Emptiness and use

The Dao De Jing says emptiness is what makes a thing usable: the space between the spokes, inside the pot and the room (chapter 11), the empty Way that never fills (chapter 4), the bellows that never runs out (chapter 5) and the valley (chapters 6, 28, 39 and 41).

Chapter 11 states the idea with three things anyone can see. “Thirty spokes join at the axis, the empty space in between them, makes the cart practical.” A pot is usable because of “its emptiness within”, and a room is useful because of the space its door and windows cut. Each time the same three characters, 当其无, point at the empty part, and the chapter ends on a rule: “presence brings benefits, absence brings utility.”

The Way itself is described with the same picture. Chapter 4: “The Way is empty, yet used, it never fills up.” The word there is 冲, and it returns in chapter 45: “Great fullness seems empty, yet its use is never exhausted.” Chapter 35 says the Way is bland and cannot be seen or heard, yet “used, it cannot be exhausted.” Throughout the book, emptiness goes with a use that never runs out.

Chapter 5 gives the space between heaven and earth a working image, the bellows (橐籥): “Empty yet never exhausted, the more it moves, the more comes out.” Chapter 6 adds “use it, it is never exhausted”; its first words, 谷神, which our translation renders “the spirit of abundance”, begin with 谷, the valley. The valley is the book's landscape of emptiness: the masters of old are “Open, like a valley” (chapter 15), one should “be as the world's valley” (chapter 28), “the highest virtue seems like a valley” (chapter 41), and in chapter 39 the valley is full only because it attained the One; without it, “it might run dry”.

The other side is fullness. Chapter 9 warns that “Persisting in fulfilling it, is inferior to stopping in time,” and chapter 15 says the one who holds to the Way “does not crave fulfillment.” Chapter 16 asks for the opposite movement, “To reach extreme vacuity” (虚), and chapter 22 states the reward plainly: “the hole is filled.”

Emptiness and use: the chapters at a glance
Chapter	What it says
Chapter 4 道冲而用	The Way is empty, and used it never fills up.
Chapter 5 天地不仁	The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows: empty, yet never exhausted.
Chapter 6 谷神不死	The spirit of abundance (谷神, whose first character is the valley) never dies and, used, is never exhausted.
Chapter 9 持而盈之	Filling a thing to the brim is worse than stopping in time.
Chapter 11 三十辐共	The empty space in the wheel, the pot and the room is what makes each of them useful.
Chapter 15 古之善为	The masters of old were open like a valley, and whoever holds the Way does not seek to be full.
Chapter 16 致虚极守	The chapter opens by asking for utmost emptiness and steady stillness.
Chapter 22 曲则全枉	What is hollow is filled.
Chapter 28 知其雄守	Keeping to disgrace, one becomes the world's valley, and virtue is sufficient.
Chapter 35 执大象天	The Way is bland, unseen and unheard, yet used it cannot be exhausted.
Chapter 39 昔之得一	The valley is full through the One, and without it would run dry.
Chapter 41 上士闻道	The highest virtue seems like a valley.
Chapter 45 大成若缺	Great fullness seems empty, and its use is never exhausted.

Every line on the theme

Chapter 4

道冲而用之或不盈，

The Way is empty, yet used, it never fills up.
渊兮似万物之宗。

So deep as to be the ancestor of the myriad things.

Chapter 4, line 1

Chapter 5

天地之间，其犹橐籥乎？

Space in the cosmos, is it just like bellows?
虚而不屈，动而愈出。

Empty yet never exhausted, the more it moves, the more comes out.
多言数穷，不如守中。

Describing its extremes leads to exhaustion, and is inferior to holding the center (not naming).

Chapter 5, line 3

Chapter 6

谷神不死，

The spirit of abundance never dies,
是谓玄牝，

it is called the mystic female,
玄牝之门，

the opening of the mystic female,
是谓天地根。

is called the root of heaven and earth.
绵绵若存，

It infinitely seems to exist,
用之不勤。

use it, it is never exhausted.

Chapter 6, line 1

Chapter 9

持而盈之，

Persisting in fulfilling it,
不如其已。

is inferior to stopping in time.

Chapter 9, line 1

Chapter 11

三十辐共一毂，

Thirty spokes join at the axis,
当其无，

the empty space in between them,
有车之用。

makes the cart practical.
埏埴以为器，

Mold some clay to make a pot,
当其无，

its emptiness within,
有器之用。

makes the pot usable.
凿户牖以为室，

Cut a door and windows to create a room,
当其无，有室之用。

its emptiness within, makes the room useful.
故有之以为利，

Therefore, presence brings benefits,
无之以为用。

absence brings utility.

Chapter 11, line 1

Chapter 15

旷兮其若谷，混兮其若浊。

Open, like a valley. Obscure, like muddy water.

Chapter 15, line 8

保此道者不欲盈，

The one who holds to this Way does not crave fulfillment.
夫唯不盈，故能蔽不新成。

Precisely because he does not crave fulfillment, can he preserve himself and avoid the lure of new accomplishment.

Chapter 15, line 11

Chapter 16

致虚极，守静笃，

To reach extreme vacuity, preserve stillness earnestly.

Chapter 16, line 1

Chapter 22

洼则盈，敝则新，

the hole is filled, the worn-out is renewed,

Chapter 22, line 2

Chapter 28

知其荣，守其辱，为天下谷。

Know glory, abide by disgrace, be as the world's valley.
为天下谷，常德乃足，

Be as the world's valley, and the enduring virtue shall be sufficient,