← The Dao De Jing
Chapter 40
Reversal Is the Movement of the Way
反者道之动
The Text
反者道之动；弱者道之用。天下万物生于有，有生于无。
Reversal is the movement of the way; weakness is the use of the way. The ten thousand things are born from being; being is born from not-being.
Reading it
The shortest chapter and possibly the densest. Return — not progress — is the actual motion of everything, and the way works through what will not dominate. The last line quietly hands cosmology to nothingness: all this furniture came from the room.
最短的一章，也可能是最密的一章。「复返」——而非前进——是一切的实际运动；道通过不肯主导者起作用。末句悄悄把宇宙论交给无：满屋的家具，来自那间空房。
Practice for the week
Find one situation moving past its extreme. Instead of slowing it, note the reversal already under way.
找一件正在越过极点的事。不去拖它，只记下那早已开始的回转。