Thirty Spokes
Pick up a cup. What are you holding?
Clay, glazed and fired. But that is not what you wanted.
You wanted the empty space inside it.
三十輻共一轂，
sān shí fú gòng yī gǔ,
Thirty spokes share one hub;
當其無，有車之用。
dāng qí wú, yǒu chē zhī yòng.
in its emptiness lies the use of the cart.
埏埴以為器，
shān zhí yǐ wéi qì,
Clay is shaped to make a vessel;
當其無，有器之用。
dāng qí wú, yǒu qì zhī yòng.
in its emptiness lies the use of the vessel.
鑿戶牖以為室，
záo hù yǒu yǐ wéi shì,
Doors and windows are cut to make a room;
當其無，有室之用。
dāng qí wú, yǒu shì zhī yòng.
in its emptiness lies the use of the room.
故有之以為利，
gù yǒu zhī yǐ wéi lì,
So what is there gives the benefit;
無之以為用。
wú zhī yǐ wéi yòng.
what is not there gives the use.
The words
the hub of a wheel
The round block at the centre of a cart wheel, where all the spokes meet. In its middle is a hole, and through the hole goes the axle. Without that hole, the most beautiful wheel is a heavy wooden disc that goes nowhere.
benefit, profit; sharp
Grain (禾) and a knife (刂): cutting the harvest. What you can gather, keep and count. The solid things of the world, the clay and the wood, give us this.
use; what a thing is for
The same word as in chapter 40: "softness is how the Way works". Benefit you can hold; use is what happens. And use, says the chapter, comes from the empty part.
Sitting with it
This is the most practical chapter in the book. No mystery, no sage. A cart, a bowl and a room: three things everyone in old China used every day, and so do we, more or less.
Take the wheel first. Thirty spokes, a rim, a hub, all of good wood, carefully made. But the wheel turns because of one small empty circle at its centre, where the axle goes through. Fill that hole, and the cart stops.
The bowl: the potter shapes the clay, but the potter is really shaping a space. We pay for the clay; we use the hollow.
The room: walls, a roof, a floor. But you don't live in the walls. You live in the space between them. Even the doors and windows are holes, cut on purpose, and without them the room is a box.
Then the chapter turns the whole world over in two lines. What is there gives the benefit; what is not there gives the use. We spend our lives on the "what is there": more things, more plans, more words, more hours filled. The chapter doesn't say they're worthless. It says that what makes them useful is the empty part we never notice.
Think of a day with no gap in it. Every hour full. It has a lot of benefit. But it is like a cup filled to the brim: nothing more can come in. A friend calls and you have no room. An idea arrives and there is nowhere to put it.
A rest in music is part of the music. A pause in a conversation is where the other person can speak. The space you leave is not wasted. It is the hole in the hub.
A practice
Today, leave one empty space in your day: ten minutes with nothing in it. No phone, no task, no plan for what to think about.
It will feel useless. Notice what comes into it.
To carry
無之以為用
wú zhī yǐ wéi yòng
What is not there gives the use.