The current version (i.e. Wang Bi's version)

Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful, but this is evil.

We all know that good is good, but this is not good.

Therefore, existence and non-existence arise from each other, difficulty and ease complement each other, long and short compare (shape), high and low lean towards each other, sounds harmonize with each other, and front and rear follow each other.

This is because the saint does nothing, and teaches without saying anything;

Everything is done without hesitation, born without being, doing without relying on it, and achieving success without dwelling on it. If you only live in Ephesus, you will go to Ephesus.

Silk Book (revised and annotated version of Silk Book A and Silk Book B)

Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful and evil is bad, and everyone knows that good is not good.

The existence and non-existence are mutually produced, the difficulty and ease are complementary to each other, the long and short are complementary to each other, the high and low are complementary to each other;

This is the teaching of saints who live in inaction and do things without saying anything.

Everything is done without beginning, done without relying on it, successful without dwelling on it, and it is impossible to live in it until it is gone.

Another fragmented version of the silk script:

Everyone in the world knows beauty, and it is good and evil. Everyone knows good, but this is not good.

The phase of existence and non-existence, birth, the phase of difficulty and ease, completion, the phase of length and shortness, shape, the phase of high and low, the phase of surplus;

The phase of sound, harmony Also, the phase of succession is consistent and constant.

This is the teaching of saints who live in inaction and do things without saying anything. Everything is done but never started, done but never relied on, and successful but never lived.

If I don’t live in Ephesus, I will go to Ephesus.

Today's translation

Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful because of the existence of ugliness. We all know that good is good because evil exists. Therefore, existence and non-being transform each other, difficulty and ease form each other, long and short appear each other, high and low enrich each other, sound and sound harmonize each other, front and back follow each other - this is eternal. Therefore, the sage treats world affairs from the perspective of inaction and imparts enlightenment in a silent way: allowing all things to arise naturally without initiating them, doing something without adding his own inclination, and achieving success without taking pride in it. Just because you don’t take credit, there is nothing to lose.

Self-understanding

In fact, this is a bit like the current theory of relativity. When the existence of a thing is reasonable, the other side of the thing will also exist. Mutual checks and balances are also somewhat like our traditional theory of yin and yang balance. From another perspective, when looking at one thing, you must see the opposite side. The current version and the silk book have different meanings when read and understood. For example, "Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful, so evil exists." It can be understood that everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful, so evil will exist. And the silk script "Everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful because there is already too much evil." It can be understood that everyone in the world knows that beauty is beautiful because there are too many evils. The meanings of these two directions are opposite directions. . One discovers evil because of beauty, and the other discovers beauty because of evil. However, the understanding and segmentation of ancient texts are all added by later generations, so it is understandable that there will be some deviation in understanding. Understand, it depends on which direction the personal psychological balance is tilted. This is like the dilemma of which comes first, the chicken or the egg.