What cannot be seen is invisible,
What cannot be heard is inaudible,
What cannot be touched is intangible.
These there, unfathomable,
blend into one.
Up, it is not bright;
down, it is not dark.
Like a nameless endless string,
it ends in nothing.
It is a formless form,
an image of nothing.
It seems to be and not to be.
Before it, you cannot see its front;
after it, you cannot see its rear.
Ruling over the present with the law of the past,
you can know the beginning of antiquity.
Such is the rule of the divine law.
视之不见名曰夷，听之不闻名曰希，搏之不得名曰微。此三者不可致诘，故混而为一。其上不曒（jiǎo)，其下不昧，绳绳不可名，复归於无物。是谓无状之状，无物之象，是谓惚恍。迎之不见其首，随之不见其后。执古之道，以御今之有。能知古始，是谓道纪。
