Laozi / Daodejing: the useful void (ch. 11) and the triad that cannot be
examined (ch. 14), in two recensions.

Texts: Chinese Wikisource.
  Wang Bi recension: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/道德經_(王弼本)
  Mawangdui silk manuscripts, collated: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/老子_(帛書校勘版)
Rights: the text is ancient and in the public domain; Wikisource is CC BY-SA.
Retrieved and compared 2026-09-18. Commentary of Wang Bi is omitted here.

Dating: the received Laozi is a layered compilation, strata conventionally
4th-3rd century BCE. The Mawangdui manuscripts come from a tomb sealed 168 BCE
and are the earliest witness consulted here. The Guodian bamboo slips (c. 300
BCE) carry only part of the received text and were NOT consulted; whether they
contain either chapter is an open question for this file.

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Chapter 11: what is not there is what is used
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  Wang Bi:    三十輻共一轂，當其無，有車之用。

  Mawangdui:  卅輻同一轂 當亓无 有車之用也 埏埴為器 當亓无 有埴器之用也 鑿戶牖 當亓无 有室之用也 故有之以為利 无之以為用

  Working translation (Wang Bi): Thirty spokes share one hub; in its nothing
  lies the cart's usefulness. Clay is worked to make a vessel; in its nothing
  lies the vessel's usefulness. Doors and windows are cut to make a room; in
  its nothing lies the room's usefulness. So what-is provides the benefit,
  and what-is-not provides the use.

  Orthography: the Mawangdui text writes 卅 for 三十, 亓 for 其, 无 for 無,
  and adds the final particle 也; the content is the same.

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Chapter 14: three that cannot be examined further
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  Wang Bi:    視之不見名曰夷，聽之不聞名曰希，搏之不得名曰微。此三者，不可致詰，故混而為一。

  Mawangdui:  視之而弗見 名之曰微 聽之而弗聞 名之曰希 捪之而弗得 名之曰夷 三者不可至計 故混而為一 一者 亓上不攸 亓下不忽

  Working translation (Wang Bi): Look at it and you do not see it: call it yi.
  Listen and you do not hear it: call it xi. Grasp and you do not get it: call
  it wei. These three cannot be interrogated further, so they merge and become
  one.

  ** THE RECENSIONS SWAP TWO OF THE THREE NAMES. **
  Wang Bi:    sight -> 夷 (yi)    hearing -> 希 (xi)    touch -> 微 (wei)
  Mawangdui:  sight -> 微 (wei)   hearing -> 希 (xi)    touch -> 夷 (yi)
  The middle term is stable; the outer two are transposed. The Mawangdui also
  reads 不可至計 where Wang Bi reads 不可致詰, and 捪之 where Wang Bi has 搏之.

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