Impartial Like the Skye
This chapter presents the impartial nature of the Tao, likening it to a bellows — empty yet inexhaustible. The sage mirrors this detachment, valuing stillness over excess speech or sentiment.
Heaven and Earth are not sentimental.
They treat all things like straw dogs.
The sage is not sentimental.
He treats the people like straw dogs.
The space between Heaven and Earth —
is it not like a bellows?
Empty, yet ever full.
The more it moves,
the more it yields.
Too many words exhaust the breath.
Hold to your centre.
Remain open and still.
