The short of it:
Tao is yin, empty. From this emptiness comes everything else (yang).
4. The Fountainless.
Tau is empty; in operation exhaustless. In its depth it seems the [parent] (first ancestor) of all things. It blunts sharp angles. It unravels disorder. It softens the glare. It shares the dust. In tranquility it seems ever to remain. I know not whose [child] it is. It appears to have been before God.
4. ‘the fountainless.’
4.1 The Tao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!
4.2 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 Tao is, as if it would ever so continue!
4.3 I do not know whose [child] it is. It might appear to have been before God.
*To complete a difficult task.
4. Sourceless.
4.1 Reason is empty, but its use is inexhaustible. In its profundity, verily, it resembleth the arch-[parent] of the ten thousand things.
4.2 “It wil blunt its own sharpness, Will its tangles adjust; It will dim its own radiance And be one with its dust.”
4.3 Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose [child] it is. Apparently even the [Sovereign] it precedes.
