Before Heaven and Earth were distinguished from each other, It was at one with the Great Void, the eternal oneness of indistinguishability, a vastness of obscurity with no distinction of light or darkness, with Its subtlety quietly and imperceptibly penetrating everywhere.

    It had no beginning. It is in everything without a cause. It is formless, and originally nameless. It is omnipresent and omnipotent: The vastness of Heaven cannot cover It all, and that of the Earth cannot bear the whole of It. What is small is small because of It; and because of It what is large is large. It permeates all Four Seas, and far, far beyond with no limits. It would not rot in dark places, nor wither under scorching heat.
It remains ever constant while It accommodates all changes. Birds flying, fish swimming, beasts running -- all are born of It; without It, nothing can be accomplished. We humans live by It, but do not know Its name; we follow It, but do not see Its form. “The (Unifying) One” is one of Its names, still a name only, representing something unnamable, something embracing all.

    Therefore, the supreme Tao is highly metaphysical beyond perception and profound beyond measure. Apparent as It is, no name can describe It; being all-inclusive, no form can present It. It is “The Only One”: nothing else can be on a par with It. Nothing can bend It, never. Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang, the sun and the moon, the stars and clouds, the cycle of seasons, the insects’ awakening from their winter dormancy – all benefit from the Tao and yet the Tao loses nothing. If all go the other way round, the Tao would not gain anything either.

    The Tao is consistent and never fails. It is also flexible but never bends. It is so subtle that no ordinary wisdom can penetrate; so commanding that no one can overstep. So, only a sage can see the formless and hear the soundless. One can sense the formless and soundless Tao only through Its manifestations in an innumerable variety of forms and sounds. Then he merges himself spiritually and becomes one with the supreme being encompassing Heaven and Earth, following It everywhere without overstepping. This kind of people can be said to have grasped the essence of life between Heaven and Earth.

    Wise people can perceive this ultimate way of things, and learn and accomplish what others cannot. This is called “getting to the bottom of things”. When It is followed by a sage-king, all under heaven will follow him. It is not a matter of “good” or ”evil”. If only the ruler knows and follows this supreme way, people will not be bewitched. Though they may have different interests, they will not fight each other. If the ruler assigns each and every person a proper status, all things will settle down in good order. He should not overwork in times of order and peace, nor slack off in times of trouble.

    Do not seek for extensiveness of knowledge for the sake of extensiveness, and one will reach It; do not pursue after profoundness for the sake of profoundness, and one will get at Its subtlety. The Tao is consistent everywhere and all the way; so, if only one grasps Its quintessence, one can infer the whole from a single instance and redress all wrongs in the one right approach. One can trace back to the remote times and foretell the general trends in the future.