Daodejing - Chapter Twenty Five

道德經  - 第二十五章

有物混成，先天地生。

寂兮寥兮，獨立不改，周行而不殆，可以為天下母。

吾不知其名，字之曰道，強為之名曰大。

大曰逝，逝曰遠，遠曰反。

故道大，天大，地大，王亦大。

域中有四大，而王居其一焉。

人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。

Daodejing - Chapter Twenty Five

There was something formless and perfect, before the universe was born. 

It is serene, empty, solitary, unchanging, infinite, eternally present.

It is the mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name, I call it the Dao.

It flows through all things, inside and outside, and returns to the origin of all things.

The Dao is great; the universe is great; earth is great; man is great.

These are the four great powers.

Man follows the earth; earth follows the universe; the universe follows the Dao; the Dao follows only itself.

References

1. The above translation is based on the translation by poet, translator, scholar and anthologist, Stephen Mitchell.  His reading of the work can be found on the following YouTube video: Tao Te Ching, The Book Of The Way by Lao Tzu:  https://youtu.be/t109UFLSQhk?t=2234
2. This chapter on the above video starts at 37.10 and ends at 39.05.
3. You can find the complete 81 chapters of Daodejing in Chinese and English (James Legge version) in the ctext.org website: https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing