A Name for the Nameless
Before you were born, your parents may already have called you something.
A name to hold on to, before they had ever seen your face.
It was never the whole of you. It was a way to call you home.
有物混成，先天地生。
yǒu wù hùn chéng, xiān tiān dì shēng.
There is something formed whole, born before heaven and earth.
寂兮寥兮，
jì xī liáo xī,
Silent, and empty,
獨立而不改，
dú lì ér bù gǎi,
it stands alone and does not change,
周行而不殆，
zhōu xíng ér bù dài,
goes round everywhere and is never in danger;
可以為天下母。
kě yǐ wéi tiānxià mǔ.
it could be the mother of all under heaven.
吾不知其名，字之曰道，
wú bù zhī qí míng, zì zhī yuē dào,
I do not know its name. I call it by a nickname, the Way;
強為之名曰大。
qiǎng wèi zhī míng yuē dà.
forced to give it a name, I call it Great.
大曰逝，逝曰遠，遠曰反。
dà yuē shì, shì yuē yuǎn, yuǎn yuē fǎn.
Great means going on; going on means far; far means coming back.
故道大，天大，地大，王亦大。
gù dào dà, tiān dà, dì dà, wáng yì dà.
So the Way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and the king is also great.
域中有四大，而王居其一焉。
yù zhōng yǒu sì dà, ér wáng jū qí yī yān.
Within the realm there are four greats, and the king is one of them.
人法地，地法天，
rén fǎ dì, dì fǎ tiān,
People follow the earth; the earth follows heaven;
天法道，道法自然。
tiān fǎ dào, dào fǎ zìrán.
heaven follows the Way; the Way follows what is so of itself.
The words
a courtesy name; also, a written character
A child (子) under a roof (宀). In old China a person had a given name (名, míng), used by family and elders, and later a zì, a name for others to call them by. Laozi says: I don't know its real name, its 名. "The Way" is only its zì, the name you use for someone whose true name you were never told.
so of itself; what happens by itself
自 is "self", 然 "so, like this". Today zìrán is the everyday Chinese word for nature, but here it is older and simpler: being what it is, by itself, without anything making it so. The Way follows nothing outside itself. It is just so.
In the received text, the fourth "great" is 王, the king. A few old editions read 人, people, which fits the next line ("people follow the earth"). Either way, the human being stands among the great things, and follows them.
Sitting with it
The chapter begins with something before anything. Before the sky and the ground had come apart, there was something whole, not yet in pieces. Silent. Empty. Standing alone, not needing anything to lean on. Moving through everything, and never at risk.
Then Laozi does something that is almost tender. I do not know its name. After everything he has just said about it, he admits this. So he gives it a nickname, the way you'd call someone you love by a small, familiar name, knowing it doesn't hold all of them. The Way.
And if you push him, if you insist on a proper name, he will say: Great. But even that word starts moving as soon as he says it. Great means going on, spreading out. Going on means going far. And far means... coming back.
You might expect "far" to end in "gone". It doesn't. Go far enough in this book, and you return. The tide goes out and comes in. The year goes all the way into winter and turns back towards spring. The breath goes all the way out, and then, without being asked, it comes back in.
The last lines are a ladder. People follow the earth: we eat what it grows, sleep when it turns dark. The earth follows heaven: its seasons follow the sky. Heaven follows the Way. And the Way follows... nothing but itself. Zìrán. So of itself.
At the top of the ladder there is no one giving orders. Only things being what they are.
A practice
Today, breathe out all the way, slowly, until there is nothing left.
Then wait. Don't breathe in on purpose.
Notice the moment the in-breath comes back by itself. That is a small zìrán: something that happens without your doing it. Do this three times, at any point in the day.
To carry
道法自然
dào fǎ zìrán
The Way follows what is so of itself.