Like thread, which stretches in a myriad directions,
Let there be the good man's thread,
Clay square, that can change shape:
High and deep, muddy and clear:
People forget where they have come,
Hence often people find the wrong place,
While confusion of the mind
is itself contrary to the good man's nature.
The sage accepts that as nature,
pursues with frugality his own way.
He detests such simple pleasures as extras.
Therefore: though he look inward, his mind is conscious.
Yet his actions can be accomplished with tranquility.
other readings further drafts from the same generation
deeper strata where the meaning thins
the original
The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty
space (for the axle), that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is
fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness, that
their use depends. The door and windows are cut out (from the walls)
to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space (within), that its
use depends. Therefore, what has a (positive) existence serves for
profitable adaptation, and what has not that for (actual) usefulness.