![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZaUTNRmKqJhZnrZSw4PUqbk5sK2JGkNCHY8T8ssBRr4P/image.png)

[原文]

道可道也，非恒道也。名可名也，非恒名也。无名，万物之始也；有名，万物之母也。故恒无欲也，以观其眇；恒有欲也，以观其所徼。两者同出，异名同谓。玄之又玄，众眇之门。

　
【English】

If it can be verbally described, it is not Dao.  If something can be named, the name can not last eternally.  

The void is to describe when there is no earth or heaven.  Everything came into being from something which we named "non void". 

We should always observe void before something happens to understand the rules of Dao.  When something happens, we can understand the result of Dao.

Both void and non-void originated from Dao, however they were named so differently. This is so interesting, even a magic thing.  They are the key to everything mystery in the world.



【Comment】


My understanding is everything comes from nothing,  there are natural rules in the universe whatever we know them or not. These rules are summarized by Lao Zi called "Dao".  It is something non material, such as Newton's three force rules, the theory of relativity, people's relationship, the prosperity and depression of human society.  


I remember when I was a student, I learned how to make inference from many basic natural rules to deduce a result. However, I always felt confused what makes those basic rules, e.g. how the gravities of all objects were generated?  There are no explanation from my  teachers, they simply said, "Oh, they were like this at the first place". 


This cannot ensure me of the originate of those basic natural rules.  However, here in Dao De Ting, Lao Zi,  who is the founder of Daolism in China, explained this to me that the origin of those natural rules are "Dao". 

Author: Lao Zi
Translator: @chenlocus