Line by Line - Verse 5, Lines 1-2

Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Heaven and Earth are impartial; They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Heaven and Earth are impartial They regard myriad things as straw dogs
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Tao's neutral: it doesn't care about good or evil.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

This is the first time we see use of the term "straw dogs." In all honesty, I never tried to figure out precisely what the term refers to, but now I know.

In Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years, Red Pine quotes Su Ch'e as follows:

Heaven and earth aren't partial. They don't kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness. We do the same when we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices. We dress them up and put them on the alter, but not because we love them. And when the ceremony is over, we throw them into the street, but not because we hate them. This is how the sage treats the people.

In his book, Derek Lin explains why the metaphor of straw dogs is so compelling.

It is a striking metaphor when we consider how we are similar to the straw dogs. We are here to go through the ritual of life; when the ritual is done there is no further use for the physical body, so it is discarded.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.