Line by Line - Verse 25, Line 16

and the (sage) king is also great.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

The king is also great."
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

The sovereign is also great
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

And someone who's in touch with Tao is great, too.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

According to the Chinese text featured in Jonathan Star's book, the operative word for this line is wang. Wang can be defined as king, royalty or the highest aspect of man. Of the translations above, I think Derek Lin captures all three definitions in his word, sovereign.

While the sovereign certainly can allude to a political or religious leader, it can concurrently allude to each of us as well. In a manner of speaking, we each are the sovereign over our own hearts. Consequently, one could certainly view this line as saying that all of us are great and the reason we are great is because of our connection to Tao, heaven, earth and each other.

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