Laozi · Daodejing · 第五十一章
Read the witness. Inspect a construction. Follow the evidence.
Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
A route through this passage
41 Han characters · 23 distinct forms · 5 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
道生之而德畜之，
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 6 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。Follow an explicit inference ↗是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。Identify means, basis, and purpose ↗是以萬物莫不尊道而貴德。Keep different negatives apart ↗Watch recurrence: 之 × 7 而 × 4 道 × 3 德 × 3 物 × 2 莫 × 2. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · Contextual interpretation awaits editorial review. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
Make this passage yours.
Use the reading guide above, build your interpretation, then test what you can recover. Your notes and schedule stay on this device.
1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
Select a source unit, then hide the passage and reconstruct it. This checks textual recall, not understanding.
3 · Explain, then revisit
Without the source in front of you, explain the passage’s main point and one choice you made in reading it. Then reopen the text and check the evidence.
Rate your understanding yourself. These reminders use a simple schedule; they do not certify mastery.
Study controls are loading. Reading prompts and source links work without JavaScript.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
韓非子 · 解老第二十萬物莫不成方圓而隨其規矩，則萬事之功形矣。而萬物莫不有規矩，議言之士，計會規矩也。
莊子 · 秋水第十七萬物莫不不在己。以差觀之，因其所大而大之，則萬物莫不大；因其所小而小之，則萬物莫不小；
莊子 · 秋水第十七萬物莫不數覩矣。以功觀之，因其所有而有之，則萬物莫不有；因其所无而无之，則萬物莫不无；知東西之相反而不可以相无，則功分定矣。
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
Select a character to find its other occurrences in these texts.
Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 老子 · Laozi · Daodejing
- Attribution
- Traditionally attributed to Laozi; composition and textual history are debated.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR5c0057 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR5c0057_051.txt, lines 14–23. LAO 51.1; tr. D.C. Lau 19i2: 73; here tr. Karlgren 1975
- Version
8f585085ff4ef2580eeb0f4376a763a62bcc7a95- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: 39fa358d79c63c9b109eb5f59a8bd80358ceb40580d5866af8420c44cbb17139. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.