Volume II — Te

The Tao Gives Birth

Chapter 51 of the Tao Te Ching

道生之，德畜之，物形之，勢成之。是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。道之尊，德之貴，夫莫之命常自然。故道生之，德畜之；長之育之；亭之毒之；養之覆之。生而不有，為而不恃，長而不宰，是謂玄德。

The Tao gives birth to them. Virtue nurtures them. Matter shapes them. Circumstance completes them. Therefore all things revere the Tao and honor virtue. The Tao is revered, virtue is honored— not by decree but always naturally. So the Tao gives birth, virtue nurtures, raises and develops, steadies and ripens, feeds and shelters. To give birth without possessing, to act without claiming, to lead without dominating— this is called mysterious virtue.

Commentary

This verse describes the relationship between the Tao, virtue, and the ten thousand things. "The Tao gives birth to them"—dao sheng zhi (道生之). The Tao is the source; everything that exists emerges from it. "Virtue nurtures them"—de xu zhi (德畜之). De (德) is the power or virtue that sustains what the Tao has produced. Xu (畜) means to raise, to nurture, to tend. If the Tao is the parent that gives birth, virtue is the nourishment that enables survival and growth. "Matter shapes them. Circumstance completes them"—wu xing zhi, shi cheng zhi (物形之，勢成之). The formless becomes form; the potential becomes actual. Matter provides the body; circumstance provides the context in which that body develops. These four—Tao, virtue, matter, circumstance—constitute the complete process by which anything comes to be what it is. "All things revere the Tao and honor virtue"—wan wu mo bu zun dao er gui de (萬物莫不尊道而貴德). This reverence is not worship in the human sense but the natural alignment of things with their source. Everything that exists participates in the Tao whether it knows this or not. "Not by decree but always naturally"—fu mo zhi ming chang zi ran (夫莫之命常自然). No one orders this reverence; it is simply the way things are. Zi ran (自然)—naturally, of itself—is the key term. The relationship between things and their source is not imposed but inherent. "To give birth without possessing, to act without claiming, to lead without dominating"—sheng er bu you, wei er bu shi, zhang er bu zai (生而不有，為而不恃，長而不宰). This describes how the Tao operates and how the sage should operate. The Tao produces everything but claims nothing; acts everywhere but depends on nothing; leads all but dominates none. "This is called mysterious virtue"—shi wei xuan de (是謂玄德).

The full commentary continues with deeper analysis of internal cultivation, classical perspectives, and cross-references. Read the complete chapter →

Key Characters