The Mark of Great Virtue
The Text
孔德之容，惟道是从。道之为物，惟恍惟惚。惚兮恍兮，其中有象；恍兮惚兮，其中有物。窈兮冥兮，其中有精；其精甚真，其中有信。自今及古，其名不去，以阅众甫。
The mark of great virtue is that it follows the way alone. As a thing, the way is vague and elusive. Elusive, vague — yet within it are images. Vague, elusive — yet within it are things. Deep, dark — yet within it is essence. That essence is very real; within it is trust. From of old to now, its name has not gone — through it we see the beginnings of all things.
Reading it
The chapter does the hardest thing: it asserts reality without asserting shape. Images, things, essence, trust — listed in rising order of concreteness, all inside something we cannot pin down. Trust is the surprise: the way shows up as something you can rely on before something you can describe.
本章做了最难的事：不给出形状却断言真实。象、物、精、信——具体度递升，全部装在我们抓不住的东西里面。「信」是意外：道先作为可依赖者出现，后才作为可描述者。
Find one pattern in your week that is real but has no name. Watch it repeat.
找出你这周一个真实却无名的规律。看它如何重复。