| roots | pinyin, English |
| 氵昆 | shûi water, kün descendant |
| [jie, single occurrence] | |
| elude all our inquiries | LY |
| unfathomable | W1 |
| indefinable | FE |
| beyoned determination | AH |
| three failed means to knowledge | RP |
| triply undifferentiated | LG |
| need no further inquiry | DC |
| [cannot be] | |
| fathomed | L1 |
| fully grasped | AL |
| fully fathomed | VM |
| ultimately fathomed | CM |
| separated | WO |
| inquire into | C1 |
| examined to the limit | RH |
| made the subject of description | JL |
| further analysed | PC |
| further scrutinized | AW |
| further inquired into | WC |
| perfectly explained | PI |
| unravel | DH |
| completely unraveled | DL |
| investigated with clarity | WW |
| comprehended | EC |
MWD has 'zhìª ji 至計' for line 8.
W1 also renders 'bù kê shí³' (15:04) as 'unfathomable'.
| [hun] | |
| confused and looked upon as one | L1 |
| confused and regarded as one | PI |
| fuse into one | W1 |
| interfuse into one | C1 |
| intermingled they form the One | WO |
| joined in one | FE |
| join to become one | CM |
| blend and become One | LY |
| blend them together and obtain The One | JL |
| blend into one | AW, EC |
| merge into one | WC |
| merge together as one | RH |
| merged into the One | DC |
| merges into oneness | LG |
| bound together to make unity | VM |
| construe it as inseparably one | AH |
| I weave into one | RP |
| combined and conceived as a unity | PC |
| combined into one | DL |
| blurred so utterly they've become one | DH |
| mixed up like rushing water, act as one | WW |
| become one | AL |
MWD-A is missing text for 'er wei yi'.
GR drops the 'er' in line 9, and most of the translators ignore it anyway.
| [hun] | |
| murky | L1, AW, AH, RP |
| impenetrable to the eye | WO |
| opaque | FE, DL |
| lacking clear discriminations | C1 |
| mixing freely | AL, LY [note: "muddled," "mixing freely," therefore "easygoing," "not particular."] |
| mixing and mingling | WW |
| confused | W1, DC |
| merged, undifferentiated | WC, RH |
| muddled | VM |
| dull | JL |
| obscure | PC, CM |
| turbid | PI |
| perfectly shadowy | DH |
| mysterious | LG |
| chaotic | EC |
MWD-B has 'hun-alt he 渾 [muddy, mixed?] 呵' and HSG has 'hun-alt 渾 xi'. MWD-A is missing this text.
AH uses another variant for 'hun'.
| [zhuo, 15:19-20 only occurrences] | |
| muddy water | L1, RH, JL, AH, CM, PI, DL, WW, AL, DC, WC |
| muddy pools | W1, FE |
| murky water | LY, EC, DH |
| troubled waters | PC, LG |
| troubled stream | AW |
| turbid | WO |
| turbid waters | VM |
| impure | C1 |
MWD-B has 'qi-alt 亓 ruo yu 浴 [bathe?]'; MWD-A has missing text before 'ruo yu'.
| confusedly formed | L1 |
| confused yet perfect | PI |
| invariably complete | WO |
| unformed and complete | AL |
| a "gathering" chaos | C1 |
| undefined and complete | JL |
| undefined and yet complete in itself | W1 |
| nebulous | LY |
| nebulous existing | EC |
| mysteriously formed | FE |
| formed out of chaos | RH |
| formed spontaneously | AH |
| formless, complete in itself | JS |
| formless yet complete | AW |
| formlessly created | DL |
| a chaotic formation of matter | DC |
| featureless yet complete | VM |
| Imagine a nebulous thing | RP |
| perfect in its disorder | CM |
| wondrous and complete | PC |
| all murky shadow | DH |
| mingled and ungraspable as bubbling water, and yet complete | WW |
| contains everything | LG |
| undifferentiated and yet complete | WC |
GD has 'you-alt zhuang hun-alt 又狀混 cheng'; MWD has 'kun 昆' for 'hun'. RH does not comment.
AH uses 'hun', on which is commented that the rendition 'chaos' "puts a negative twist on an idea that is basically positive in classical Chinese". RP has standard text.