The Daodejing is a foundational text in the Chinese tradition, in large part because its vision of a cosmogony that describes the origins of the world, its vision of a cosmology that describes the functioning of the world, and its vision of a ruler who governs the world, deeply influenced traditional Chinese understandings of each. Relying on the Daodejing text and commentary attributed to Heshang Gong because it is the earliest to have been faithfully transmitted to us today, the present contribution reframes common approaches to this totalizing worldview by situating it in terms of a cosmogonic past, a cosmological present, and a utopian future, with particular emphasis on the latter. This is because the text’s vision of a perfect government depends on and emerges from the cosmogonic and cosmological structures, and its utopian vision always remains futural. However, because its utopian vision is not simply relegated to the human order but rather encompasses a complete synthesis between the human and natural orders, it transcends anything that a one-dimensional approach to a strictly political order can manage. The present contribution examines the processes whereby this utopian order can be realized and its distinctive structures in contrast to those of the cosmogony and cosmology by paying close attention to the Daodejing’s innovative uses of three terms that are often reduced to near misrecognition by traditional and modern commentaries: fa 法 or “modelling,” tong 通 or “penetration,” and ziran 自然 or “spontaneity.”