Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Before the universe was born
there was something in the chaos of the heavens.
It stands alone and empty,
solitary and unchanging.
It is ever present and secure.
It may be regarded as the Mother of the universe.
Because I do not know its name,
I call it the Tao.
If forced to give it a name,
I would call it ‘Great’.

Because it is Great means it is everywhere.
Being everywhere means it is eternal.
Being eternal means everything returns to it.

Tao is great.
Heaven is great.
Earth is great.
Humanity is great.
Within the universe, these are the four great things.

Humanity follows the earth.
Earth follows Heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.

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I find this passage to be a little surprising because Laozi mentions the origin of the universe. I think it would have been a common notion then that the universe was eternal and had no beginning. Note the last lines, especially. What does he say? Humanity follows the earth (i.e, the earth gave birth to the humans), Earth follows Heaven (i.e., Earth is part of the universe), Heaven follows the Tao (i.e., the Tao is the governing law of the universe), but the Tao follows only itself (the governing law itself is the first cause and has no other preceding cause than itself.). My question is, how on earth did he know this? Or how was he able to speculate like this?