Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
- This one starts by talking about some formless thing that existed before the Heaven and Earth.
- (Hmm... what could it be?!)
- It's quiet.
- It's changeless, but is endlessly circulating.
- It's the mother of the world.
- We're guessing you've guessed what it is.
- Yup, it's the Tao.
- The TTC admits that it doesn't know the name of the Tao; Tao is only the name that's used.
- The best way to describe it is "great," and "great" means that it's constantly receding and returning like a big, whopping ocean of everything (25.9).
- The TTC closes this one out with the general hierarchy of everything there is.
- Humans follow Earthly laws (because what choice do we have?)
- Earth follows Heavenly laws. (It can't exactly stop revolving around the Sun, now can it?)
- Heaven follows the Tao. (The Tao is the flow of everything, so the Universe doesn't get much choice in that, either.)
- Lastly, the Tao follows the laws of nature, which is what it's basically made of, right?
- It's the way—the flow of everything.