Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25

Dao De Jing, Laozi
Chapter 25

"Before creation a prescience existed,
Self-contained, complete,
Formless, voiceless, mateless,
Changeless,
Which yet pervaded itself
With unending motherhood.
Though there can be no name for it,
I have called it 'the way of life.'
Perhaps I should have called it 'the fullness of life,'
Since fullness implies widening into space,
Implies still further widening,
Implies widening until the circle is whole.
In this sense
The way of life is fulfilled,
Heaven is fulfilled,
Earth fulfilled
And a fit man also is fulfilled:
These are the four amplitudes of the universe
And a fit man is one of them:
Man rounding the way of earth,
Earth rounding the way of heaven,
Heaven rounding the way of life
Till the circle is full."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 25 


"There is a Being wondrous and complete. Before heaven and earth, it was.
How calm it is! How spiritual! 
Alone it standeth, and it changeth not; around it moveth, and it suffereth not; yet therefore can it be the world's mother.  
Its name I know not, but its nature I call Reason.  
Constrained to give a name, I call it the great.
The great I call the departing, and the departing I call the beyond.
The beyond I call home.  
The saying goes: "Reason is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and royalty also is great.
There are four things in the world that are great, and royalty is one of them.  
Man's standard is the earth.
The earth's standard is heaven.
Heaven's standard is Reason.
Reason's standard is intrinsic." 
-  Translated by Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 25 

"Before the world was
And the sky was filled with stars . . .
There was a strange, unfathomable Body.
This Being, this Body is silent
and beyond all substance and sensing.

It stretches beyond everything spanning the empyrean.
It has always been here, and it always will be.

Everything comes from it, and then it is the Mother of Everything.
I do not know its name. So I call it Tao.

I am loath to call it 'greater than everything', but it is.
And being greater, it infuses all things moving far out and returning to the Source.

Tao is Great,
Tao, the Great!

It is greater than Heaven,
Greater than the Earth -
Greater than the king.
These are the four great things, and the ruler is the least of them.

Humanity is schooled by the Earth;
Earth is taught by Heaven,
And Heaven is guided by the Tao.

And the Tao goes with what is absolutely natural."
-  Translated by Man Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer, and Jay Ramsay, 1993, Chapter 25  

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter.   

Chapter 25, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey