Chapter 51第51章

The Tao gives them life, Virtue nurtures them, matter gives them form, circumstance brings them to completion. Therefore all things honor the Tao and value Virtue. The Tao is honored and Virtue valued not because anyone commands it — it simply happens naturally. So the Tao gives life, Virtue nurtures, grows, develops, shelters, ripens, nourishes, and protects. To produce without possessing, to act without expectation, to guide without controlling — this is called Mysterious Virtue. It's like parenthood at its best: you pour yourself into raising the child, yet you never own the child. The creation flows through you, not from you.

Tao gives them life. Virtue nurses them. Matter shapes them. Environment completes them. Therefore all things without exception honor Tao and value Virtue. This honoring of Tao and valuing of Virtue is commanded by no one — it is naturally so. This is a description of the self-organizing property of the natural world. No commandment is necessary because the system is inherently ordered from within. The Tao produces, nurtures, grows, develops, shelters, ripens, feeds, and covers — and does all this without possessing, without expectation, without controlling. This is what's called Mysterious Virtue — xuan de. It's the operating principle of every self-sustaining ecosystem, every healthy culture, every functional organism. Generate without owning. Act without expecting return. Lead without dominating. This is the deepest teaching.

Wang Bi explains the entire cosmogonic sequence here. What gives things life? The Tao. What enables things to attain their nature? Virtue — De. What gives things form? The physical world of things. What completes them? Their circumstances and momentum — shi. So the Tao is the source from which things come; De is what they gain in coming forth; the physical world gives them shape; and circumstances bring them to completion. Wang Bi says: 'The Tao generates, virtue nurtures, things give form, and circumstances complete.' Everything follows what is inherently so. The reason the Tao is honored and virtue is valued is that no one commands them — they are simply and always spontaneously natural. The Tao produces without possessing, acts without claiming credit, leads without dominating. Wang Bi calls this 'mysterious virtue' — virtue that emerges from the hidden and unfathomable, that creates and nourishes without anyone knowing its source.

Wang Bi maps out the complete ontological chain here. 'What gives birth? The Tao. What enables attainment? De. What gives form? The physical. What completes? Circumstances — shi.' Each stage is necessary and none is sufficient alone. The Tao is the origin, De the capacity, things the medium, and momentum the finalizer. 'The Tao generates, De nurtures, things give form, circumstances complete.' And then the axiological principle: the Tao is honored and De is valued not because any decree commands it, but because they are 'constantly and spontaneously natural' — 「莫之命而常自然」. No authority established their value; value is intrinsic to the generative process itself. Wang Bi then describes the 'mysterious virtue': producing without possessing, acting without claiming credit, leading without dominating. What’s extraordinary is that this is a description of how reality itself operates at every scale — from cell division to ecosystem dynamics to galactic formation. Nothing owns its effects; nothing claims its products. The dominator paradigm — production as possession, action as credit, leadership as control — is a local aberration in a cosmos that operates through mysterious virtue.