(Translated by Sherwin Lu)
 
Translators’ Note: The Yellow Emperor, who lived about 5000 years ago, was the earliest recorded ancestor of the Chinese people. The Yellow Emperor’s Four Canons was found in 1973 in an over two thousand years old Han Dynasty tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province of China. It was written on silks. There are altogether 26 chapters divided into four parts.
 
1. THE TAO AND THE LAW（道法）
 
An Abstract
From the Tao comes the law. The law is the yardstick by which to judge what is right and what is wrong from what has been achieved and what has not. The Tao, formless and profound, is the origin of all things and the source of wisdom. Just because it’s formless, everything comes into being with a form and a name. Once forms and names are given, the black-white, or right-wrong, distinctions reveal themselves. When the law is in force, order will be established and nothing against it cannot be curbed. Tracing back from the extreme opposites to the formless, one gets to know where bad and good fortunes come from and that the way to cope with changes is to guide them towards balance. If opposites are not balanced, this is said to be “going against the Tao”. Those who have grasped the Tao can perceive the cycles of the macroscopic natural world, understand the appropriate relationship between the sovereign and the ministers, and scrutinize into the causes of changes of all things, but they do not lord it over anything. So, they can penetrate all the colorful forms and get to the quintessence of what permeates the immensity, for all others to follow.
 
The Text
 
From the Tao comes the law. The law is the yardstick by which to judge what is right and what is wrong from what has been achieved and what has not. Those who have grasped the Tao develop the law without violating the Tao. Once the law is formed, they do not dare to ignore it. Using it as the yardstick, they can understand and judge everything in the world without being confused.
 
The Tao, formless and profound, is the origin of all things．Life is born with the weakness of desire, of insatiability．Once born, life will act. Then it would err, acting untimely or even against the time. Act will make things happen, which may be harmful, either against the way of things, or not in congruity, or with no known purpose. When things happen, people will speak their mind and words might be harmful, either not truthful, or offensive, or self-deceiving, or overstating what is inadequate as superabundant. Therefore, what has come of the same profoundness can be either dead or alive, either a failure or a success. Bad or good fortune comes the same way, but people may not know wherefrom.
 The Tao as the source of wisdom is formless. Just because it’s formless, everything, even the tiniest, comes into being with a form and a name. Once forms and names are established, the black-white, or right-wrong, distinctions reveal themselves. Therefore those who have grasped the Tao look at things of the world with no clinging to anything, no rigidity in perspective, no imposing, no self-interest. So, if anything happens, the forms, names, and reputations come by themselves. Once they are there, they cannot hide or be altered.
 
A just person has insights. Whoever has the deepest insights is meritorious. An upright person is serene at heart. Whoever reaches the top of serenity becomes a sage. A selfless person has wisdom. Whoever has the highest wisdom is in step with the whole world. He measures and checks everything against the law of nature and everything in the world will be properly judged.
 
Human affairs are as numerous as trees in the forests and grains in the granary, but once tools are ready, nothing can escape the measurement. When the law is in force, order will be established and nothing against it cannot be curbed. What has stopped short can be continued; what has perished can be revived – Who knows the miraculous power behind all this? What is dead comes back to life again; Misfortune is converted into a blessing. Tracing back from the extreme opposites to the formless, one gets to know where bad and good fortunes come from and that the way to cope with changes is to guide them towards balance. If the opposites are not balanced, this is said to be “going against the Tao”.
 
There are constant laws between Heaven and Earth, constant work arrangements among people, constant distinction in status between the superior and the inferior, constant ways of using one’s subordinates and constant standards for governing the people. The constant laws are those of the four seasons, those of darkness and light, of life and death, and of the receptive and the assertive. The constant work arrangements are for men to do farming and women spinning and weaving. The constant distinction between the superior and the inferior is their different positions for their different worthiness. The constant way of using one’s subordinates is to fit their duties to their capabilities, never to assign them anything beyond their strengths. The constant standard for governing the people is to place public interests above private ones.
 
If any change goes too far beyond the constant standard, unusual measures have to be taken to curb it. When the measures, conventional or unconventional, fit the situation, what is represented by the name remains. Everything, whether big or small, is there by itself. Everything, whether running aground or heading smoothly, towards death or rebirth, assumes a name for itself. Therefore, those who have awareness of the Tao can perceive the cycles of the macroscopic natural world, understand the appropriate relationship between the sovereign and the ministers, and scrutinize into the causes of the ends and beginnings of all things, but they do not lord it over anything. So, they can penetrate all the colorful forms and get to the quintessence of what permeates the immensity, for all others to follow.