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Chinese text
含德之厚，比于赤子。
毒虫不螫，猛兽不据，玃鸟不搏。
骨弱筋柔而握固。
未知牝牡之合而朘作，精之至。
终日号而不嗄，和之至。
知和曰常，知常曰明，益生曰祥，心使气曰强。
物壮则老，谓之不道，不道早已。
Translation
One who possesses great virtue is like a newborn who is not afraid of the sting of venomous creatures, the claws of fierce beasts, or the talons of birds of prey.
His bones are weak, his tendons are soft, yet he can firmly grasp things.
He has not yet known the union of the two sexes, yet certain parts of his body experience a male orgasm. This comes from the perfection of the semen.
He cries all day and his voice does not change; this comes from the perfection of harmony (of vital energy).
Knowing harmony is called being constant.
Knowing constancy is called being enlightened.
Increasing one's life is called a calamity.
When the heart impels vital energy, this is called being strong.
As soon as beings become robust, they grow old.
This is called not following the Tao.
He who does not follow the Tao perishes early.
Notes
刘劼夫 : When a person is born, his virtue (dé) is pure and solid. When he grows up, he comes into contact with external objects through his ears and eyes, receives them in his heart (xīn) and strongly attaches to them; he seeks to increase his life, that is, to live with more intensity. The more his desires increase, the more his virtue (dé) weakens. But he who practices the Tao (dào) cuts out the things that can increase his life (that is, make him live with more intensity); he renounces sensual objects, cultivates his nature, and returns to his original virtue. When his virtue (dé) has become perfect, he resembles a newborn.
苏子由 : A newborn child is calm and free of desire; this makes him all the more perfect. If external objects present themselves to his sight, he does not know how to respond to them, that is, to enter into relation with them. The Tao has no body (is immaterial); beings cannot see it, and all the more cannot harm it. People have bodies (that is, become aware of their bodies) because they have a heart (xīn). Having a heart (xīn), they then have enemies that rush in droves to harm them. Once a person has no more heart (xīn) (has stripped himself of his heart (xīn)), no being can resist him as an enemy, and all the more cannot harm him. Why has the child arrived at this point (to fear nothing)? It is solely because he has no heart (xīn) (that is, he has no awareness of his existence).
G : For example, scorpions 毒虫 .
G : For example, tigers and leopards 猛兽 .
G : For example, eagles and hawks 玃鸟 .
苏子由 : If pueri recens nati virilia absque cupiditate surgunt, this comes from abundant semen (jīng), not from the ardor of the heart (xīn).
苏子由 : When the heart (xīn) is moved, vital energy is injured. When vital energy is injured, if one cries, the voice becomes hoarse. Since a newborn cries all day without his voice changing, one recognizes that his heart (xīn) feels no emotion, and that his vital energy is in perfect harmony (hé), that is, calm and at rest. He who possesses this harmony (hé) is not disturbed internally by external objects.
E : He who knows (this) harmony (hé) can subsist constantly. This is why it is called cháng, "constant, immutable."
This same idea is found in chap. XVI (Chinese text, lines 35-42). In the world, says E, chap. XVI, only the principles of spiritual life are cháng. All other things are subject to change. He who possesses the Tao (dào) preserves his spirit through rest; the great vicissitudes of life and death cannot change him.
The word constancy is taken here in the sense of immutability, that is, the state of that which is not subject to change.
E : To know cháng (to know the art of being constant, that is, not being changed or perverted by external objects) is to know the Tao (dào). This is why knowing it is called being enlightened (míng).
B : If a man gives way to greed and ambition, if he satisfies the desires of his mouth and the intemperance of his belly to increase his life, he will infallibly bring upon himself misfortunes and perish with a premature death.
H : When the heart (xīn) is not calm, it engages in disordered movements and sets vital energy in motion. When the heart (xīn) sets vital energy in motion, man becomes strong and violent; but strength and violence quickly lead him to death.
H : Those who are as soft and weak as the Tao (dào) live long, and until the end of their lives they are never exposed to any danger. On the other hand, those who only think of increasing their wealth, their honors, their physical strength, soon lose their fortune, their dignities, their health, and perish before their time.
