Chapter 4 of the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) describes the ontological nature and functioning of the Dao.
The Dao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things! We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Dao is, as if it would ever so continue! I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.
Note
The essential nature of the Dao is empty and indescribable, yet we come to know it through the manifestations of its functioning.
All phenomena in the universe arise from it. We cannot stand outside the Dao or observe it as an external object. In studying it, we are ultimately exploring our own nature, for we are nothing but an alternate manifestation of the Dao itself.
Human cognitive limitations and the veils of perception predispose us to egocentrism, artificially isolating ourselves from the Dao.
Further Reading
Chapter Four describes the Tao’s empty state in the line, “The Tao is empty, yet when used it is not exhausted,” which echoes the primordial chaos of “Non-being” mentioned in Chapter One’s “Non-being is the beginning of heaven and earth.” Chapter One introduces “Being” and “Non-being” as two aspects of the Tao, while Chapter Four here further elucidates the Tao’s empty and tranquil nature as the source of all things with the phrase, “Deep, it seems like the ancestor of all things.” Together, these chapters construct the philosophical framework of the Tao.
The statement in Chapter Four, “I do not know whose child it is; it seems to have existed before the Lord,” emphasizes the Tao’s pre-existence, directly resonating with Chapter Twenty-Five’s “There was something formlessly fashioned, born before heaven and earth.” Chapter Twenty-Five clearly defines the Tao as the ultimate existence that “stands alone and does not change, revolves without ceasing,” while Chapter Four deepens this understanding by describing it as “clear, yet seemingly present,” highlighting the Tao’s transcendence of time and space – hidden and formless yet governing all things.
The phrase in Chapter Four, “Deep, it seems like the ancestor of all things,” and the statement in Chapter Forty, “All things under heaven are born of Being, and Being is born of Non-being,” form a progressive relationship. Chapter Four reveals the Tao as the source of all things, while Chapter Forty clarifies its generative sequence – with “Non-being” as the ultimate source, “Being” as the intermediate link, and ultimately giving rise to all things. This completes the Taoist cosmology of generation.
道沖而用之或不盈。淵兮似萬物之宗。挫其銳，解其紛，和其光，同其塵。湛兮似或存。吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。
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