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Chapter 23

Speak little and act like nature
A violent wind does not blow all morning
A sudden downpour does not last all day
This impermanence is proper to nature itself [= to Heaven-and-Earth]
If even nature does not have the power to persist (in extreme actions)
Man still less can do so
Therefore: in life, imitate (by non-acting) the Principle
To become one with the Principle
Imitate (by acting) its Virtue (tê) to become one with it
Abandon yourself to transformations to realize in yourself its power
By aligning with the Principle, partake of it
By aligning with the Virtue, partake of it
By aligning with transformations, partake of them
(But in most) this inner security is lacking, hence incomplete trust.

Commentary

The True Man aligns himself with the Principle and reproduces it in its dual nature: non-acting (the Tao in the proper sense) and acting (the Virtue of the Tao). The latter, as is known, operates in perpetual transformation. Thus, in all that is external, the True Man does not stiffen nor resist the instability that even Heaven-and-Earth, especially in its extreme manifestations, reveals to him; he follows the course of the transformations of forms, the immutable not being something to grasp or realize on this plane.

However, such a path requires inner security, something like intrepidity or “metaphysical trust” (in the Way): the art of an active letting-go, like one who abandons himself to the play of the waves without being submerged. This, indeed, is for the few (final line).

In the tenth and thirteenth lines, the character shih, rendered as “transformation,” more commonly means “defect” (“transformation” would properly be i). The literal translation would therefore be: “to unite with the defect (shih) in order to partake of it (or enjoy it).” With “transformation” (referring to the instability and changes discussed at the beginning and which are the mode of the Way) instead of “defect,” the meaning of the two lines aligns well with the rest. However, if one retains the literal meaning, the phrase could once again point to the principle of being whole within the fragment and of one’s own nature: uniting with the defect is equivalent to embracing what exists within the limiting conditions of the formal state; through this alignment, excluding arbitrariness and the mania of the “I”, one is in the Way.

Chinese text and literal translation

Chapter 23 (第二十三章)