the Great One gives birth to water

[lienshan]

Da Yi Sheng Shui

 

The Great One gives birth to water.

The return of water assists the Great One by completing heaven

and the heavenly return assists the Great by completing earth.

The return of heaven and earth mutually assist by completing insight and spirit.

The return of insight and spirit mutually assist by completing yin and yang.

The return of yin and yang mutually assist by completing the four seasons.

The return of the four seasons mutually assist by completing cold and heat.

The return of cold and heat mutually assist by completing damp and fluid.

The return of damp and heat mutually assist by completing time and end.

Therefore:

What's time is the birth of damp and fluid.

What's damp and fluid is the birth of cold and heat.

What's cold and heat and what's the four seasons are the birth of yin and yang.

What's yin and yang is the birth of insight and spirit.

What's insight and spirit is the birth of heaven and earth.

What's heaven and earth is the birth of the Great One.

 

This is why the Great One conceals physical water and moves physical seasons.

Expentant and then this begins by itself to become the Mother of everything.

A lump of ability able to fill acts the envied being: the Union of everything.

This inability to kill heaven and inability to bury earth

is the inability to complete yin and yang.

The gentleman knowing this says: (unreadable bamboo slip)

 

Heaven and Dao value what's completed of weakness and naiveness

by benefitting what's giving birth.

To appreciate the hard of to stab the strong is

to profit the soft of to assist the weak.

 

Below the soil is similar to the word earth.

Above the air is similar to the word heaven.

Dao is also its character; Early Dawn is its name.

Why Dao follows what's duty surely rely on its name.

Therefore is the duty completed and itself prolonged.

That the sage follows duty does also rely on its name.

Therefore is the merit completed and himself not boned.

Heaven and earth are nominated side by side independently.

Therefore perform their two boats in line not cultivated together.

To administer heaven isn't enough because:

The lowest height of west and north acts powerful.

Earth and heaven are not enough:

The highest low of east and south acts powerful.

The moreover surplus from the lowest of the not enough from what's highest is

the moreover surplus from the highest of the not enough from what's lowest.

 

The chinese characters here: http://www.tao-te-king.org/taiyi_shengshui.htm

I've translated Da Yi Sheng Shui in order to compare the text

with my translations of these two Dao De Jing chapters:

 

The Guodian version of chapter 25

 

It is formed flooding.

The filled up is the former Heaven.

The Earth lives peacefully.

Separated singles constitute not fertilizing.

Is it possible that the mother of the world not yet knows its name?

Its character is called Dao being my powerful

 

Great called the dambursting of a title called Great is

unlikely called the reoccurence of a damburst called unlikely.

 

The large earth of a large heaven is

the large Dao of a king moreover a great nation.

The center has four large from it and the residence of the king is the first from it.

The earth following the sky of a man following the ground is

Dao following its own nature of a heaven following Dao

 

The Mawangdui version of chapter 42

 

The first born second of Dao giving birth once is

the trice born everything of the twice born third.

Everything carries yin and embraces yang.

Fluid and air are considered harmonious.

The harmful of man is only orphaned, widowed and infertile

and then do kings and dukes take these as titles.

Some gain through loss or lose through gain.

What another has taught I teach as well:

Tyrants never choose their deaths

My take on it, father.

Edited August 3, 2011 by lienshan

[Marblehead]

Back to this again, are you? I still haven't read the entire passage as translated by Henricks.

 

I'll try to get around to it soon so I can talk with you and anyone else who wishes to join in.

[lienshan]

The only lines problematic to read/translate are:

 

Expentant and then this begins by itself to become the Mother of everything.

A lump of ability able to fill acts the envied being: the Union of everything.

 

That'll say the moment of birth; the other lines are peanuts compared to read/translate Laozi

[lienshan]

[lienshan]

The core of Laozi's chapter 42 arguement:

 

The first born second of Dao giving birth once is

the trice born everything of the twice born third.

Everything carries yin and embraces yang.

 

concerns these three Da Yi Sheng Shui lines:

 

What's yin and yang is the birth of insight and spirit.

What's insight and spirit is the birth of heaven and earth.

What's heaven and earth is the birth of the Great One.

 

He read (like I translate) the characters "suo sheng" as "is the birth of",

because "suo" before a verb (here "sheng") grammatically creates a noun-like phrase.

That's important, because the authority Henricks translates "suo sheng" as "were produced by".

 

What is a human being?

 

I think that the answer to that question shows the difference between Huang-Lao and Laozi

 

Is it that which has insight and spirit?

Is it that which walks on two legs?

[lienshan]

The core of Da Yi Sheng Shui is:

 

The Great One gives birth to water.

The return of water assists the Great One by completing heaven

and the heavenly return assists the Great by completing earth.

The return of heaven and earth mutually assist by completing insight and spirit.

 

Expentant and then this begins by itself to become the Mother of everything.

A lump of ability able to fill acts the envied being: the Union of everything.

 

What's insight and spirit is the birth of heaven and earth.

What's heaven and earth is the birth of the Great One.

 

The core of Da Yi Sheng Shui is ONE character "WEI" the verb both ""to do, to make" and "to be".

 

Laozi's answer: