grasp its meaning and did not consider it very important. The author takes it as the foundation of his instructions because he understands its full significance.

河上公 Héshàng Gōng explains the word 父 fù as 磬折 qìngzhé, “a kind of bell used to call the people to come receive instruction.” Here, this word would be taken figuratively to designate the one who announces, who preaches a doctrine: “I will be the preacher of the doctrine.”

A single commentator (G) renders the words 教父 jiàofù in the literal sense: “I will be the father of the doctrine.”