_The Book of the Way_ by LAOZI ```table-of-contents ``` INTRODUCTION ------------ _Moss Roberts_ THE POEMS AND SAYINGS of the mysterious book of wisdom called _Dao De Jing_ have powerfully affected many aspects of Chinese philosophy, culture, and society. In the realm of aesthetics the idea of _Dao_, or the Way, a transcendent natural principle working through all things, has inspired artists and poets who have sought to represent nature in its raw wholeness or have depicted vast landscapes within which human structures and pathways, overwhelmed by mists, mountain faces, and water vistas, hold a tiny and precarious place. With regard to personal spiritual cultivation Daoism offers techniques of concentration and self-control, while in the realm of physiology the Daoist theory of natural cycles points toward systems of internal circulation and techniques of rejuvenation. In its ethical application Daoism teaches self-subordination and frugality and warns of the self-defeating consequences of assertiveness and aggrandizement, whether political, military, or personal. In the realm of governance political theorists influenced by Laozi have advocated humility in leadership and a restrained and concessive approach to statecraft, either for ethical and pacifist reasons or for tactical ends. The well-known line that opens , “Rule a great state as you cook a small fish,” has been used in China and in the West as an argument for a “light touch” in governing: the Way creates sufficient order. In a different political context, one mediated by legalist theories of government, a transcendent Way has served to legitimate state builders in constructing impersonal institutions and formulating all-powerful laws. Indeed the marriage of the Way with law _(fa)_ is one of the earliest transformations and adaptations of Laozi’s thought. On the popular level, by contrast, various anti-authoritarian movements have embraced the _Dao De Jing_’s teachings on the power of the weak. Thus the _Dao De Jing_, in the world of philosophy a small kingdom in its own right, has spawned diverse schools of thought, and these have elaborated upon and spread widely the original teachings—often in ways that might have surprised or distressed their creator. The _Dao De Jing_ has so wide a compass that it is difficult to think of a comparable work in the Western canon. Passages on nature’s patterns of motion and their indifference to man’s purposes may evoke for a Western reader themes and language found in Lucretius and his model, Epicurus. If some stanzas concerning statecraft and tactical maneuver suggest Machiavelli, others suggest Gandhi, who personified in his leadership principled humility, minimal struggle, and simplicity of lifestyle. For some readers Laozi’s aphorisms and resigned reflections on human life may evoke lines in Ecclesiastes or Proverbs. Comparisons have also been made with Thoreau’s warnings about economic overdevelopment and government. With so many English versions of the _Dao De Jing_, why another? There is much of value in most of the English translations, but each is only partially successful. The synergy of the work’s themes as well as the concision of its phrasing make many of its stanzas so ambiguous and suggestive that definitive interpretation, much less translation, has often proved unattainable. Rendering in another language a work that says so much in so few words, and about whose meanings scholars differ greatly, can only be problematic. Even in Chinese, many _Dao De Jing_ passages seem like paintings of striking detail that compel the gaze but always remain partly out of focus. Each translator tries to refine the images or to find fresh language to capture the power of Laozi’s gnomic lines. In the end, however, the only justification I can offer for a new attempt is that it is meant not only to improve but also to be improved upon. The cumulative effect of multiple translations contributes to the understanding of the _Laozi_, just as the ongoing performance tradition of musical works yields new possibilities of expression and appreciation. What this version seeks is, first, to bring out the _Dao De Jing_’s political and polemical purposes by situating it in the context of the philosophical debates that raged from the time of Confucius down to the unification of the empire in 221 B.C. Second, it attempts to reproduce the condensed aphoristic force of Laozi’s style, the appeal of his intriguing and often indeterminate syntax, and the prevalence of rhymed verse in his original. Unlike most translators, I have avoided relying on prose. Third, in the comments and notes to the stanzas I have included material from recently discovered texts—the two Mawangdui versions, which were published in 1973, and the Guodian version, published in 1998. In this way the reader can learn something about the differences between versions of the text and weigh for himself or herself the significance of the variations in wording and, perhaps more importantly, the differences in the actual number and sequence of the stanzas. For example, according to the research of one of the leading contemporary Laozi scholars, Yin Zhenhuan, it is likely that the true number of individual stanzas is not eighty-one but as many as 112, some of which, like passages in the _Analects_, are only four or eight words long. For convenience of reference and for the sake of continuity, however, the traditional order of eighty-one is followed in this translation. Ornaments indicate probable stanza divisions within a conventional stanza. ### TITLES AND TEXTS The title _Dao De Jing_ may be translated “Canonical text _(jing)_ on the Way _(Dao)_ and virtue _(de)_.” But this now-universal title did not become widely used until the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618–905), when Laozi was officially regarded as a divine guardian of the dynasty. _Laozi_ is the older title, going back almost to the creation of the text. Although scholars now generally use the two titles interchangeably, _Dao De Jing_ suggests an established classic in the Chinese philosophical tradition, while _Laozi_ is more modest—“the words of Master Lao,” perhaps. Like the _Mozi_, the _Guanzi_, the _Mencius_, and other titles for writings and records collected under the name of a central figure, _Laozi_ suggests a historical document and its original context rather than a canonical work. To reflect the difference between the two titles, in the present work _Dao De Jing_ is more frequently, albeit not exclusively, used in the introduction, and _Laozi_ in the comments. It is an open question how pleased the self-effacing Laozi would have been to see his little book classified as a _jing_—or for that matter himself as a divinity. The _Dao De Jing_ has come down to us in eighty-one stanzas, a form set slightly before the Christian era began; – constitute the first half, – the second. Although there are several versions, they are not dramatically different from one another. Two of the versions are named after their scholarly annotators, the Heshang gong _Laozi_ and the Wang Bi _Laozi_. A third, the Fu Yi _Laozi_, is named for the Tang-dynasty Daoist scholar who published a text unearthed in A.D. 574 from a Han tomb dating from about 200 B.C. Present-day scholars usually call the current common text the “received text” to distinguish it from recently discovered manuscripts. The first of these new discoveries was made in 1973 at Mawangdui in the tomb of an official’s son; that tomb has been dated to 168 B.C. The Mawangdui _Laozi_ was published in 1976. Inscribed on silk, it consists of two texts, A and B, the former dating from about 205–190 B.C., the latter slightly later. These two texts differ from the received version in significant details, but the only major structural difference is that they begin with chapter 38 and end with chapter 37. In other words, the second half of the text comes before the first. Found together with _Laozi_ A and B was a rich trove of political and cosmological documents that have been called the _Huangdi sijing_, or the _Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor_. The Guodian _Laozi_, inscribed on bamboo slips, was found in 1993 and published in 1998. The text was unearthed from a royal tutor’s tomb at Guodian, near the city of Ying, the capital of the southern kingdom of Chu. This area contains many graves, and fresh discoveries can be expected. Like the Mawangdui _Laozi_, the Guodian _Laozi_ was found as part of a trove of related works of politics and cosmology. All of them are works of established importance and so were probably written well before the time of their burial, approximately 300 B.C. (No complete translation of the accompanying documents has appeared so far.) The Guodian _Laozi_ consists of only about two thousand characters, or 40 percent of the received version, covering in their entirety or in part only thirty-one of the received text’s stanzas. The order of the stanzas is utterly different from any later versions. Moreover, it is yet to be determined whether the Guodian _Laozi_ represents a sample taken from a larger _Laozi_ or is the nucleus of a later five-thousand-character _Laozi_. A current working hypothesis is that the Guodian _Laozi_ should be attributed to Laozi, also called Lao Dan, a contemporary of Confucius who may have outlived him, and that the remainder, the non-Guodian text, was the work of an archivist and dates from around 375 B.C. Let us leave the recent manuscript discoveries and turn to information on the _Dao De Jing_ in texts long available. Most traditional Chinese scholars (and a number of modern ones as well) have held that the _Laozi_ reflects substantially the time of Confucius, that is, the late sixth or early fifth century B.C., acknowledging occasional interpolations to account for anachronistic language suggesting a somewhat later period. Before the Guodian finds, many modern Chinese and Western scholars argued for a date ranging from the early fourth to the late third century B.C. because sightings of a _Laozi_ in Chinese works of the third century B.C. are so fragmentary. One finds lines or partial stanzas, the authorship of which either is not indicated or is attributed to someone named Lao or Lao Dan; but this attribution is not systematic. The _Zhuangzi_, for example, is a Daoist text of the late fourth to early third century B.C. collected under the name of the philosophical recluse Zhuangzi. This work contains several _Dao De Jing_ lines or partial stanzas. Sometimes these are attributed to Lao Dan, yet sometimes these quotations from Lao Dan say things that are not in the _Laozi_, though they are compatible with its ideas. In the _Zhuangzi_ and other contemporary texts we find references to the _Shi_, the Odes (later the _Shijing_), and the _Shu_, the Documents (later the _Shujing_), suggesting that these are titles for bodies of shorter works. But it is only in the _Han Feizi_, a compilation of writings on law and statecraft attributed to diplomat and strategist Han Feizi of the late third century B.C., that references to Laozi’s work suggest a substantial text; that is, the _Han Feizi_ includes some _Dao De Jing_ stanzas that are more or less complete. Han Feizi was influenced by Laozi, and he analyzes a number of stanzas in two of his chapters, “Jie Lao” and “Yu Lao.” Han Feizi’s discussion of , for example, opens the “Jie Lao.” It was the absence of references to a recognizable oeuvre, _Dao De Jing_, prior to the _Han Feizi_ that led many modern scholars, Chinese and Western, to conclude that the work took shape closer to the time of Han Feizi than to the time of Confucius. The Guodian finds of course suggest the opposite. In the Han period (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) the writings attributed to Laozi were referred to as the _Daode_, the _Laozi_, or the _Laozi jing. Dao_ and _de_ refer of course to two of the work’s primary philosophical terms, the former belonging to the cosmic realm, the latter to the human. But _Dao_ and _de_ also refer to the two roughly equal sections of the text as it has come down to us: the _Dao_ stanzas and the _de_ stanzas. The first part of this text (–) begins with a stanza devoted to _Dao;_ the second part (–) begins with a stanza devoted to _de_. According to one recent study, “the present eighty-one chapters were determined around 50 B.C.” in order to make a “perfect number” of nine times nine. The oldest complete _Laozi_, the two Mawangdui texts, dating from about 200 B.C., closely resemble the received version, though neither one has numbered stanzas and both start with the _de_, or second, half (–). Either this was the original order, or the _de_ part became a text before the _Dao_ part. The priority of the _de_ stanzas had been suspected because the “Jie Lao” begins with , and also because Wang Bi’s (A.D. 226–249) edition appends to a lengthy annotation that is virtually an introduction. Against this hypothesis stands the fact that about half of the Guodian _Laozi_ consists of _Dao_ stanzas, half of _de_ stanzas. It is not possible to say when the _Dao_ section was placed before the _de_ section. In his joint biography of Laozi and Han Feizi in the _Shiji_ (_Records of the Historian_, a general history completed about 90 B.C.), renowned Han historian Sima Qian (145–86? B.C.) refers to a five-thousand-word text devoted to the theme of _Daode_. But did Sima Qian see a text with the _Dao_ stanzas coming first, or is he using the terms _Dao_ and _de_ in the order of their importance? _Dao_ is of course the leading term and _de_ must follow in its path; the words are not found transposed. The political philosopher Yan Zun (fl. 53–24 B.C.) used _Daode_ in the title of his commentary _Daode zhigui_, of which only the _de_ section survives. The philosopher Ho Yan (d. 249 A.D.) wrote a _Daode lun_. So the phrase _Daode_ (still today a common term for “morality”) had title status for the text. The present form of the Heshang gong commentary has the _Dao_ stanzas first and seems to have been divided into a _Daojing_ and a _Dejing_, but conjectures on the date of this important early commentary range from the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han (179–156 B.C.) to the fifth century A.D. The equally important Wang Bi (A.D. 226–249) version, _Laozi zhu_ (_zhu_ means annotations), dominant since the Song dynasty, also begins with the _Dao_ stanzas. These two major commentaries, by Heshang gong and by Wang Bi, were attached to _Dao De Jing_ texts and were the principal vehicles for the _Dao De Jing_’s dissemination in China. There are, however, no editions of either commentary early enough to establish the original order of the two parts. It is almost as difficult to say when _jing_ became part of the title. According to a citation in the _Fayuan zhulin_, an early Tang dynasty work, _jing_ (canon, or classic) was probably not added to the title of the _Laozi_ until the reign of the fourth Han emperor, Jing (r. 156–140 B.C.). This source says, with reference to the _Laozi_, simply that a _zi_ (philosophical) text was elevated to _jing_ (canonical) status. It does not mention the title _Dao De Jing_. In Han bibliographies the work is referred to as the _Laozi;_ variants on the title _Laozi jing_ also occur. The title _Dao De Jing_ is said to have been spoken by the third Han emperor, Wen (r. 179–156 B.C.). The source is Ge Hong’s (d. A.D. 341) biography of Heshang gong in the _Shenxian zhuan_. Although probably anachronistic with respect to Emperor Wen, this quote may be the first instance of this form of the title. Mention should be made of two important compendia of Daoist thought that contain many _Dao De Jing_ passages. First is the _Wenzi_, a late Warring States (or possible early Han) text that contains lengthy essays built around formulas of the _Dao De Jing;_ the essays often synthesize Confucian and Daoist terms and concepts. Second is the _Huainanzi_, a collection of essays called _xun_ (teachings) that were profoundly informed by the _Dao De Jing_. These essays cover a wide variety of subjects. This work was sponsored and guided by the prince of Huainan, Liu An (179–122 B.C.). ### CONFUCIUS AND LAOZI The _Dao De Jing_ is the philosophical counterpart—the rival and the complement—to the _Analects_ of Confucius. These two classics are the foundational works of their respective traditions, Daoism and Confucianism, which may be said to constitute the _yin_ and _yang_ of Chinese culture. The _Dao De Jing_ is primarily reflective in nature, while the _Analects_ is more activist. Both works consist of pithy lines mixed in with longer passages, but the _Analects_ is rooted in concrete historical settings and deals with specific persons and problems. In contrast, the _Dao De Jing_ is without obvious historical markers and gives the impression of timeless universality. Beyond saying that these works have been traditionally associated with Confucius and Laozi, and that both works address central themes of a dramatic period of Chinese history (ca. 500–350 B.C.), there has been no scholarly consensus on how to date or even define either one. The _Dao De Jing_ emphasizes the forces of nature and human interaction with them; the _Analects_ emphasizes the social realm alone—human relationships, ethics, and political organization. The former stresses the relation of a transcendent _Dao_ with the totality of its creation; the latter stresses hierarchical relations centering on the parent-child model and the particular obligations within clan and kingdom that are required of each person. For the former the highest authority is a maternal force that creates a gamut of ten thousand phenomena, humans but one among them; the latter honors an ancestral heaven that sanctions patriarchal dominion and elite lineage. The former idealizes the self-effacing leadership of the wise man or sage _(shengren)_, who governs himself and others by keeping to the Way; the latter idealizes the superior man _(junzi)_, a public role model who may advise the patriarch or even serve as a potential ruler in place of an unfit heir. As for religion in the sense of a deity interactive with humans, Laozi ascribes no consciousness to the Way, while Confucius, committed to an exclusive focus on human relations, cautiously advises a follower to respect the gods but keep them at a distance (_Analects_ 6.20), a judicious compromise that the Chinese have by and large adhered to over the millennia. In the West the influence of the _Analects_ has been comparatively weak outside of academic circles, while the _Dao De Jing_ enjoys a considerable public. It is the most popular and most frequently translated work of Chinese thought, with more than forty versions in English alone. This level of foreign interest reflects more than the text’s importance in China. Its themes seem to speak aptly to the modern era, to problems that have festered for generations: economic overdevelopment and war led by those who crave power. But the work also speaks to those searching for a code of life conduct in a society where fundamental values have been degraded. For some, the _Dao De Jing_ has become a cry of reason for our own war-divided world of master builders, militarists, and modernizers. For others, it is a manual for mastering one’s own life by accommodating oneself not to wielded power but to nature or to force of circumstance in the broadest sense. Laozi’s modern appeal may in part explain why the _Dao De Jing_ has become separated from its native contexts and has perhaps been overappropriated by Western readers. And yet, as we proceed to consider its themes and historical setting, we shall see how Western apprehensions of the _Dao De Jing_ have captured elements of its original significance. The Western reading public’s resistance to the _Analects_ may be explained by that text’s emphasis on authority and discipline in its exhortations both regarding the observance of the formalities of speech, dress, and conduct, and regarding the pursuit of learning and self-cultivation for the purpose of public service. The undeniable virtues of Confucian correctness notwithstanding, there is hardly a student of Chinese culture who has not found relief in turning from the _Analects_’ stern tone to the unpredictable stanzas of the _Dao De Jing_ and exploring their varied themes, their ironic, almost modern, inversions, and their imaginative turns of phrase. The _Dao De Jing_ presents a universal cosmic mother to replace the dead hand of paternal ancestral direction. For Laozi the social sphere is a small part of reality. Human authority accordingly is limited and must find its proper—that is, diminished—place in a far vaster context: one he calls the ten thousand things _(wanwu)_, which are subject to the authority of the Way, an authority that subsumes heaven and ancestors. ### CHINA IN LAOZI’S TIME The China of the _Dao De Jing_ was not the single nation we know today. There was no unified territory called China until the last twenty years of the third century B.C. Before Confucius’s time, scores of small and medium-sized kingdoms were spread along the middle and eastern stretches of the Yellow and Huai river valleys. The two greatest of these kingdoms, Chu under the hegemony of Duke Zhuang and Qi under the hegemony of Duke Huan, annexed smaller kingdoms by the score and opened new land to cultivation, a process of expansion and amalgamation that continued down to the unification in 221 B.C. These kingdoms of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. recognized diplomatic and ritual obligations to a small kingdom called Zhou, situated near present-day Luoyang, which purported to be the heir of the great Zhou dynasty, founded in the mid-eleventh century B.C. The socket of the wheel, so to speak—the empty center—was the royal Zhou ruler, the son of heaven (_tianzi; tian_ meaning heaven), who conferred legitimacy on regional princes, kings, and lords and their acts, including their choice of heir, but who was rarely able to impose his will on their kingdoms unless a stronger kingdom was backing him. He stood for a symbolic rather than an actual unity of the _tianxia_, the realm under heaven. Above the son of heaven stood (or rather, walked) heaven itself, a kind of paternal oversoul whose mandate _(ming)_ legitimated the rule of its “son” over the realm. Heaven comprised ancestral authority of three kinds: the immediate ancestors of the son of heaven, the founders of earlier ruling lineages, and the even more remote culture heroes (or founding fathers) of the entire civilization, such as Shen Nong, Yao, Shun, and the Yellow Emperor. By the time of Confucius the various kingdoms had been waging many-sided wars for generations, one kingdom devouring and then absorbing another only to be itself devoured by a third power. In the period after Confucius’s death in 479 B.C. new concepts and patterns of organization slowly formed and the Zhou order continued to weaken. During the decades preceding the era of Mencius (372?–289? B.C.), the philosopher who sought Confucius’s mantle, the ongoing process of conquest and absorption had reduced the overall number of kingdoms, while the size and economic power of the surviving kingdoms increased. Traditionally, the era of Confucius has been called the last phase of the Spring and Autumn period, referring to the ceremonial (calendrical) authority of the royal Zhou house, while the subsequent era, the period after Confucius, has been called the Warring States period, indicating that the remaining kingdoms were increasingly independent of the Zhou son of heaven. Yet the aspiration for some unifying principle higher than the individual kingdoms remained. None of the powerful kingdoms lost sight of the goal of bringing the entire _tianxia_, the realm under heaven, under its rule. The _Dao De Jing_, some of whose stanzas speak of “capturing” the realm under heaven, has traditionally been dated to the transition from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period. The period between Confucius and Mencius was a time marked by round-robin crises driven by three salient factors: serial inter-kingdom wars; accelerating economic, commercial, and technological development based on improved farming and the expansion of arable land; and political instability inside the kingdoms due to succession struggles and rising non-noble factions. These developments produced new theories of governing and state organization. Confucians, Daoists, Mohists, and Legalists—to name the principal schools—struggled to answer the problems forced into the open as the rule of Zhou weakened and the warring kingdoms grew to maturity. Initially in competition with each other, these schools increasingly tended to borrow from and even combine with one another as the process of territorial amalgamation went on and the prospect of unification loomed on the horizon. In the philosophical competition among rival schools the _Dao De Jing_ was a pivotal work of criticism and creativity. It rejected key Confucian and Mohist doctrines and at the same time opened the way for new philosophical syntheses. Penetrating and unsparing, the _Dao De Jing_ transformed the terms of debate and inspired a spectrum of new ethical, political, and cosmological formulations. Its ideas could be opposed or co-opted, but they could not be ignored. To give a single example, when Laozi developed the concept of the ten thousand things, he endowed each of them with an independent identity and life momentum and freed them from any identity other than their common parentage in the Way. Guided only by their own inner momentum, the ten thousand things exist outside of the conventional network of social relationships and responsibilities, the sphere that the key Confucian terms _li_, ritual, and _yi_, obligation, roughly cover. The ten thousand are not even beholden to the Way, the mother that gave them life (), for what mother could properly attend to so vast a brood? Cast into life, any one of the ten thousand is as good as any other. There is no elite component. The indifferent Way has no career ambition for any of them. Human beings are among them, but are not preeminent. Having pursued their own natures (_ziran_, self-becoming, or what is so of itself), their seasonal cycle of life complete, they return to the Way. They do not exist to serve human ends or the developing economies of the expanding states. The independence of the phenomena is expressed through the word _zi_, self, a term that figures in the _Analects_ in only a minor way. _Zi_ may be thought of as the “self” of an objective entity (see the motif word “themselves” in ). It is quite different from the Confucian term for self, _shen_, which in addition to the physical self existing in space and time also means character and social identity, thus a purely subjective kind of force to be exerted on others or on things. For Laozi, _zi_ is the self as an individuated, objective other: to be viewed but not altered ( and ). For the Confucians, _shen_ is the self as a social instrument for molding the other in order to suit itself. In the fourth century B.C. the Confucians added the word _xing_ (human nature common to all) to their lexicon to counter the concept of _wanwu_ because they needed to make their concept of the self universal and objective while keeping it distinct from the more biological ten thousand things. By making the self of all things objective and independent Laozi broke through the confining categories of Confucian thought: paternal authority, ancestor worship, and inherited privilege—categories that created a nexus of social roles and rules on which depended each person’s being and consciousness. Subordinating these categories to the Way, Laozi dramatically widened the view and prepared the way for other transcendent concepts. One such concept was law _(fa)_, to which was subordinated the clan as well as the subjective judgment of its patriarch; another was receptivity or emptiness _(xu)_, which suggests open-mindedness, receptivity to differing or conflicting views. Receptivity is how the Daoists view _(guan)_ the ten thousand without discrimination, with an emphasis on their collective welfare, not their usefulness to human beings. The oft-quoted summary of Laozi’s thought found in the second Daoist classic, the _Zhuangzi_, says, “Gentle and yielding, modest and deferential—this was what he stood for; and with his openness and receptivity he never injured the ten thousand things—this was his actual practice.” In the view of the _Dao De Jing_ the wise have _ming_ (insight or clarity of vision), which makes possible their appreciation of _Dao_ and how it moves the ten thousand things (). Laozi values _ming_ but rejects _zhi_, a word covering intellect, knowledge, expertise, and sophistry. To Daoists _ming_ is the power of the natural mind, while _zhi_ refers to educated and hence artificial judgment (). Confucians, however, value _zhi_ over _ming_. In the _Analects, zhi_ is an all-important term, _ming_ an unimportant one. In the Guodian Confucian text _Wuxing_ (Five categories of conduct) clarity of vision _(ming)_ is a lesser faculty that leads to educated judgment _(zhi)_ concerning men and affairs. Opposed to favoritism in political practice and subjectivism in human thought, Laozi’s liberating, all-inclusive vision also facilitated the development of philosophical tolerance and syncretism. In the second chapter of the _Zhuangzi_ we find the concept of _qiwu_, treating all things equally by acknowledging the relativity of their qualities. Using _qi_ to develop the idea of receptivity, Zhuangists advocated impartiality among diverse schools of thought, stressing the limitations of each and looking toward the accommodation of antithetical doctrines in a comprehensive argument. This same _Zhuangzi_ chapter uses _ming_ to denote a perspective from which opposites are reconciled and transcended. This tendency to embrace all sides became common in the philosophy of the late Warring States period (late fourth to late third centuries B.C.), as more complex governing systems promoted inclusive philosophical syntheses. Thus Laozi’s critique of state development ideology paradoxically led to a higher stage of state development ideology. Put another way, the _Dao De Jing_ exposed the limitations of Confucian and Mohist formulations but at the same time served as a bridge to various recombinations of the elements of Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist thought. The creative application of Daoist thought to questions of law, institutional governance, and statecraft is a prominent feature of the writings collected under the names Guanzi (late fourth to early third centuries B.C.), Xunzi (mid third century B.C.), and Han Feizi (mid to late third century B.C.). Laozi might have despaired over history’s cunning, but he would have understood it. Legalism and unification were not the future he envisioned for the kingdoms of the Chinese cultural area. Perhaps the most telling revision of Laozi’s thought may be the phrase “All ten thousand things take the number one as their ancestor.” This formulation from the _Guanzi_ chapter “Zheng” (Correct rule) reestablishes patriarchal (and masculine) authority over the ten thousand but on an abstract level and with a clear reference to law: Legalists used the number one _(yi)_ to underline the idea of law’s uniform application to all social strata. ### CONFUCIANS, DAOISTS, AND HEREDITY Conflict over succession was the driving force of the many-sided transgenerational civil wars of the late Spring and Autumn and the Warring States eras. Unstable inheritance patterns—who rules after the king dies?—was the critical problem that no Warring States thinker was able to master. Nearly every death of a ruler ignited a power struggle among the sons of his principal and secondary wives, and often among his brothers or even his nephews. A contender in one kingdom might seek support in a neighboring kingdom, whose intervention usually only widened the crisis. In other cases the pattern was reversed: the ruler of one kingdom, in expectation of future favors, might support a contender in a neighboring kingdom, thus instigating or intensifying the internal conflict there. The spiraling conflicts spread destruction down to the time of unification. The people of China have accepted unification (and often its counterpart, conformism) and have cherished unity ever since, in large part because of their anxiety over a divided territory and the concomitant experience of civil war. Stable central authority, when local officers answered to the center and not to the local clans, meant stable regions. But that was a China yet to come. The Confucians recognized the seriousness of the succession problem, but they tolerated it. Hostile to law as the source of governmental authority lest it challenge the hereditary structure of noble rule itself, they strove only to convince the hereditary rulers to recruit fresh talent without consideration of birth, that is, to open family-based government to outsiders whom Confucius and his disciples were educating (precisely) for state service. They believed that an elite thus reformed and invigorated would enable the nobles to rule rightly as well as rightfully and would enable them to ensure the continuity of their rule and the attendant values of filial piety and generational continuity. The Confucians called the new elites they were cultivating _junzi_, royal sons or true princes—men fit to succeed a king because their learning _(xue)_ and virtue _(de)_, if not their birth, qualified them to serve as role models for other officials and members of society. This artificial creation of ideal noblemen to fill the many new functions in the developing kingdoms was the goal of Confucius’s education program. However, Confucius was conservative, in that for him the technological and bureaucratic issues were always subordinate to the social and ethical ones. He meant for his students to serve the ruler filially and to urge the ruler to treat the people as if they were his own children, avoiding war and economic disruption and educating them morally and technically. He also placed the burden of ensuring social order on the rulers, as if they were the fathers of their kingdoms. Confucius intended to use the family as the vital core of a meta-family of _junzi_ serving the new expanding state. This is why he sought to preserve filial piety and hereditary succession within the kingdoms as the keys to political order. The choice of the term _junzi_ for the new elite shows that Confucius was intent on remedying the problem of the defective heir and protecting the throne from the contest among the heirs to succeed the king. The Mohists boldly veered away from the Confucians. Making an argument Socrates might have approved of, they held that ruling family interests hampered the development of the objective independent state, and so they cut the Gordian knot to separate _guo_ from _jia_—state from family, kingdom from clan. One of their main slogans, “promote the worthy,” was in effect a call for a ban on family preference in appointments to office. Mohists demanded that only the worthy and able should assume official position. Laozi probably knew of the Mohist critique, since he quotes the slogan in . Both the Confucians and the Mohists were progressive state builders. Through practical and moral education they sought to develop a cadre of administrative and technical experts qualified to serve in an increasingly complex state. Laozi opposed both the Confucians and the Mohists. He looked upon economic development, new inventions, increased commerce, state building, and the recruitment of experts as destructive progress. He saw the close connection between modernization and war. He sought to return to an ancient era of content and to guide people toward a life of extreme simplicity: “Plain appearance, humble habits, / Owning little, craving less” (). This autarkic utopia is described in some detail in : let the kingdom be small and its people few. Perhaps the “small kingdom stanza” affords a glimpse of the imperiled world to which Laozi belonged and in which he played an important part. According to Laozi’s biography in the _Shiji_, he served in the royal court of the Zhou son of heaven as an archivist and historian. And the Zhou, itself a small kingdom—a sort of Vatican perhaps—may have been looked to by other threatened kingdoms as the last hope for protection from the aggressions of the greater kingdoms. “The greater kingdoms loathe having a son of heaven” the Han king was advised at a conference of kings in 344 B.C. “Only the smaller kingdoms benefit from it. If Your Highness and the greater powers would simply ignore King Hui \[of Wei\], he and the smaller kingdoms will never be able to bring back the son of heaven.” Laozi’s biography goes on to say that he left his position as archivist because of the “decline of Zhou.” Laozi undoubtedly knew that his small utopia was unrealistic. But imagining it may have helped him to formulate other elements of his political philosophy, at the center of which is the _shengren_, a retiring sage, a wise man, who leads by staying behind, by enabling rather than visibly directing others. The emphasis on the ear in the graph for _shengren_ suggests passivity: a good listener and someone to listen to as well. He receives and reacts. He is sometimes represented by the first person pronoun, _wu_ or _wo_, suggesting an independent figure with no family ties except to the Way. The sage of the _Dao De Jing_ has no institutional or legal context and no history. His authority is based on no lineal transmission from the past, nor can it be inherited by a future generation. Alone with the maternal Way, the sage is childlike, never a father. Whether ruler or minister (it is never clear), he undergoverns, avoids exerting influence the better to allow all to realize their inner potential, their unconditioned self-becoming _(ziran)_, with no filial obligation to him or the Way. He rules a great kingdom as one cooks a small fish, hardly touching it. Laozi’s liberating vision is the reverse of paternalistic socialization based on the power of the manifest personal example of an educated elite. In _Analects_ 12.19 Confucius says, “The virtue of the true prince _(junzi)_ is like the wind that bends lesser men below as if they were grass.” Laozi’s sage is positioned below, near mother earth, not above. He seeks diversity not conformity. Child of the mother, man of the Way, the _shengren_ despises “name,” distinction and distinctions, and all forms of hierarchy. His powers _(de)_ are within, depending on nothing external except the Way. Those he rules are his guests, not his subjects (). He cares as much for the hopeless as for the elite (). His self-mastery and insight win the trust of all. However, no _shengren_ is ever named, no model ever cited. The _shengren_ has no father or sons, genetic or spiritual. He has no ruler-vassal _(jun-chen)_ relationships just as he has no father-son _(fu-zi)_ relationships, the dual bond at the core of the Confucian conception of governing (_Analects_ 12.11). About two centuries after Confucius’s time, Mencius denounced the Daoist Yang Zhu for recognizing no ruler and Mozi for recognizing no father—two denials of authority that left humans in a state of nature, like “wild beasts” (_Mencius_ 3B.9). For Laozi the ten thousand come from the Way, not from the previous generation. Everything the Way creates returns to the Way; the Way then creates the next generation anew (). Subsuming all ancestry, the Way operates not in socially constructed, generational time, but in cyclical or biological time. Thus the political and cosmological aspects of the concept _Dao_ converge. ### TERMS OF THE _DAO DE JING: DE, DAO, TIAN_ _De_, conventionally translated “virtue” or “power,” refers to how the Way functions (literally, walks) in the visible world. “Moral authority” is probably the closest modern English equivalent to _de_. The graph for _de_ consists of three elements: walking legs on the left and on the right “mind” under “straight, go straight.” Closely related to another _de_ (meaning attain, obtain), _de_\-virtue means the inner power to reach a result or affect a situation: charisma or dynamism, usually of a moral kind. _De_ can also refer to the potency of medicinal herbs, which is also an older sense of the English word “virtue.” Translators tend to prefer “virtue” as the translation for _de;_ “power” is the second choice; “potency” has also been used. Generally, translators intend the original, active sense of “virtue,” meaning manly, virile, derived from the Latin _vir_, and not the word’s more recent, passive sense of avoiding wrongdoing or preserving feminine chastity. Perhaps it was to prevent this confusion that the translator Arthur Waley chose “power” for _de_. In the _Dao De Jing_ the meaning of “virtue” depends on the meaning of _Dao_, the other half of the binary. _Dao_ is not a mysterious or metaphysical word. It commonly means roadway and by extension, method, and in philosophy, the path or teachings (or truths) that followers of a particular school adhere to. The _Dao De Jing_ universalizes these definitions of _Dao_ to the general truth that there is a course all things follow and a force that guides them on it. Laozi thus redefined and transformed the term for all time. Perhaps this was the defining moment in philosophy that divides the concepts of the Spring and Autumn era from Warring States thought, the moment when history (political and ancestral), social ethics, and personal cultivation were subordinated to a metaphysical conception framed by a pair of transcendent terms: “the Way” and “the ten thousand.” The components of the graph for _Dao_—advancing footsteps to the left of _shou_ (head)—visually suggests “chief agency” or “moving first mover.” Whether _Dao_ is common or transcendent, something to walk upon or something higher than heaven itself—or both—is an ambiguity that informs the _Dao De Jing. Dao_ and _de_ are highlighted as a walking pair in the opening lines of , in which _de_ is described as attending or serving _(cong)_ the Way—but in easy companionship _(cong-rong)_, not as master and vassal (alone, _cong_ means walking behind). For the Confucians _tian_ (heaven) was more a social and patriarchal concept than a concept about nature. They understood _tian_ in relation to two other terms, _de_ (virtue) and _ming_ (mandate). _De_ and _tian_ (virtue and heaven) formed the cardinal relation, a kind of religious sublimation of father and son. In the Zhou period political power was rationalized in terms of a mandate that heaven bestowed on a ruler because he had manifested virtue. The name for the construct that legitimated political power was _tianming_ (heaven’s mandate). These three concepts, _tian, de_, and _ming_, are central to the political thought of the texts in the Confucian canon. _Analects_ 2.1 says, “Government by virtue is like the polar star to whose fixed seat the multitude of stars turn in homage.” In the same way the king’s virtue must strive to attract and hold the mandate because, according to the ode “King Wen,” heaven’s mandate is not constant: it rests with the virtuous while they remain virtuous and departs when they do evil. The magnetism of the ruler’s virtue will draw widening circles of domains and their peoples into his orbit. King Wen, founder of the Zhou house in the mid-eleventh century B.C., “succeeded by letting his virtue shine . . . and heaven gave its great mandate to King Wen.” The connection between virtue and light from the sky is often made in these writings. The ode “Shimai” says of another Zhou founder, King Wu, “May the dawning heaven above regard him as its son.” Throughout China’s history this bond between heaven and virtue, the key to the concept of legitimacy, was in the end no more than a heightened and idealized form of the father-son relation. Confucius’s “Heaven has given birth to the virtue in me” (_Analects_ 7.22) moved the concept of virtue away from hereditary elitism toward a common human potentiality. Laozi delinked virtue from a masculine heaven and reconnected it to the Way, forming a new parent-child relation and leaving heaven free to enter into new relationships—with earth, with the Way—or to remain single and independent. The Chinese imagined their ancestors and culture heroes as sky walkers—planets and stars pacing the void. It was but a small step from the progenitors overhead to heaven itself as progenitor. Hence the verb “to give birth” _(sheng)_ commonly follows “heaven,” as it does “the Way.” But Laozi’s _Dao_ vastly surpasses heaven in procreative capacity, bearing a full panoply of ten thousand, not just a few special heroes and ancestors. Moreover, maternal parentage is lowly, not prestigious—a reminder to all that they share humble origins with the ten thousand. As says, all existence comes from negation, or, in social terms, from a nonentity _(wu)_. The denial of heredity, the perpetual renewal of existence _ab ovo_, is why the _Dao De Jing_ changes the unit of time measure from generation to season. History becomes nonchronological; it is an ever-present antiquity. As Laozi rejects paternal guidance and heaven’s authority, he also turns away from Confucian history grandly conceived as a descending procession of fathers and kings who empower the living generation with their legacy of virtue. Hereditary time is time structured in generational tiers: Confucian time, historical time, heavenly time, calendrical time. _Dao_ time is seasonal and cyclical, collapsed into the dead and the living, and so past generations cannot reach across the limit of their life spans to affect the living generations, who have unmediated access to the Way. “\[T\]he ghosts of the dead shall have no force” (). Having no parent, the Way is not parental and expects no ritual offering from its offspring. They have no debt to repay to a _Dao_ that did them no favor in creating them. Neither does the Way reward or punish. “Heaven and earth refuse kin-kindness: / Treating all things as dogs of straw” (). The Way is thus a concept devised to oppose and subordinate the traditional concept of a heaven reciprocally engaged with authorized descendants or, more broadly, with human affairs. As a graph _Dao_ strikingly reconfigures the same two elements that constitute _tian_ (heaven). “Heaven” is written with human legs, shortened arms, and an emphasized head. The head is represented by a flat line in modern graphs but by a circle in earlier forms. _Dao_ consists of the same two elements: walking legs on the left, head on the right (not as a round skull but rather metonymically by _shou_, an eye under an eyebrow). Thus _Dao_ may be thought of as a graphic synonym for heaven but in a form that somewhat conceals the anthropomorphism. The Chinese words for Great One _(taiyi)_ are also a deconstruction of the graph for heaven into two sequent graphs. Another head-and-legs word, _gui_ (human ghost), is represented by an enlarged head or mask over walking legs. The Way subsumes both heaven and ghosts. The semantically charged graph for _Dao_ has had a certain mystic power in Chinese and Japanese culture. For example, it is the _to_ in _Shinto_, the Way of the Gods. Laozi’s _Dao_ transcends visible heaven itself. It is unseen and unnamed—a modest, retiring female, unmarried. The virtue that accompanies it is dark _(xuan)_, not shining _(ming)_ like light from the sky (, , ). Laozi challenged the basic Confucian term _mingde_ (illuminating virtue) with a hidden virtue that follows the Way alone. Unlike the Confucian heaven crowded with deceased male progenitors real and mythic, the Way keeps in the background, hosts no visible bodies, no celebrities, boasts no names. As a graph, _nü_, “woman,” shows a bent back and legs crossed in a half-bowing posture of service and subordination. The word for mother _(mu)_ is an enlargement of the same graph. Herself invisible, inaudible, and intangible (), she shares her graph with a form of the _wu_, what is not. In _Dao_ the _yin_ principle is stronger than the _yang_. Spatially _Dao_ encompasses the opposites heaven and earth. Temporally it connects the categories negation and existence. The flat line, the number one _(yi)_, serves as a kind of boundary between the opposites: the horizon dividing heaven and earth and also the boundary line between _wu_ and _you_. The Daoists were thus creating a new philosophical language. In every kingdom of the realm ministers, stewards, and lesser lords were overthrowing their traditional clan leaders and taking power for themselves. Usurpation from below was the order of the day. This ongoing brutal process of subversion, reorganization, invasion, annexation, and expansion characterized the world that the author of the _Dao De Jing_ bore witness to and that he turned against in a prophetic manner. The New Testament sought to remake a covenant from the breakdown of the Old Testament covenant. In a comparable way the _Dao De Jing_ sought to redefine philosophically and even philologically a new ultimate authority by recombining the elements, literally the pieces, of an older, ruined one. DAO DE JING ----------- ### STANZA 1 1 The Way as “way” bespeaks no common lasting Way, 2 The name as “name” no common lasting name. 3 Absent is the name for sky and land’s first life, 4 Present for the mother of all ten thousand things. 5 Desire ever-absent: 6 Behold the seed germs of all things; 7 Desire ever-present: 8 Behold their every finite course. 9 Forth together come the two 10 As one and the same 11 But differ in name. 12 As one, a dark recess 13 That probed recedes 14 Past that portal whence 15 The milling seed germs teem. COMMENT Laozi opens with a creation myth. _Dao_, a single mother, source of all life, is juxtaposed to its creation, the ten thousand things. Measured against _Dao_’s fecundity, what ancestor, what male dynastic founder, can compare? Sky and land _(tiandi)_ themselves are an intermediate creation, serving the Way as a framework that imparts form and name, and thus duality, on all things as they are produced. The ten thousand move between two poles: negation and existence, unity and division, potentiality and actuality. The Way describes a recurring circular or continuous S-shaped process that must return to its starting point before beginning again: “\[A\]ll living forms . . . go round home again” (); “\[t\]he Way moves on by contra-motion” (). There is no human role at the level of the Way’s creative power, neither for the living nor for their ancestors or the ancient god-kings. _Dao_ is _chang_ (everlasting, constant, common to the ten thousand): it is now as it ever has been, with no duality in itself, no historical aspect, and no ancestor or descendant. The concept of _Dao_ denies paternal lineage, the foundation of hereditary privilege. The Way’s ten thousand progeny—human beings among them—share a common birth mother and a common, humble, and anonymous status. They are nonentities produced of negation (). By contrast, consider the classic Confucian formula: “Heaven gives birth to the hundred phenomena; among them humankind is noblest.” Transcendent and also immanent, _Dao_ resembles time or nature and is thus different from but not superior to its creation. In some contexts the Way seems indistinguishable from the ten thousand. The commentary by Heshang gong explains “common lasting Way” as nature _(ziran)_, and its negation, “no common lasting way” _(fei chang Dao)_ as the political rule of one era or another, that is, social constructs that time will alter. This reading is confirmed by a line in the Guodian text titled _Xing zi ming chu_ (Human nature proceeds from the mandate), which says that only the “human Way” is definable. The contemporary scholar Zhang Songru sees in this stanza a possible analogy to the atomic theories of Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. Laozi’s imagery, however, belongs more to the realm of biology than to physics. The “seed germs” _(miao)_ are fertile germ cells, not Lucretius’s genderless atoms streaming slantwise through space. Nonetheless, since the antecedents of Laozi’s vision are not easily found in other Chinese writings, a remote and indirect influence from the Greeks should not be absolutely excluded, especially since a possible transliteration of _ambrotos_, meaning immortal, appears in . This stanza introduces most of the key terms that recur throughout the work: _you_ (what is present, manifest, becoming; as a verb: to have), _wu_ (what is absent, unmanifest, negation; as a verb: to not have), _tong_ (as one, unity), _liang_ (two, dual), _Dao_ (Way, driving force, common path), _ming_ (name, definition), _xuan_ (mysterious, unseen, withdrawn, deep and dark as heaven at night, sublime; as a verb: to explore a recess), _wanwu_ (_wan_, ten thousand, myriad; _wu_, figured things, _visibilium omnium_), and _chang_ (common, lasting, regularly recurring, ever-present). Judging from both the text found at Mawangdui (the earliest complete text of the _Laozi_ found so far) and the partial Guodian text, the term _chang_ in this stanza was originally _heng_, a synonym of _chang. Heng_ is also the name of a hexagram in the _Yijing_, or _Book of Changes_, where it stands for renewal after return to the origin, hence, circular movement. The term _tong_ (one and the same) has implications often passed over, namely, that there is an underlying identity among all things arising from their common ancestry in _Dao;_ furthermore, _Dao_ itself is ultimately identical with its creation, thus denying the subordination of junior to senior, child to parent, creature to creator. As says, “The Way wins the name of humble and low.” For further discussion of the relation of _Dao_ to the ten thousand in terms of the tension between transcendence and immanence see and . In line 3 the received texts read _tiandi_ (heaven and earth), translated here as “sky and land,” but the Mawangdui texts have _wanwu_ (the ten thousand things). “Ten thousand things” seems to resonate with the term “seed germs” _(miao)_ in lines 6 and 15. The pairing of sky/land and absent/present fits the theme of emerging duality in this stanza and also in . ### STANZA 2 1 In every fair the world considers fair 2 There’s foul; 3 In every good the world considers good 4 There’s ill. 5 For what is what is not yields, 6 And the harder the easier consummates; 7 The long the short decides, 8 And higher lower measures; 9 Bronze gongs jade chimes join, 10 And former latter sequence form, 11 Ever round, and round again. 12 This is why the man of wisdom 13 Concerns himself with under-acting 14 And applies the lesson 15 Of the word unspoken, 16 That all ten thousand may come forth 17 Without his direction, 18 Live through their lives 19 Without his possession, 20 And act of themselves 21 Unbeholden to him. 22 To the work he completes 23 He lays down no claim. 24 And this has everything to do 25 With why his claim holds always true. COMMENT sets the stage for the appearance of duality, the twins born of a prior, nameless unity. The second stanza begins with the world below _(tianxia)_, where human beings create duality through knowledge and language: naming and judging, comparing and contrasting, the ten thousand. Another of the Guodian texts says, “There is human nature, there is knowledge; and then good and bad arise.” The opposites interact, complementing each other as much as they conflict. Note that is not in the Guodian text, while is. Dualism as a theme may be connected with warfare. Sunzi’s _Art of War (Bingfa)_ names some thirty pairs of warring opposites. In the chapter “Attack with Fire” (“Huogong”) Sunzi writes, “Anger can be turned back to delight, and resentment to good feeling, but a fallen kingdom cannot be brought back into existence nor the dead brought back to life.” From the military strategist’s narrow, purposive angle, opposition is to be exploited for an end. From Laozi’s wider angle of time and nature, duality is a constant process that brings things round and round, as lines 5–11 suggest. The sage observes but does not intervene or try to exploit the process. Lines 1–2 seem to suggest that foul and fair are a twin presence, not that one resulted from or led to the other. “Forth together come the two / As one and the same / But differ in name” (). The world of dualities is the world of forms and sounds that people sense and name, but it originates in something formless and soundless. Unlike the activist Confucian leader, who tries by his example to shape people and events within his sphere, Laozi’s _shengren_, who is both a ruler and a sage, observes the interacting forms and then steps back to let events take their course and fulfill their hidden potential for reversal. The listener-sage is attentive, as the prominence of the ear in the graph for “sage” suggests. He makes no judgments, neither accepting the good and the beautiful nor rejecting the bad and the ugly. In the Mawangdui text _Cheng_ (Weighing factors) speech is classified as a _yang_ function, silence as a _yin_ function. Duality is the precondition for the term _wuwei_, a motif of the _Dao De Jing_. Translated as “under-acting” in line 13 of this stanza, _wuwei_ in other stanzas is translated as “under-govern,” “without leading,” “not striving,” “pursue no end.” The negative _wu_ (to be absent) in texts of this period sometimes interchanges with the negative imperative _wu_, which corresponds to “for” in the sense of “refrain from” in such words as “forbear,” “forsake,” and “forbid.” Movement is implicit in the term _wei_, which means not only action and reaction but also conducting and leading forward; its earliest graph depicts a hand guiding an animal. In the Guodian text follows and precedes . also deals with opposites. Lines 18–19 are not found in either the Guodian or the Mawangdui texts; they appear in the Wang Bi and Heshang gong texts, however. Perhaps the lines were added as a reference to . ### STANZA 3 1 Do not promote those who excel 2 And folk will have no cause to quarrel. 3 Prize not goods too hard to find 4 And people won’t be turned to crime. 5 These objects of desire unviewed, 6 The people’s thoughts remain subdued. 7 Thus under a wise man’s rule 8 Blank are their minds 9 But full their bellies, 10 Meek their wills 11 But tough their bones. 12 He keeps the folk 13 From knowing and craving, 14 And the intellects 15 From daring to lead. 16 By acting himself without taking the lead 17 Inside his kingdom all is well ruled. COMMENT The slogan “promote those who excel” _(shangxian)_ comes from Mozi, who urged the appointment of able commoners to government office in preference to nobles and royal kinsmen. Commoners would be rewarded for their knowledge and expertise, both technical and administrative. Laozi opposed this type of state activism _(wei)_. In his view this recruiting policy in the service of state building would only hasten the kingdoms along the path toward modernization and war, taking the common people farther and farther away from the simple life that Laozi thinks they once enjoyed. An important thinker of the generation after Confucius, Mozi broke with the Confucians and formed his own school. Opposed to Confucius’s more cautious inclusion of the able among the noble, Mozi advocated an aggressive plan: to empower a new class of educated elites with high salaries and thus bind their loyalty to the ruler and give him leverage over the traditional nobles. The presence of the slogan “promote those who excel” in the _Laozi_ has long been given as a reason for dating Laozi after Mozi. However, since this stanza is not found in the Guodian set of stanzas and may therefore postdate the Guodian text, its quoting of a Mozi slogan is likely. From the angle of politics and economics, Laozi opposed the policy of promoting the able because he wanted to simplify government, not develop it, and because he opposed the use of wealth—and the increased consumption it implies—as an incentive. A striking development of elite recruitment in post-Laozi Daoist political thought is found in the _Guanzi_, a syncretic text of the fourth-to-third centuries B.C. That text recommends to the rulers of Qi: “To put aside the self and establish the public good—can \[the ruler\] recruit the right men? To preside over state administration and appoint commoners to office—can \[the ruler\] place his own person last?” This passage from the chapter “Zheng” (Correct rule) shows Laozi’s philosophical influence. The ruler is selfless, nonassertive, determined on strengthening the state by recruiting the able. For Heshang gong, political order is dependent on and secondary to the ruler’s personal discipline and spiritual cultivation, and his commentary on this stanza (referring to lines 1, 3, and 5) emphasizes that self-discipline: “For the sage, governing the kingdom is no different from governing the person.” The extent to which “those who excel” became an elite intellectual force is suggested by the Later Han author Wang Chong: “In the time of the six kingdoms \[late fourth to mid third century B.C.\] if talented ministers entered the service of Chu kingdom, its weight increased; if they departed from Qi, that kingdom’s weight was reduced; if they worked for Zhao, Zhao was kept whole; if they turned against Wei, Wei suffered. . . .” So also, Mencius speaks of the renowned traveling political counselor Zhang Yi as “striking fear in the feudal lords with a single moment of rage, calming the realm when calm himself.” These are the “intellects” whom Laozi opposes. In the “Jiudi” (Nine terrains) chapter of Sunzi’s _Art of War_ the relationship of the commander to the troops is couched in terms similar to the description of the relationship between the wise and those they govern in this stanza: “\[The commander\] must be able to make stupid the eyes and ears of his troops . . . driving them like a herd of sheep, back and forth, not a one knowing where he is headed.” ### STANZA 4 1 Ever void, _Dao_ provides 2 But does not fill. 3 To a welling font akin, 4 The living myriad’s sacred source 5 Is like the darkness of the deep; 6 There its living presence bides. 7 Child of whom I cannot tell, 8 Liken it to the ancestor of ancestors. COMMENT Laozi returns to the term _Dao_ and the genesis theme of , introducing water as a metaphor for _Dao_. Often associated with the _yin_ principle, water is soft, low, useful, life-giving, ever-present, common, indefinable, and vast. _Dao_’s creative power is likened to a well without limit; _Dao_ always remains empty because it is not subject to the oscillations (between full and empty) of duality. The source of everything, _Dao_ comes from nothing; it is an orphan. Known human ancestry is limited to a succession of likenesses, a genealogy stretching back to a named clan founder. _Dao_ as orphan is a prime progenitor, an ancestor more ancient and venerable than any other. In it all hierarchies of historical time collapse. The structural problem of this stanza is whether or not to include the four triplet phrases found after line 4 in most translations. The four phrases appear in non-Guodian , where they seem to fit in smoothly with the context of engaging the world. In the abstract and mythical context of , however, they seem to interrupt the logic of the stanza. Gu Li excises them; Chen Guying and Gao Heng bracket them; Zhang Songru keeps them. In the present translation the four phrases are translated only in : “They dull their keen edge and / Resolve their differences, / Reconcile the points of view / And blend with the lowly dust.” is not in the Guodian text of the _Laozi_. ### STANZA 5 1 Heaven and earth refuse kin-kindness: 2 Treating all things as dogs of straw. 3 Wise rulers too refuse kin-kindness: 4 Taking gentlefolk as dogs of straw. 5 The space that heaven and earth frame 6 Works like a kiln-bellows and airpipes, 7 Which though emptying is not exhausted, 8 And activated, pours more forth. 9 A ruler’s swiftly spent who speaks too much; 10 Better for him to guard his inner state. COMMENT _Ren_, “kin-kindness,” is the primary value for the Confucians: it justifies the family-state as a governmental ideal. _Ren_ refers to the proper affection due to the various family members but is then extended to non-family members as if they were family; hence the word is often translated as “humane” or “humanity.” The biological family, however, is always the starting point. Since these first four lines are not in the Guodian text, many scholars now maintain that the criticism of _ren_ is more characteristic of the non-Guodian portion of the _Laozi_, the portion closer in point of view (and perhaps in time) to certain _Zhuangzi_ chapters, which are pointedly critical of Confucian values. The renowned Song dynasty scholar Su Che writes concerning the four opening lines of this stanza: Having no self-interest, heaven and earth encourage the ten thousand to their own self-becoming. Thus the ten thousand come into being and pass away on their own. Due to no cruelty of mine, they die of themselves; due to no kindness of mine, they come into being of themselves. They are like the sacred dog of straw, placed on the sacrificial altar, fully adorned for the offering. Does that mean that they are cherished, or merely that their time has come? After the service they are discarded and then trampled by the departing participants. Does that mean that they are despised, or that their time has passed? The wise ruler is no different toward his people. This influential interpretation, which sees heaven as indifferent, not preferential (_ren_ in the sense of humane) derives from the Heshang gong and Wang Bi commentaries. In this stanza Laozi is probably opposing Mozi’s view that “heaven loves the hundred clans” (_baixing_, hundred clans) because an unjust killing will bring on a calamity from heaven. Mozi’s heaven cares and intervenes. According to the _Zhuangzi:_ “Before the straw dog is presented it is kept in a container that is wrapped in decorated silk. Then the personator of the dead \[who receives sacrifice on behalf of the ancestral spirits\] and the prayer master, after purification and abstinence, accept the container. Once the straw dog has been presented, the marchers in the ceremony trample on its head and back; the scraps and shreds of straw and grass are then collected to fire the stove.” In lines 5–8, which are found in the Guodian manuscript, we find mechanical rather than biological imagery for the functions of nature. Mechanical imagery is characteristic of Mozi’s thought. The Guodian manuscript passages may thus have been contemporary with or slightly later than the generation of Mozi, which was the generation following Confucius’s death in 479 B.C. Joseph Needham translates _tuoyue_ (translated here as “kiln-bellows and airpipes”) as “bellows and tuyere.” In the _Huainanzi_, an early-Han Daoist compilation, an analogy is drawn between atmospheric phenomena and the “inner zone” of the human body; for example, the lungs are associated with _qi_ (air, atmosphere). If that association was understood by Laozi, then there is a possible analogy between the _tuoyue_ and the windpipe and lungs, in particular their function in speech. This macro-micro analogy, which lines 9–10 seem to point to, is the basis for the following attempt by Su Che to explain these lines: Heaven and earth are equipped with a set of kiln-bellows and airpipes. Once the mechanism starts moving, wherever the moving air reaches all is stirred. To the ignorant this is the acme of mechanical genius, but what do the pipes and bellows do? They remain void without collapsing. That is why they can move again and continue producing. And so ten thousand things are created, the manifold forms etched and carved between the heavens and the earth. Those who see the heavens and the earth producing fail to realize that their productivity depends on their emptiness. . . . Hence Laozi warns his reader against depleting one’s spiritual potency with too much verbal expression, admonishing him to conserve the potential productive core within. There are many ways to interpret the last word of the stanza, _zhong_, a common word for inner, center, in the center or middle of, between extremes, hollow core, to hit the center of (a target). _Zhong_ is also part of the title of the classic _Zhongyong_, or _Doctrine of the Mean_ (in Legge’s translation). Su Che takes _zhong_ to mean inexhaustible inner capacity, hence in opposition to _qiong_, “spent,” in line 9. This reading ties lines 9–10 (which are not in the Guodian _Laozi_), to lines 5–8. Some commentators, however, prefer to connect the closing couplet with lines 1–4 by emphasizing _zhong_ in the sense of center, mean, balance of mind, equanimity—that is, indifferent in the manner of the forces of nature, which are neither kind nor cruel. Another possibility is to take _zhong_ in the special sense of the empty or neutral state of the mind before it is roused to expression through emotion. This is the definition given to the word in the first chapter of _Zhongyong_. Since the textual and thematic relationship between lines 1–4 and 5–8 seems weak, lines 9–10 may have been added to connect the two quatrains through the multiple meanings of _zhong_. In the Mawangdui text, line 9 reads: “Much fame brings frequent failures; better to preserve inner balance, empty mind.” ### STANZA 6 1 The valley’s daemons never die, 2 The valley called the dark world womb; 3 The portal of the dark world womb 4 They call tree root of sky and land. 5 A hidden yet seeming presence, 6 Use it and stay strong. COMMENT The valley _(gu)_ is a complex symbol. It suggests death and night as well as female; hence regeneration. According to the _Huainanzi_, “What is high governs birth; what is low governs death. Mounds and hills are male; streams and valleys female.” Early dictionaries define _gu_ in the sense of “valley” as a cleft in the land formed by or containing flowing water. _Gu_ in this sense thus echoes the deep-water metaphor in ; it also suggests the myth of the underworld river and its daemons that nightly bring the fallen western sun back to Sunrise Valley _(Yanggu)_ in the east, where after bathing in the Xian Pool, it climbs the Tree of Dawn _(Fusang)_ to start the new day. Reference to the Tree of Dawn would explain “tree root of sky and land” in line 4. Some commentators connect _gu_ in the sense of “valley” to _gu_ in the sense of “food grains,” accenting the fruitfulness of the valley. Others see the valley as a metaphor for emptiness. One scholar suggests that _gu_ as “valley” refers to the lower abdomen, later called the _dantian_ or “cinnabar field” of Daoist medicine. This would parallel the possible analogy in between the space framed by heaven and earth and the chest cavity. The Heshang gong commentary is oriented around an intuitive, subjective apprehension of the Way. This commentary’s main interest is in breath and spiritual cultivation, and in this stanza it takes “dark” for heaven and “female” (translated here as “womb”) for earth and then treats the nose and mouth as their counterparts: “The primal energy _(yuanqi)_ of heaven enters through the nose, the primal energy of earth through the mouth.” Accordingly, this commentary interprets the word _gu_ as a verb, “to feed spiritually,” and hence line 1 to mean “nourish the spirit and it will not die.” How far to carry the apparent sexual symbolism of this stanza is an open question. According to one scholar of Chinese sexology, “Man and woman are heaven and earth; heart and genitals are fire and water; sexual arousal is the rising \[_yang_\] sun.” is not found in the Guodian texts. ### STANZA 7 1 The heavens last, the earth endures. 2 And the reason why they do? 3 By disowning what they yield, 4 Heaven can last and earth endure. 5 So, surely, does the world-wise lord, 6 Who puts his interest far behind 7 And ends up in the lead, 8 Who puts his interest to the side 9 And ends up safe and whole. 10 Is it not so: 11 That having nothing to own 12 He can achieve his goal? COMMENT Heaven and earth disown, that is, take no personal interest in, what they create; they give life universally and impartially. The ten thousand created things _(wu)_ come and go, but heaven and earth have no temporal limit. Ancestors, by contrast, produce only a single lineage but invest great interest in it, since their own limited existence is continued through subsequent generations. An impartial, universal heaven, above and apart from the human order, was first constructed by the Mohists. They created the idea of a heaven free of ancestral domination to support a state policy that gave no preference to nobility of birth in awarding honors and offices, thus making it possible to recruit experts from the lower ranks of society. Laozi, like Mozi, seeks to separate the world of human beings and heaven but unlike Mozi tries to limit, not augment, human beings’ power over nature and other humans. Laozi’s “world-wise lord” has learned the lesson of heaven and earth and refuses any self-aggrandizement through the power of his governmental position. Only in this way can a wise ruler truly serve his own interests and preserve the longevity of his life and his rule. is not found in the Guodian texts. ### STANZA 8 1 Perfect mastery works like water: 2 A boon to every living creature, 3 In adverse relation never; 4 At home where most can not abide, 5 Closest to the Way it lies. 6 For position, favor lower ground; 7 For thought, profundity; 8 For engaging, gentility; 9 For speaking, credibility; 10 For ruling, authority; 11 For service, capability; 12 For action, suitability. 13 Avoiding confrontation 14 Eliminates accusation. 15 There is no other way. COMMENT Like heaven and earth, water has no self-interest and thus flows downward to the lowest point to serve the interests of other things without confronting or contending with them. Water “goes where others will not go, does what others will not do, in the spirit of a beast of burden, like the camel, who bears the weight and tolerates abuse.” This passage may be a reaction to _Analects_ 19.20, in which Confucius’s wealthy disciple Zi gong says, “The true prince cannot bear to be downstream where the ills and evils of the world converge.” By contrast Laozi says that “He who for the kingdom’s sake bears shame; / Earns the name—master of the shrine” (). Water is adaptable but unchanging, always itself, unitary; it does not become its opposite, though it may alter all it touches. Thus water is an apt and recurring metaphor for _Dao_. _Analects_ 6.21 says “the wise rejoice in water.” Confucius contrasts the hills, which stand for stable principles, with water, which stands for the passing flow of human activity and always remains in some relation to the hills. In the _Laozi_, however, the hills play no role; there is no duality of water and hills. The word translated “boon” in line 2 is _li_, a primary term for the Mohists, who judge government policy by the standard of what is most useful to the people. Besides being of universal benefit, water is also a symbol of humble, even self-sacrificing, service and avoidance of conflict—two other prominent themes in the political and ethical writings of the Mozi school. Laozi has increased the beneficiaries of water to include the ten thousand things, of which people are only a minor component. Modern scholar Jiang Xichang suggests that the internal discipline Laozi calls for in and makes possible the mastery described in . is not found in the Guodian texts. Nevertheless water plays a key role in _The Great Number One Gives Birth to Water_, a cosmological text that was found together with the third Guodian bundle of _Laozi_ stanzas. In this text water combines with the Great One to produce heaven and earth in a long meta-genealogy. A comparable genealogy is found in . The word _li_ also means advantage, and in this sense its presence suggests water as a military metaphor. For Sunzi, water is a model for combat, not a metaphor of humble service. In the chapter called “Weakness and Strength” in his _Art of War_ we find the following: “Thus in warfare there is no unchanging array of forces, and water has an ever-changing pattern. It shows godlike mastery to be able to achieve victory by changing in response to the enemy’s circumstances.” ### STANZA 9 1 Desist before the vessel overruns. 2 Honed too sharp no blade retains its edge. 3 Treasure-filled no room remains secure. 4 Pride in wealth and place yields retribution. 5 “Tasks complete, doers retreat”: 6 Such is heaven’s way. COMMENT The examples used in this stanza suggest an audience familiar with the problem of keeping weapons sharpened and treasuries well guarded, that is, a ruling group. Here Laozi warns against crossing the boundary between the positive and the negative. In he advocates dulling what is keen. This too is a form of _wuwei_, or under-acting. Line 6 includes the words _tianzhi dao_, the _dao_ of heaven. Here _tian_, heaven, is a modifying noun, as in the Confucian term _tianming_, mandate of heaven. The second part of the compound, _dao_, does not mean the Way in Laozi’s primary sense, but rather the way something works, its modus operandi. In the _Laozi_ the terms “Way” and “heaven” are usually separate. is not found in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 10 1 The new-moon soul aborning holds to oneness; 2 Can you keep it from being divided? 3 To center all breath-energy, to work gently 4 Can you keep as if newborn? 5 To purify the eye within 6 Can you keep without stain? 7 To care for the people and rule the kingdom 8 Must you not master under-acting? 9 Midst ebb and flow from heaven’s gates 10 Must you not play the female part? 11 For your vision to reach all quarters 12 Must you not be unknowing? 13 Through giving birth and care 14 _Dao_ gives life without possessing, 15 Performs without obligating, 16 Presides without controlling: 17 Such is the meaning of “hidden power.” COMMENT There is no consensus on the first two lines of this stanza. For a survey of the various and conflicting interpretations, see the lengthy entry in Jiao Hong’s _Laozi yi_. This translator’s preference is to read the first word, _zai_, in the sense of beginning or renewed; the second word, _ying_, in the sense of flickering into existence; and the third word, _po_, as the _yin_\-soul or moon-soul. “New-moon soul” is the translation of _ying-po_. Among the Chinese words for soul or spirit, _po_ is the soul identified with the physical self, the incarnate soul perhaps; hence it must _baoyi_, preserve its unity or oneness, to avoid _li_, division and surrender to external forces. _Po_ refers both to the soul and to a phase of the moon. As a graph, _po_ consists of the word “white” _(bai)_ on the left and the word “ghost” _(gui)_ on the right. The ghost element emphasizes the head, and the language suggests an analogy between the emerging head of the newborn and the first glimpse of the new moon. Line 3 concerns the vitality (_qi_, breath-energy or life force) of the newborn infant, who has just crossed the line from nonexistence to existence and is thus still close to the Way, still female. Like the dark valley of , the moon, the night, the womb, and the _po_ all belong to the _yin_ principle. After a time another soul, the cloud-soul _(hun)_, will combine with the new-moon soul to form a _yin-yang_ duality. All things “holding _yang_, and held by _yin_” (). The newborn represents the absence of both knowledge and subjective assertion. As the infant matures it can “play the female part” and thus preserve some connection to _Dao_. Discussing lines 9 and 10, Jiang Xichang writes: “_Dao_ is active and it is still; what it creates is male and female. The wise man stays with what is still, not what is active; he takes a female, not a male, role. The same idea is found in , ‘Acknowledge the male, but retain the female’ and also in , ‘Dam holding still has ever conquered sire.’ ” This stanza is important to Heshang gong, for whom spiritual development is the foundation of statecraft. As he says in his comment to , “The sage governs the kingdom as he governs himself.” The infant represents for him a lack of division between consciousness and object, an unsocialized condition, and an indifference to the outer world. Maintaining this internal cohesion is the foundation of _rou_—the Daoist virtues of pliancy and gentleness, which underlie _wuwei_ (under-action, under-reaction, disinterested action, the pursuit of no end). The word _yi_, translated as “oneness,” is discussed in the comment to as a symbol of heaven and of the Way. is not found in the Guodian _Laozi_, and the concept of oneness is not found there either. _Yi_, however, is widely found in the _Guanzi_ and the _Huangdi sijing_. For example, one of the Daoist chapters of the _Guanzi_, “Xinshu, xia” (Mental functions, part 2), says, “Only the noble man \[_junzi_\] who holds fast to oneness can remain unchanged in the midst of change . . . can be the lord and ruler of the ten thousand.” The concepts of mental concentration and singleness are found, in addition to in the _Guanzi_, in varying forms in such Warring States texts as the _Zhuangzi_ and the _Mencius_. For example, a passage in _Mencius_ 2A.2 says that the mind _(xin)_ or the will _(zhi)_ must maintain control over breath-energy and likens breath-energy to a body of soldiers or musicians governed by a unified, unmoved mind. The term “heaven’s gates” in line 9 is understood variously. Chen Guying cites four interpretations: nose and mouth, political fortunes, the principles of nature, and the point at which human consciousness engages the outer world. Chen Guying himself offers the five senses as a variant of the first interpretation. His modern Chinese version of lines 9 and 10 reads, “When the senses come into contact with the external world, can you maintain stillness?” The last line, found verbatim in , may be a comment that has been incorporated into the main text. “Hidden” is a translation of _xuan_, dark, and contrasts with the white of the new-moon soul. The word _de_ (virtue, power) is introduced here as a term (_shiwei_, “such is the meaning of”), suggesting an explanatory note to the text rather than an integral part of it. _De’_s formal appearance as the attendant to _Dao_ comes in . ### STANZA 11 1 Thirty spokes join the wheel nave 2 And make of void and form a pair, 3 And a wagon’s put to use. 4 Clay is thrown to shape a vase 5 And make of void and form a pair, 6 And a vessel’s put to use. 7 Door and window vent a room 8 And make of void and form a pair, 9 And a room is put to use. 10 Thus the value of what is 11 Depends for use on what is not. COMMENT This stanza is built around the terms _wu_ (negation, what is not, void) and _you_ (what is, becoming formed) in a spatial context, and like , it illustrates the interdependence of _wu_ and _you_. _Wu_ and _you_ first appear as cosmic categories in , where _wu_ is the name for heaven and earth as yet unborn, and _you_ the name for the mother of the ten thousand after their birth. In _wu_ and _you_ begin the list of opposites that define and depend on each other in the everyday world. In this stanza Laozi uses three commonplace items to make his point: one should heed the unseen, the negative aspect, of anything, for that is the secret of its usefulness. _Dao_ itself is the negative as philosophical principle, the negation that precedes and follows all existence and the constant _(chang)_ alternation of _wu_ and _you_. In this stanza, as in , artisanal works serve as metaphors—a probable reference to Mozi. Mozi’s key term, _li_ (whatever is useful socially), which was used in , occurs again in line 10 of this stanza. The striking image of the void at the center of the wheel where the spokes meet may be an allusion in the opening lines of _Analects_ 2.1: “Government by virtue is like the pole star to whose fixed seat the multitude of stars turn in homage.” This image reappears in a bureaucratic context in the phrase “the multitude of officials converge \[on the center\]”; the Huainanzi commentator Gao You explains this to mean: “The officials converge on the ruler like spokes on the nave of a wheel.” ### STANZA 12 1 The five colors bring blindness, 2 The five tones deafness, 3 The five flavors loss of savor, 4 Racing and hunting loss of reason, 5 And rare goods shameless action. 6 When wise men govern this is why 7 They favor the belly, not the eye, 8 The one accept, the other deny. COMMENT Judging by the pursuits named in lines 1–5, this stanza is addressed to an elite, probably a ruling elite, warning them (as in ) that indulgence can ruin popular morals. Laozi is calling for discipline of the ruler’s character through self-denial with regard to the prerogatives of ritual luxury. The eye stands for appetite that cannot be satisfied. The belly, in contrast, can consume only a natural portion and thus represents limited ambition and acquisition. Laozi distinguishes between the physical eye and the spiritual eye—the eye of wisdom, the mirror within. The physical eye, the eye that looks outward, is an organ of knowing _(zhi)_ through perception of forms _(wu). Zhi_ as a graph consists of a man with head inclined plus a mouth symbolizing speech; in Chinese, knowledge implies verbalization: to know means to name. For Laozi, naming is the basis for dominating; that is, seeing leads to knowing, naming, and then to acting _(wei)_—a sequence that enlarges the capacity to appropriate the ten thousand things. Laozi opposes the development of the capacity to dominate for two reasons: to protect the ten thousand from human depredation and to protect the ruler from destruction in his attempt to dominate the objective world. This stanza parallels Mozi’s critiques of Confucian ritual extravagance and economic excess. For Mozi’s advocacy of frugality see his chapters “Against Music,” “Economizing on Funerals,” and “Against Confucians.” In the _Jingfa_, a somewhat later text, Laozi’s strictures on rulers are weakened: “Those rulers who understand the techniques of rule, pursue \[the pleasures of\] the hunt without bringing ruin, pursue the pleasures of consumption without dissipation.” The “Jinzang” (Restricting accumulation) chapter of the _Guanzi_ applies Laozi’s teaching of self-restraint in a different way, combining frugality with Mozi’s utilitarianism: “The enlightened king refuses a beautiful palace or declines to listen to concerts of bells and drums, not because the enjoyment is meager or because he detests music, but rather because these things ruin his administration and injure agriculture, the basic occupation.” We see in both the _Guanzi_ and the _Jingfa_ Laozi’s strong critique of luxury being tempered by compromise. We also see a crucial shift from ritual to law as the overriding organizational principle of society. Both texts absorbed key ideas from the _Laozi_ even as they applied those ideas for improving and developing government administration—a project broadly referred to as Legalism, or more precisely, the Legalism of the northeast kingdom of Qi under the Tian clan (374–250 B.C). Legalism was the institutional and ideological path to unification; Laozi had no such purposes. ### STANZA 13 1 “At favor (as disgrace) take fright: 2 Honors to the self bring woe.” 3 “Explain ‘At favor (as disgrace) take fright.’ ” 4 “What could be more dire than favor? 5 Its gain—or loss—betokens danger. 6 Such is the meaning.” 7 “Explain ‘Honors to the self bring woe.’ ” 8 “Our selves are why we suffer harm; 9 Without them what harm would there be? 10 So to the one 11 Who honors self above the world 12 Confide its care; 13 To the one 14 Who holds the self more dear than it 15 Entrust its care.” COMMENT The key word in this stanza is self, _shen_. For Laozi honoring self means protecting it from the world. The word _shen_ has many dimensions. It refers to the physical body in time (its life span) as well as in space; it also refers to the body’s social extensions: personality, roles, identity, and character. _Shen_ can also refer to the living generation in relation to generations past. For the Daoists who eschew legalism and bureaucratic service, right rule depends on the ruler’s abnegation. If the ruler remains uncompromised by self-interest and self-will, he will be receptive to the Way, mediating it through his rule without impediment. Adhering to the Way alone, such a ruler has no need for law or history as models. The implication of Laozi’s references to a ruler using the first person pronoun _wo_ or _wu_ ( and ) is that his _shen_ has been subordinated. This stanza should also be read in connection with the Confucian concept of _xiushen_ (self-cultivation or self-enhancement), an ongoing developmental process of learning, reflection, and moral discipline for the Confucian elite whether in or out of office. In turn, the Confucian seeks to develop the king’s persona so that the king can not only recognize and attract accomplished scholars who will serve him well but also emanate virtue so that the population (and his subordinates) can be disciplined with a minimum of punitive measures. Zhang Songru comments: “The wise ruler does not exchange his self \[personal integrity\] for favor or disgrace, for weal or woe. Thus this stanza extends ’s theme of choosing the belly over the eye. Whoever can reject the eye can be entrusted with the world because he is able to resist external attractions, which otherwise would subvert his mind or destroy his concentration.” Chen Guying offers a similar reading of this stanza. The rejection of human law in the _Laozi_ was revised in the _Huangdi sijing_, which sought to reconcile Daoist and Legalist concepts of governing. Among other consequences, this entailed a shift of focus from the integrity of the self of the ruler to his security. The closing passage of “The Great Hierarchy” (“Dafen”) in the _Jingfa_ says, “Whoever claims kingship over the world should undervalue his own kingdom and give due importance to recruiting men of talent. In this way his kingdom will acquire importance and his person will be secure. . . . Undervalue your self and treasure those who have the Way; then your person will be valued and your laws will function well.” Here the Daoist idiom of the reduced self is turned into a technique for the king to ensure mastery over a bureaucracy through legalism—the reverse of the point Laozi was making. Lines 10–15 of this stanza are quoted in the _Zhuangzi_ chapter “Zaiyou”: “Thus when circumstances require a man of learning and character _(junzi)_ to preside over the world below the sky _(tianxia)_, his best course is minimal action _(wuwei)_. A minimum of acting will enable him to keep control of his emotions, which nature has ordained. Hence \[Laozi\] has said: \[lines 10–15\].” The chapter “Zaiyou” advocates rulers who transcend the opposites, such as good and evil, reward and punishment. The term _zaiyou_ is contrasted with _zhi_ in the sense of govern and means to leave as is, undisturbed; to tolerate and accept. Watson translates it “Let it be, leave it alone.” The second part of the term, _you_ in the sense of a preserve or arboretum, has an Eden-like ring. The _Zhuangzi_ chapter “Rangwang” also sets the self against the world: “\[Sage King\] Yao offered the world to Xu You. Xu You refused it. Yao offered the world to Zizhou zhifu; Zizhou zhifu said, ‘Do not think me unwilling, but I happen to be on my way to be treated for a chronic ailment.’ Thus Zizhou zhifu, while acknowledging the importance of the world, would not endanger his health for its sake.” The Epicurean-like theme of self-preservation has been associated with the uncertain figure of Yang Zhu; Mencius named Yang Zhu as the great opponent of Mozi, who had a Stoic commitment to public service. Yang Zhu represents the epitome of self-preservation _(wei wo)_, the unwillingness to sacrifice “even a hair” to save the world; Mozi represents the extreme of altruism and family-transcending, self-sacrificing love in the service of state and society. In this stanza Laozi seems to apply Yang’s doctrines in his own fashion. The renowned Yuan-dynasty commentator on the _Laozi_, Wu Cheng, on the other hand, suggests influence on rather than by Yang Zhu here: he suggests that is “the origin of Yang Zhu’s theories of self-for-self’s sake.” Line 8 reads literally: “The reason we are in serious danger is that we have a self.” The first person pronoun (_wu_ and _wo_) in this and a number of other stanzas is common in Warring States military texts, where it forms a pair with _di_, enemy. A reader of that time might have expected a phrase like “The reason we are in serious danger” to be followed by some reference to a threat. Instead, Laozi’s antimilitarism extends to mean opposition to all oppositions; “self and other” is the basis of all oppositions. To remove the self from opposition protects the self. Such a self alone is capable of ruling. Lines 1–4 of in the received text appear at the beginning of this stanza in the Guodian text. The word _jing_, “fright,” appears as _ying_ in the Guodian text with the plausible meaning of “entrap.” “Both favor and disgrace are like entrapment” may be the original meaning of line 1. ### STANZA 14 1 Something looked for but not seen, 2 Or listened for, not heard, 3 Or reached for, not found: 4 Call one “dim,” one “faint,” one “slight,” 5 Not for summons nor for challenge. 6 Combined these three make one— 7 The One, the foremost number, 8 When daylit sky and dark of night 9 Have yet to be. 10 Through this One all living forms coil forth 11 Helter-skelter—how else to name it?— 12 Only to go round home again 13 To their unbodied state: 14 Form before form, 15 Guises of the unbodied, 16 Or gleams in a dim void. 17 Who can engage them? 18 Who find the foremost? 19 Who can pursue them? 20 Who find the last? 21 Hold fast to the Way of ancient days 22 To guide us through our present world; 23 To know how things began of old 24 Is to be grounded in the Way. COMMENT This stanza does not occur in the Guodian text. None of the _Laozi_ stanzas emphasizing a metaphysically charged number one are found in the Guodian text. However, the essay called _The Great Number One Gives Birth to Water (Taiyi sheng shui)_, bundled together with the _Laozi_ texts, endows the number one with cosmological powers as the origin of forms and elements. The term _yi_, “One,” a single horizontal stroke, represents the dividing line between the unmanifest and the manifest, between _Dao_ and the ten thousand. On one side of the line life emerges in spontaneous profusion (_min-min_, helter-skelter). At life’s end all things cross back to the unmanifest state, to negation. Things do not perpetuate themselves. Things leave no legacy, no heirs. All return to _Dao_, and _Dao_ then reproduces the next generation. Of the ten thousand _Dao_ creates, human beings are no more than one. The privileges of status that the elite enjoy are not passed on through chains of descent but disappear in the _Dao_, the great leveler. With the collapse of generational time into seasonal time the “Way of ancient days” becomes relevant to the “present world.” Invisible, inaudible, the Way supplants historic eras and their human models. The number one divides into two, giving birth to heaven and earth (). “One” may also refer to the horizon at dawn, which visibly divides heaven and earth. It may represent the juncture of heaven and earth, for it is a key element in the graphs for heaven and for earth. In the number two (suggesting heaven and earth, or _yin_ and _yang_) then multiplies into ten thousand things and their names. But trace them back to before the One, and names fail. “Names are not natural _(ziran)_ but manmade; the constant Way has no name; names appear after the Way is lost. The Way is called ‘Way’ only as an exigency. . . . If one thing has three names, then what reality do the names have?” The connection between formlessness _(wuxing)_ and oneness, clearly referring to this stanza of the _Laozi_, is stated in the “Yuan Dao xun” section of the _Huainanzi:_ “One has no matching pair, so it is isolate. . . .” Thus form exists only as two or more: as compounds, as _yin_ and _yang_, as the harmony of parts _(he)_, and so on. Annotating this stanza Wang Bi says: “One is the inception of numbering” _(shu zhi shi)_. In the Mawangdui text called _Daoyuan_, formlessness suggests transcendence of heaven and earth: “Heaven cannot mantle it \[no-form\], earth cannot sustain it; thus it envelops heaven and earth.” ### STANZA 15 1 The ancient master workers of the Way 2 Had vision to perceive the subtlest force. 3 Too deep they were to recognize, 4 And since they can’t be recognized, 5 One can but strain to picture them: 6 Wary, as if wading a winter river; 7 Watchful, as if threatened from all sides; 8 Stately and restrainèd, like a guest; 9 Smooth and even, like dissolving ice; 10 Impassive, even as the spacious sea; 11 Unfettered, like a restless windstorm; 12 Rough and solid, like an unwrought bole; 13 Compact and dense, like something unrefined; 14 Wide and open-stretching, like a vale. 15 If sullied they kept calm and stayed pure; 16 If secure they moved with care and stayed alive. 17 But who can do so now? 18 Those who embrace the Way do not grow too great; 19 And thus survive and overcome defeat. COMMENT Early-twentieth-century scholar Jiang Xichang says regarding , “The previous stanza depicts the Way as something without form, image, sound, or echo. This stanza depicts the ruler who holds to the Way as someone who has no fixed shape or name, no fixed plan of action or practical policy. This is how the Way is applied to governing the self and the kingdom.” The nature similes in this stanza suggest a ruler who is receptive, perceptive, deceptive, adaptable, and self-disciplined. Textually problematic, this stanza has been variously interpreted. For two of the uncertain lines, 15 and 16, I have relied on the Guodian text. However, the Guodian text lacks lines 10, 11, 14, and 20. _Shi_, “recognize,” in line 3 can be read as _zhi_, marked in memory. The Mawangdui text has _zhi_ in the sense of “make a record of,” so the _zhi_ reading is more likely than the _shi_ reading. Here, then, “recognized” implies being honored publicly. Another possible reading is _zhi_ in the sense of “aim to emulate,” that is, they are too deep for us to aspire to. The Heshang gong commentary suggests that “ancient master workers” in line 1 refers to rulers who had taken up the Way. If so, this stanza consists of a set of warnings to the ruler about his conduct and character. The closing lines of the Mawangdui text _Weighing Factors (Cheng)_ say, “The various _yin_ phenomena follow the rule of the earth; the \[corresponding\] qualities are to be settled and steady, correct and stable. First having mastered the mode of pliancy, one becomes adept at avoiding conflict. Such is the measure of earth and the mode of the female.” Judging by the partial quote in _Cheng_ from lines 15 and 16, Laozi’s metaphors and analogies in this stanza may belong to the _yin_/earth category; therefore the passage in could be understood as an elaboration of “man, / Who is bound to follow the rules of earth” _(fadi)_ in . ### STANZA 16 1 By reaching utmost receptivity 2 And keeping steadfast stability, 3 I, as myriads come forth in profusion, 4 Contemplate their circulation. 5 All multiply in fruitful growth, 6 Then bend homeward to their root. 7 This going home call equilibrium; 8 Equilibrium, returning life; 9 Returning life, call natural order; 10 To know this order, inner vision. 11 Not to know it is delusion. 12 Delusion will produce misfortune. 13 Knowing order means acceptance; 14 Acceptance, magnanimity; 15 Magnanimity, totality; 16 Totality, accord with heaven; 17 Accord with heaven, with the Way; 18 With the Way, long-lasting life; 19 The self submerged will not miscarry. COMMENT The penultimate line of , “Those who embrace the Way do not grow too great,” leads to the word _xu_ (empty, open, receptive) in line 1 of this stanza. _Xu_ suggests heaven’s space; while _jing_ (stable, steady, in balance) in line 2 suggests earth’s solidity. The “emptiness” of the mind enables it to take in the objective world without distortion. _Xu_ and _jing_, clear thought and physical balance, make possible _guan_, creative contemplation, in line 4. By using the word _xu_ Laozi opened the door to a complex reinterpretation of psychology and epistemology, influencing the way Mencius, Zhuangzi, Guanzi, and Xunzi analyzed the workings and powers of the mind. But the absence of such key terms as _xin_, mind, and _xing_, nature, in the _Laozi_ suggests that it predates the _Mencius_ (ca. 300 B.C.) and those mid-fourth-century Guodian texts in which _xin_ and _xing_ are crucial philosophical categories. For Laozi and for Xunzi, the late-third-century synthesizer of Confucian and Daoist thought, the mind is a receptor. But in the _Analects_ and _Mencius_ the mind is a projector, an influential force (_feng_, wind). Mencius says that when the mind is in control of the physical powers _(qi)_, they can fill the space between heaven and earth and empower the benevolent, kingly ruler to unify and govern the world _(tianxia)_. Mencius also speaks of the mind shriveling from starvation if it is not nourished by righteous conduct. Objective receptivity sees things in large perspective: the ten thousand things moving through their unceasing transformations but always following a circuit that leads home to the beginning, the root, the mother, the womb. The closing line of this stanza finds the practitioner in the womb, ready to appear as a newborn who can focus its inferior powers and perfect its receptivity. The final word, _dai_ (graphically, death and fetus), means to miscarry. Or perhaps the tomb-dweller with whom this text lay would feel safer in the womb of the earth if consoled about rebirth by the stanza’s vision of nature’s order. ### STANZA 17 1 The best of ancient kings were in their kingdoms hardly known; 2 Next the patriarchs, loved and widely praised. 3 Next again those the people feared. 4 Last come those whose abuse they endured, 5 Who unworthy of trust were met with distrust. 6 What care the ancients took with every word. 7 Of tasks fulfilled and works of merit done 8 The hundred families all declared, 9 “This was no one’s doing but our own.” COMMENT This stanza is a critique of the Confucians and Mohists for fetishizing and publicly celebrating in ritual and music the sages, gods, and kings of antiquity. Laozi says that the best rulers are hardly known to the ruled: more an absence than a presence, taken for granted like heaven and earth (). Such a ruler enables the people to claim credit for their accomplishments. The last line of the stanza is elaborated upon in the “Xingshi” chapter of the _Guanzi:_ “If \[the ruler\] attains the Way of Heaven, his deeds seem like nature itself. . . . No one realizes that he did \[_wei_\] them.” Line 5 suggests a passage in _Analects_ 12.7, where Confucius says that sufficient food, arms, and trust are the three conditions of government, and only the last is indispensable: “If the people _(min)_ have no trust, the government cannot stand.” In line 8 the term _baixing_, hundred families, is more or less equivalent to _min_, people, but “hundred families” usually has a social and cultural connotation, while “people” is used more often in an economic or military context. Any land _(di)_ has people _(min)_, but only a kingdom _(guo)_ in the Chinese-language sphere of civilization has surname-families _(xing)_. The term here may mean the leaders of communities. This is the first stanza to introduce the theme of historical decline—the stage-by-stage loss of an ancient world until it reaches its last days of decadence. Is this the Laozi whom Sima Qian describes as leaving his post as chief librarian of the Zhou archive in despair over the decline of Zhou? Is this stanza a forerunner of the utopian , which is not found in the Guodian text? The received text of this stanza is virtually identical to this stanza in the Guodian text, where it begins the third set of bamboo slips and is followed by . ### STANZA 18 1 And when the olden way of rule declined, 2 The words for love and serve came in. 3 Next came knowledge and keen thought, 4 Advent of lying, sham, and fraud. 5 When kinsmen lost their kind concord, 6 They honored child- and parent-love. 7 In dark disorder ruling houses 8 Turned to loyal devoted vassals. COMMENT The presence of the word _gu_, “and thus,” at the beginning of in the Guodian and Mawangdui texts, both of which are unnumbered, confirms the sequentiality of and . It also suggests that and form a single stanza. In the Guodian text this single stanza is placed at the beginning of the third bundle and is thus separated from , which was published as the first Guodian stanza. further tracks historical decline in stages, each defined by a Confucian virtue. The highest Confucian virtues, _ren_ and _yi_ (“love” and “serve”; conventionally, benevolence and righteousness, or kin-kindness and due service) mark the first decline; _zhi_, knowledge, marks the next; _xiao_, filial piety, the next; and _zhong_, loyalty, the last. Lines 5–6 say literally: “When the six primary kinship roles lost their harmony, filial and parental devotion appeared.” The six roles are parent, child, elder brother, younger brother, husband, and wife. Zhang Songru writes: “This stanza develops line 5 of the preceding stanza (‘\[Those\] unworthy of trust were met with distrust’). Kindness, duty, lying, fraud, family dissension, filial devotion, political disorder, vassal loyalty—all develop from the rulers’ original loss of virtue. In the age of natural \[_ziran_\] virtue men were not consciously kind and dutiful, so the values and their names did not exist. When the Way was abandoned, kindness and duty were promoted to reverse the trend; but they failed.” Gu Li says: “In the first two lines . . . the Way referred to is political, not the Way that is the foundation of the universe, the source of the ten thousand things; the Way as universal source can neither decline nor be abandoned. _Ren_ and _yi_ are new terms, new concepts that appeared and caused heated debate only after the Spring and Autumn era began and the way of the Western Zhou was discarded; but Laozi . . . opposed them.” Since the pairing of the key Confucian terms _ren_ and _yi_, as in the compound _renyi_, is first found as a motif in the _Mencius_, scholars have often argued that the _Laozi_ had to postdate the _Mencius_, since the _Laozi_ pairs _ren_ and _yi_ in this stanza and the next. However, with the unearthing of the Guodian _Laozi_, which includes this stanza, it is clear that the pairing of the terms came much earlier than the _Mencius_. (The two terms are widely used in the _Analects_ but never paired.) This stanza does not critique the Confucian values so much as view them as compensation for a lost era of harmony. ### STANZA 19 1 Refuse the wise, dismiss the intellects, 2 The folk will reap a hundredfold; 3 Refuse kin-kindness, dismiss due service, 4 The folk again will love as child and parent; 5 Refuse craft-skill, reject all gain, 6 No thief no robber will be found— 7 These three as text do not suffice. 8 Commandments must be put in practice: 9 Plain appearance, humble habits, 10 Owning little, craving less. 11 Reject the teaching of the young 12 And thereby suffer no distress. COMMENT Chen Guying says, “The previous stanza describes the social ills Laozi observed. This stanza proposes measures to cure them.” The measures are the rejection of wisdom and knowledge (_sheng_ and _zhi_). This stanza’s rejection of “craft-skill” and expertise go beyond , which merely advocates not valuing rare goods and not upholding those who excel. The modern scholar Yang Xingshun says, “The _Laozi_ opposes in its entirety the culture of the old ruling class . . . a culture that has eroded the primitive simplicity of the common people and incited their desires for ‘unusual products.’ Such a culture is the ‘beginning of disorder.’ . . . Laozi proposes a utopian philosophy to lead people to reject such a culture.” The point of lines 3–4 is not immediately obvious. The reference is to the Confucians’ bonding together of family and political values. Treating filial devotion as the basis and model for loyalty to political authority is the aim of _Analects_ 1.2: “Are not filial and fraternal love the basis of kin-kindness?” Mencius too treats filial love _(xiao)_ as the basis of kin-kindness and fraternal love as the basis of dutiful service _(yi)_. He takes both as the foundation of social and political order, elaborating on Confucius’s view that the family is the basic model for the organization of the governing leadership and for the relation of that leadership to the people. The Daoist wants to separate family values (_xiaoci_, filial and parental love) from this wider application in order to restore their original vitality. was placed at the beginning of the Guodian _Laozi_ by the Jingmen Museum editorial staff in their publication of the Guodian documents in 1998. It is not contiguous with and . One striking difference between the Guodian and all other versions of the _Laozi_ is that it does not contain the militant rejection of the Confucian virtues _ren_ and _yi_ (“Refuse kin-kindness, dismiss due service”). The editor of the received version might well have made the change when placing after , perhaps intending to strengthen the critique of _ren_ and _yi_ in and at the same time tie the stanzas together through this repetition of _ren_ and _yi_. In Wang Bi’s text, lines 11 and 12 come at the beginning of the next stanza; in the Mawangdui texts as redacted by Xu Kangsheng, lines 11 and 12 end , and most modern scholars have placed them here. However, in the Guodian text, the displaced phrase “Reject the teaching of the young / And thereby suffer no distress” _(jue xue wu you)_ comes between and . Since concerns the renunciation of learning, this phrase makes a fitting coda to 48, while lines 9 and 10 seem to end this stanza well. Yin Zhenhuan regards the phrase as a small independent stanza. ### STANZA 20 1 How distant from condemn consent? 2 Disgust, delight, how different? 3 He whom others fear, 4 He too has to fear. 5 All is beyond reach and never-ending. 6 High in spirits seems the crowd, 7 Like celebrants at the sacrifice, 8 Or viewers on the spring-rite stand. 9 I alone, adrift with no sign of hope, 10 Deserted and without appeal, 11 Am simple as a newborn before it smiles, 12 Dejected like someone without a home. 13 The crowd seems sunny and spirited; 14 I am sullen and low, 15 And my heart without guile. 16 The crowd, so busy and eager; 17 I, drawn into myself; 18 Impassive, even as the spacious sea; unfettered, like a restless wind. 19 The crowd has more than it needs; 20 I am left untended. 21 The crowd has its ways and its means; 22 I am set in my ways and despised. 23 Alone and apart from all others, 24 I honor the life-giving mother. COMMENT “The crowd” (“the vulgar,” _su_, in some texts) probably refers to the whole royal court, since those attending the sacrifice (_tailao_, the annual triple feast of ox, pig, and sheep) would hold rank. Few rulers would welcome the unsparing political analysis and harsh advice Laozi offers in –, so to find the I-persona cast out in as a kind of alienated dissident in his own elite world is no surprise. Such is the possible logic of the Mawangdui texts and the received _Laozi_ texts. In the Guodian text, however, lines 5–24 are not found. This stanza is often read as autobiography, but some scholars take its narrative “I” to be the man who follows the Way. Many of the lines have a personal “southern” flavor, reminiscent of the rhapsodic laments of the poet-minister Qu Yuan over his dismissal by an ill-advised king. The expressive style of this stanza contrasts with the crisp, direct admonitions of the preceding three stanzas—a style more often found in the _Book of Odes (Shijing)_. Su Che comments: “The wise man equalizes other and self, unifies differences . . . yet he does not ignore the laws of his time, defy his duties, or throw reason to the winds. . . . The crowd pursues any number of things and forgets the Way. The wise turn from the ten thousand and take the Way as their sole source, like a newborn feeding on one single thing.” The image of the mother as sole authority has implications for power relations in clan-ruled kingdoms, including the designation of heirs and appointment to office. The image is rectified and balanced in the Mawangdui document _Jingfa_, which restores the paternal role: “Without the \[model\] conduct of the father, the worth of the sons will not be realized; without the virtue of the mother, the energies of the people will not be fully utilized.” This is one of the most textually uncertain stanzas, with many variant readings and suspected interpolations. Few of the principal modern editions agree exactly with one another. ### STANZA 21 1 Boundless virtue all-accepting 2 Attends the Way, the Way alone. 3 Assuming form, the Way reveals 4 Shapes half-seen and then half-hid. 5 In dark half-lit, a likening; 6 In light half-dark, forms visible; 7 Hidden within, the germ of life; 8 The germ of life, no thing more real: 9 It contains a thing to trust. 10 From present time to ancient day 11 These names have never been forgotten; 12 Through them we can scrutinize 13 The myriad millions’ genesis. 14 How do we know of their formation? 15 Through the virtue of the Way. COMMENT This second “genesis” stanza, reminiscent of , introduces the word “virtue” _(de)_. This stanza is not found in the Guodian text. The opening lines link the Way and virtue for the first time in the received text, forming one of the foundational compounds of Chinese culture, _Daode_. This term takes its place alongside other primary compounds such as _tiandi_ (heaven and earth), _yinyang_ (negative and positive natural forces), and _renyi_ (benevolence and righteousness). _Dao_ and _de_ are presumably the names referred to in line 11. Elaborating on Wang Bi’s comment, Chen Guying says, “The relationship of _Dao_ and _de_ is as follows: _Dao_, being formless, must function through phenomena, must pass through the medium of phenomena \[_wu_, things\] in order to manifest its capacity. _De_ \[virtue, power\] has the capacity \[_rong_, ‘all-accepting’\] to manifest visibly the function of the Way.” The underlying creation metaphor in this stanza, Jiang Xichang speculates, is the kiln (see ). Jiang suggests that _rong_ in line 1 should mean “shaping” rather than “accepting” and is really the _rong_ that means mold when enlarged with the metal radical 167: mold or form for casting a vessel. This is possible, but here _rong_ is more than the capacity to hold or shape; the word implies acceptance and nurture. The Way’s virtue has the capacity to contain and nurture all of its ten thousand offspring, like a dutiful spouse who attends _(cong)_ her husband. _De_ follows _Dao_ submissively, like a wife or like a loyal vassal. Both kinds of attending are denoted by _cong_, “follow, attend.” ### STANZA 22 1 Bend to not break. 2 Wrong leads to right, 3 Depletion to expansion, 4 Ruin to revival, 5 Deprivation to acquisition. 6 Thus the wise hold fast to oneness, 7 Their measure for this world below; 8 They make no display and thus shed light, 9 Put forward no claim and thus set patterns, 10 Do not advance and thus succeed, 11 Do not assert and thus preside. 12 By their refusal to contend 13 The world cannot with them contend. 14 Those ancient words “Bend to not break” 15 Have pith and point 16 Truly those unbroken credit them. 17 “Spare speech and let things be.” COMMENT Returning to the main theme of oppositions in the world below the sky _(tianxia)_, this stanza points to embracing the One as the way for the wise man to cope consistently with the world’s contradictions. The phrase “hold fast to oneness” _(baoyi)_ first occurs in , where it refers to remaining unchanged and also to having no self. One cannot rule out the possibility that lines 1–5 of this stanza constitute a stanza on their own and that the _shiyi_ (“thus”) of line 6 is an editorial device to join the two parts into one artificial stanza. Though the world is divided into ten thousand things, the mind of the ruler must remain undivided to avoid distraction by the world’s multiple claims. Oneness is a negative power. The ten thousand may contend; the ruler must take no side and thus never contends. Wei Yuan says the phrase “hold fast to oneness” is tantamount to having no self. By contrast, the following line from the “Neiye” chapter of the _Guanzi_ sees oneness as a positive source of power: “To hold fast to oneness and not let it slip will enable one to be lord and master of the ten thousand things.” Here the goal of the user of oneness is mastery over nature and over the political realm. Another instance of this instrumental adaptation of Laozi’s thought is found in the “Xingzheng” (Contending clans) section of the _Sixteen Canons:_ “Action and stillness, which achieve timeliness, are aided by heaven and earth.” For Laozi, embracing oneness is the key to avoiding contention and disintegration. The author of “Xingzheng,” on the other hand, sees both danger and gain in contention: “When heaven and earth have been set in place, even the microcosmic insects engage one against the other. Men who contend are ill-fated, and yet nothing can be accomplished without contending.” These applications of Laozi’s ideas, possibly dating from the mid-fourth century B.C., suggest cooperation between human beings and nature. They point the way to the grand transformation of Chinese thought achieved in the mid-third century B.C. by philosopher and historian of philosophy Xunzi, who studied Laozi closely and reversed many of his formulas, advocating the conquest of nature by humans through social organization. This stanza is not in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 23 1 The whirlwind’s spent before the morning ends; 2 The storm will pass before the day is done. 3 Who made them, wind and storm? Heaven and earth. 4 If heaven itself cannot storm for long, 5 What matter, then, the storms of man? 6 But those who attend and serve the Way 7 Correspond to the Way; 8 Those who attend and serve the power 9 Correspond to the power; 10 Those who decline to attend and serve them 11 Correspond to their decline. 12 Those who correspond to the Way 13 The Way will favor; 14 And those who correspond to its decline 15 The Way will decline to favor. 16 “Those unworthy of trust are met with distrust.” COMMENT “Attend and serve” _(cong)_, normally the language of feudal vassalage, is transferred in line 6 to the relation between humankind and _Dao_. The _jun-chen_ (lord-vassal) relation has no place in the _Laozi;_ even the single terms _jun_ and _chen_ occur rarely. A person serves _Dao_ and _de_. What begins as service develops into a kind of correspondence (_tong_, the same as, be with) that supersedes the ritual upward identification of subordinate to superior. Laozi’s use of _tong_ could be a critical thrust at the Mohist school. The “Shangtong” chapter of the _Mozi_ gives priority to corresponding to one’s social or bureaucratic superior and finally to heaven as defined by the Mohists. This stratified structure is the key to social stability for the Mohists. _Tong_ also plays an important role in “Strategies,” a chapter in Sunzi’s _Art of War:_ “The Way is what causes the people to have the same _(tong)_ thoughts as their ruler and superiors; the people thus will die with their rulers as they will live with them.” In this stanza Laozi seeks a higher level of identification _(tong)_. Through identification with the Way and the power, a person can endure passing storms, episodes of political tyranny, and sustain himself over the long term. The decline (_shi_, to let slip, lose) of values from _Dao_ and _de_ is elaborated in . The translation of lines 6–15 is based on , which treats the social values—_ren, yi, li_ (kin-love, honor, ritual)—as a decline. In those who serve the lesser values decline correspondingly. This stanza has what seem like fragments of text for its opening and closing lines. _Xi yan zi ran_, the opening line of this stanza according to some scholars, has been moved in the present translation to the end of . If we follow Zhang Songru and keep these four words as the opening of this stanza, the phrase could mean that the wise rule with little speech (i.e., few commands) in order to allow everything to happen naturally. “Spare speech, let nature prevail” is another possible translation. The closing fragment, line 16, echoes line 5 from . Line 16 does not end this stanza in the Mawangdui versions. The translation of lines 12–15 follows the Mawangdui B text. This stanza is not in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 24 1 How long can you stand up on your toes? 2 How far walk with stretching stride? 3 Self-display does not illumine; 4 Self-justifying sets no pattern; 5 Self-advancement won’t succeed; 6 Self-assertion cannot lead. 7 In terms of _Dao_, as has been said, 8 “Like food discarded, excess actions 9 Provoke repugnance.” 10 _Dao_\-keepers will indeed avoid them. COMMENT There is little scholarly argument over the point of this homily: over-acting is self-defeating. Standing and walking are natural norms. To strive to rise above others risks security of position; to try to outpace others risks reaching the destination. All forms of self-promotion, like discarded food or unwanted action, achieve no success and earn universal disgust. The Heshang gong commentary applies the first line to the conduct of a ruler: “Standing up on tiptoe means that those who crave power and strive for glory will not be able to establish their name or put the Way into practice for any length of time.” Accordingly, this commentary takes line 10 to mean that those who keep to the Way will avoid such rulers. Some of the lines of this stanza in the Mawangdui text differ. For example, line 1 reads: “He who blows on the stove first cannot do so standing up.” This line is reflected in the late-Han _Xiang’er_ text, whose first line, “Those who puff hard cannot last,” sounds like a proverb or perhaps a reference to a yogic breath practice. The _Xiang’er_ (Wishing to approach) commentary says that forced breathing cannot be sustained, as it is incompatible with mental clarity and quietude. ### STANZA 25 1 Manifesting material in form unshaped, 2 Born before heaven and earth themselves, 3 Unseen, unheard, above, apart, 4 Standing alone ever true to itself, 5 Swinging in cycles that never fail, 6 Mother of heaven and earth, it seems, 7 But I know not how to give it names. 8 Pressed, I shall dub it the moving Way, 9 Or call it by name the all-supreme, 10 All-supreme and passing-beyond, 11 Passing-beyond and reaching-far, 12 Reaching-far and reverting-back. 13 Indeed the Way is all-supreme, 14 And heaven too, and earth, and man— 15 The four things in this world supreme, 16 And among them one is man, 17 Who is bound to follow the rule of earth, 18 As earth must follow heaven’s rule, 19 And heaven the rule of the Way itself; 20 And the moving Way is following 21 The self-momentum of all becoming. COMMENT Which is more valued, the mother or the child? One of the principles of priority within the ruling families with multiple wives was “the mother is honored for the child; the child for the mother.” This means that the mother’s status depends on having a child or on the career of that child, and the child’s fortunes rest with the power of its mother’s family. Laozi implicitly addresses the succession question by making the female figure superior to the power of the patriarchs. After their birth the myriad children of the Way move farther away from their source until they begin their return to the mother and eventually reunite with her. The stanza ends dramatically and unexpectedly. In lines 17–20 the levels of authority ascend from man (or king) to earth, heaven, and the Way. But in line 21 (echoing the “reverting-back” of line 12) Laozi reverses direction in a kind of transvaluation of authority, making the Way itself subject to the totality of its creation, the ten thousand. Presenting the world of becoming as the ultimate authority accents one aspect of _chang_ (constant, common): the ongoing everydayness and commonplaceness of all things engaged in becoming. Compare the last lines of : “In this way \[the wise\] support and sustain / The self-becoming of the myriad.” The “Shangtong” chapter of the _Mozi_ suggests a similar transvaluation of authority. After describing ascending levels of political authority, Mozi argues that the son of heaven, the highest political authority, is himself answerable to a heaven that has been defined not as something higher but as something lower, as something commonplace—a “humble” heaven that simply wants all people to work for their mutual benefit. Heaven for Mozi is not remote and mysterious but accessible and obvious. Mozi likens the will of heaven to a carpenter’s measuring instruments, thus locating heaven’s authority in the common man. This stanza appears in the Guodian manuscript, though it contains a few uncertain characters. It is followed by lines 5–8 of . ### STANZA 26 1 As weight anchors lightness 2 And calm governs impulse, 3 The wise leader, all day on the march, 4 Stays by his stockage train 5 Within his guarded cordon, 6 Safely positioned, beyond harm’s reach. 7 Could the lord of ten thousand wagons of war 8 Risk his own self for the sake of the world? 9 Let such lightness lose him his anchoring base? 10 Such impulse his rule? COMMENT A military metaphor is presented for the first time. Many scholars, however, often seek to conceal or soften the military aspect of Laozi’s thought. In particular, they have treated lines 3–6 in a moralistic or aesthetic manner, which, however, contradicts the remainder of the stanza. Thus in line 3 the ordinary term for an army on the march is usually interpreted as a gentleman or a sage traveling. Another part of disguising the intent of line 3 is the substitution of _shengren_ (sage, wise ruler) for _junzi_ (leader). The word “sage” is rarely seen in a military context; hence the change. Gu Li proposes peeling back this overlay and restoring a military reading, and his suggestion is adopted in the present translation. Gu Li regards the _Laozi_ primarily as a work of statecraft. Accordingly, he connects this stanza to , which ends: “Like fish down deep that cannot be lured / Hold craft of policy far from view.” In this regard Gu Li belongs to the Han Feizi tradition of interpretation. Han Feizi, the legalist policy adviser of the late third century B.C., says of this stanza, “The stock wagons represent political power; Laozi warns the ruler never to leave his power base.” Han Feizi also says, “Power in one’s own person is called ‘weight’ . . . which enables \[the ruler\] to direct his vassals.” In addition to being a harbinger of , this stanza seems thematically linked to the two that precede it: warns the ruler against self-assertion and outlines the hierarchy of authorities, while warns the ruler against reckless impulse. In this sense the stock wagon can be seen as a symbol of defense, in contrast to the mobile chariot used in offensive operations. The meaning of lines 5–6 can thus be recovered. They echo line 2, just as lines 3–4 echo line 1. The ruler himself is to be protected because his person is more valuable than any external temptation, even the entire realm. See also . This stanza is not found in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 27 1 Expert marching leaves no trails; 2 Expert wording has no flaws; 3 Expert reckoning needs no tallies. 4 Well-sealed doors have no crossbar 5 Yet cannot be opened. 6 Well-tied knots employ no cord, 7 Yet cannot be loosened. 8 Accordingly, the wise know how to salvage men 9 And make sure none go to waste; 10 They know how to salvage things 11 And make sure none go to waste; 12 This is called far-reaching insight. 13 The expert learns from the expert, 14 And draws lessons from the unfit. 15 Not to value the teacher, 16 Not to hold dear his subjects 17 Is misguided in even the most learned. 18 This is called the crucial secret. COMMENT Commentators do not explain the connection between lines 1–7 and lines 8–16. However, lines 1–7 concern leaving something behind (or undone) that could cause trouble, and lines 8–16 warn against wasting human and material resources. Though a connection is plausible, this stanza may actually comprise two smaller stanzas. The basic meaning of _xing_, “marching,” as in an army on the march, is probably intended here, though most translations prefer “travel” or “activity.” But why would a traveler want to hide his tracks? However, a column can escape detection or pursuit by covering its tracks. As in the previous stanza, a cultural aversion to militarism may have affected the reading of _xing_. No part of this stanza is found in the Guodian text; it seems to belong with the more statecraft-oriented non-Guodian stanzas. ### STANZA 28 1 Acknowledge the male, 2 But retain the female: 3 Be a drain-way for the world below the sky. 4 As a drain-way for the world below the sky, 5 Your constant power will never depart, 6 Will lead back home to infancy. 7 Acknowledge the white 8 But remember the black: 9 Be a measure for the world below the sky. 10 As a measure for the world below the sky, 11 Your constant power will never decline, 12 Will lead back home to before duality. 13 Acknowledge honors, 14 But remember humility: 15 Be a valley for the world below the sky. 16 As a valley for the world below the sky, 17 Your constant power will suffice, 18 Will lead home to stark simplicity. 19 “As simplicity disintegrated useful things were forged”: 20 These were the words that wise men went by 21 When serving as officers and elders, 22 For fine cutters never harm the stone. COMMENT This stanza is about controlling the excess of a positive quality (the proud male stance) by preserving the opposite (meek female reserve). By holding to the “female” or submissive course while aware of the opposite “male” or dominant course, one can approach the unity underlying the differences and thus balance the dialectic. The low ground, the beaten track, which few contend for, leads from division and opposition back to original simplicity, harmony, and unity. The Chinese word for “drain-way” minus the water element on its left may mean “servant.” The white and black (_bai_ and _hei_) of lines 7 and 8 may refer to _yin_ and _yang_. Originally meaning the sunny and shady sides of a hill, _yin_ and _yang_ suggest day and night, and more abstractly, time. However, white and black may simply represent opposition. The closing words of line 12, _wuji_, are translated “before duality.” _Ji_ means the apex of a hill, where the opposing sides—sunny and shady—join. By extension _ji_ means the extreme that something reaches before beginning its return. Thus the absence _(wu)_ of _ji_ may mean the absence of antithetical process rather than “limitless” or “infinite,” as the term is often rendered. Those in authority in a kingdom or family (officers and elders) respect the relationship between whole and part, origin and outcome, mother and child, matrix and finished form, material and product. They can “cut”—exert control, administer—without damaging the stone, that is, without severing the individuated useful item, _qi_, from its simple unwrought matrix, _pu_. The wise ruler preserves the relationship of form to origin in his administration, just as he himself remains rooted in his own origins. ### STANZA 29 1 Whoever mean to take this realm and rule it— 2 I see them failing to attain that end. 3 For this realm below, a sacred vessel, 4 Never may be subject to such rule. 5 They ruin it who try, 6 Lose it who hold on. 7 All living things of form 8 Now move ahead, now trail behind; 9 Now breathe hot, now cold; 10 Now wax strong, now fade; 11 Now are safely set, but soon will fall. 12 And so the wise stay far from 13 All extremes, all surfeit, all grandeur. COMMENT The ruler who puts from himself the will to aggrandizement is as respectful of living things as he is of religious objects. He observes things in their growth and decline but makes no effort to control or exploit them. As sacred to him as the temple vessels, the ten thousand shall not be desecrated by appropriation. The term _shenqi_, “sacred object” or “sacred vessel,” in the first half of the stanza is contrasted with _wu_, “living things,” in the second half. One example of a sacred vessel as a symbol of political power would be the sacrificial tripod _(ding)_ of the Zhou son of heaven that the messenger from Chu coveted for his king. ### STANZA 30 1 Those who guide their leaders by the Way 2 Will not urge war to dominate the world, 3 For such a course is bound to haunt its taker. 4 Fields where armies camp grow thorns and weeds, 5 And plague and famine follow every war. 6 With the fruits of victory desist; 7 Never seek to break a beaten foe, 8 And flaunt no prowess with the victory, 9 Assert no strength, show no pride; 10 Be a victor against your will, 11 A victor who will not dominate. 12 “Beware old age in pride of manly might”: 13 This warns to work not against the Way. 14 “Work against the Way, die before your day.” COMMENT Lines 6–11 suggest a code of noble restraint by the victor in war, perhaps an aristocratic ethic more proper to the Spring and Autumn period than to the Machiavellian calculations of the Warring States era. This could mean a Spring and Autumn date for this stanza, or it may simply be a reminder of a lost code of honor. One interpretive tradition sees the _Laozi_ as a book on warfare. According to Tang scholar Wang Zhen, “Every one of its eighty-one stanzas has a military consideration.” And Ming scholar Wang Fuzhi says that the _Laozi_ is a “teaching guide for all who write on war.” Zhang Songru disagrees. “Although this stanza concerns how to wage war, it is actually using warfare to express the philosophy of ‘not taking the initiative, not holding on, hence not incurring loss.’ This stanza develops the previous stanza’s idea that the world is a ‘sacred object, not something to take charge or hold of.’ Moreover, the three lines that end this stanza are rich in generalization. Laozi is speaking of more than military matters.” Comparing the position on war taken by Mozi, Mencius, and Laozi, Zhang Songru writes: “Unlike Mozi, Laozi does not decry all offensive action; unlike Mencius, he does not call the highest punishment down on all good strategists. . . . Laozi does not oppose any and all kinds of warfare . . . but ‘good strategy is win and then let live.’ ” ### STANZA 31 1 Weapons of war are omens of doom, 2 To be loathed by every living thing 3 And shunned by those who keep the Way. 4 Presiding at court the leader honors the left. 5 Resorting to war he honors the right. 6 But weapons are never the leader’s choice. 7 Weapons of war are omens of doom, 8 Not to be used unless compelled. 9 Above all, with mind and heart unstirred, 10 To arms give no glory: 11 For to glory in arms 12 Is to sing and rejoice in the slaughter of men. 13 And singers in praise of the slaughter of men 14 Shall not in this world gain their ends. 15 Thus the left is for deeds that are blessed, 16 The right is for deeds that bring death. 17 To the left the minor commander, 18 To the right the chief general: 19 Placed for the rites to honor the dead. 20 When the slaughter is great, 21 Let the leader come forth to keen for the slain; 22 The victory won, 23 To perform solemn rites in mourning the day. COMMENT Laozi is said to have been a native of the kingdom of Chu, the major southern kingdom in the Warring States period. According to the _Zuozhuan_ (Huan 8), it was the custom in Chu to honor the left over the right—the reverse of the custom in the northern kingdoms. Since the preference for the left over the right is confirmed in the Guodian text of this stanza, this must have been a custom of some antiquity. A comment in the _Zhongyong_, attributed to Confucius’s grandson, indicates that the kingdom of Chu was thought to have been traditionally more pacific than the north. Speaking of strength, the _Zhongyong_ says, “There is the strength of the northern region and that of the southern. The southerners are tolerant and flexible in disciplining others, and they refuse to take revenge on those who deny the Way. Men of culture dwell in the south. To bear arms and disdain death is the strength of the north. And strong men dwell there.” This stanza may have influenced other thinkers. Mencius, who claims that he warned the king of Qi against invading Yan, seems to echo Laozi’s sentiment. His phrase “Those good at waging war deserve the highest punishment” closes his manifesto against war (_Mencius_ 4A.14). And _Mencius_ 7B.4 says, “The man who claims to be skilled in forming the battle lines, to be skilled in the making of war, is a great criminal.” The text of Sun Bin’s _Art of War_ also contains a warning against rejoicing in warfare. This stanza is found in the Guodian manuscript, where it begins with line 4. ### STANZA 32 1 The Way continues on unnamed. 2 Though in its unhewn rawness low and humble, 3 None in the realm can force it to serve. 4 When lords and kings to this Way keep, 5 Ten thousand things as honored guests attend. 6 When heaven and earth conjoined and shed sky-mead, 7 Uncommanded the people shared it fairly. 8 But the advent of rule brought names; 9 And names meant mastering restraint. 10 To master restraint ensures survival. 11 The Way’s a presence in the realm of men, 12 As valley streams join rivers, then the ocean. COMMENT In this stanza, which is found in the Guodian text, a lost era of economic equity is contrasted with present regimes of social status, administrative control, and the subordination _(chen)_ of nature. “Names” means names of implements _(qi)_, natural phenomena _(wu)_, and also the social divisions _(guijian)_ that mark the world of opposition and conflict. However, the Way remains attainable; indeed, it is near. From this fact rulers can draw the lesson of self-diminution. The ideal ruler does not have vassals _(chen)_ whom he compels to serve, but willing guests _(bin)_ whom he hosts at his table. “Sky-mead,” the translation of _ganlu_ (literally, sweet dew), suggests an Eden-like utopia and the harmony of the banquet. The word seems to translate the first two syllables of the Greek word _ambrosia_, meaning a divine food that confers immunity to death. _Pu_, “unhewn,” is another key Daoist term. To one degree or another _pu_ corresponds to the English words “unformed,” “stark,” “raw,” “elemental,” “uncultured,” “simple.” The literal meaning is an unhewn tree trunk or stump (the primitive, natural state) that humans disturbed and then carved into _qi_, useful implements. For the Confucians and the Mohists the carving of wood or stone was a metaphor for the molding and refining required for socialization. _Analects_ 1.5, for example, speaks of “chipping, filing, carving, and polishing” in this context. The term _houwang_, “lords and kings,” in line 4 suggests a time at the end of the fifth century or early in the fourth century B.C., the start of the Warring States era, when the central Zhou authority was challenged by rival regional powers. The designation _hou_, lord, once a title that was Zhou’s prerogative to confer, was losing prestige, causing many regional lords to rename themselves _wang_, king, to assert their equality with or independence from the Zhou house. Zhou rulers were called _wang_ or _tianwang_, king by heaven’s decree. Southern rivals of the Zhou house (such as the kingdom of Chu) had traditionally called their rulers _wang_. The lords and kings who hold to simplicity, in Laozi’s view, will host the vast world of ten thousand things, just as the lowly valley stream finds its way to the rivers and to the even lower-lying ocean of infinite capacity. ### STANZA 33 1 Knowledge knows others 2 But wisdom the self. 3 Power conquers others 4 But strength the self. 5 To know contentment is wealth, 6 To act with strength resolve. 7 Long as those who do not lose their place may last, 8 Timeless those who die but perish not. COMMENT A number of Confucian passages treat the cultivation of the self as the basis for knowledge _(zhi)_ of others, which is in turn necessary for holding an official position. In this stanza Laozi reverses the dynamic: the objective is knowledge and mastery of the self; knowledge and mastery of others is either secondary to or not the goal of mastery of the self. The closing word of this stanza, _shou_ (timeless, immortal) is found in _Analects_ 6.21, which says that the humane _(ren)_ embody fixed principles and thus transcend the span of mortal life _(shou)_. This _Analects_ passage is built on the integration of knowledge and humaneness, likening the former to water and the latter to mountains. Confucius’s purpose is to make the functional (knowledge) dependent on the ethical (humanity), the transitory dependent on the constant. In this stanza, by contrast, knowledge is an independent faculty. This stanza is not found in the Guodian manuscript. ### STANZA 34 1 The Way moves like the turning tide, 2 Leftward, rightward, lending its aid. 3 Ten thousand on the Way depend; 4 By it they live; the Way, never shirking, 5 Attains success, fulfills its tasks, 6 Without its ever being named. 7 Under its mantle all beings thrive; 8 But ruling them not, nor desiring aught, 9 The Way wins the name of humble and low. 10 All beings bend to that home of no known master, 11 And thus the Way wins the name supreme. 12 And so may the wise achieve this themselves: 13 To shun self-supremacy all of their days 14 Is the way they achieve things supreme. COMMENT This stanza uses the tidal motion of water _(fan)_ to express the endless reversals _(fan)_ of the Way as described in : “The Way moves on by contra-motion.” The phrase for its alternating movement “leftward, rightward” _(zuoyou)_ also commonly refers to the ministers assisting or guiding the ruler. Since the _Laozi_ never mentions the ruler-minister _(jun-chen)_ relation, the implication is that the Way, either as a model or else as mediated through the sage, will guide _(zuoyou)_ the ruler through the tortuous reversals of history. The Way never seeks to dominate its offspring. This is why the Way has a humble name. But ultimately all things return home _(gui)_ to the Way, and thus its name is magnified. The Way functions parentally but rejects ancestral adulation through naming and rites of gratitude. Of the ten thousand, mankind is one and only one. By trying to dominate, humans will violate the Way and ruin themselves. Like the Way, the wise never desire to possess, control, or use any of the ten thousand. Freed of the human logic of finding means to satisfy ends, the ten thousand thrive (_hua_, flower, develop) in their own ways. By mastering restraint a person frees the creativity of the Way and attains greatness. ### STANZA 35 1 Maintain all semblance of the Way supreme 2 And all the world will follow your royal lead 3 And do so without harm to each other, 4 Thus sharing in peace and calm and plenty. 5 The sounds of music and the banquet scene 6 May tempt the passing traveler to pause; 7 The truths we utter here are bland and plain: 8 Look, but there is nothing for the eye; 9 Listen, there is nothing for the ear; 10 But use them and they never fail to serve. COMMENT This stanza has the status of an independent verse, but it can be read as a continuation of , with its closing exhortation to achieve supremacy (_da_, greatness) by not pursuing it. In line 1 the leader is advised to image or represent _(xiang) Dao_, and that is the key to his success. The graph for “supreme” is embedded in the graph for “royal” _(wang)_. Lines 5 and 6 pick up the theme of the perils of luxury and the subversion of the senses from , as Jiang Xichang suggests. In contrast, _Dao_ exists beyond the reach of the senses, a theme from . This stanza appears virtually intact in the Guodian manuscript. It alludes briefly to a utopian world without conflict guided by the Way, an idea treated more fully in . It seems to interrupt the sequence of statecraft , , and . ### STANZA 36 1 To what you mean to draw in, first give slack, 2 And make strong what you would weaken; 3 Raise up whom you would remove, 4 And provide when you mean to deprive. 5 That is to do the unseen, unseen. 6 For over the hard and the strong 7 The soft and the weak shall prevail. 8 Like fish down deep that cannot be lured, 9 Hold craft of policy far from view. COMMENT Many commentators have seen the Machiavellian side of Laozi in this stanza. Jiang Xichang, for example, says that lines 1–7 “concern the ruler’s techniques for controlling his ministers” and lines 8–9 “concern his power to control them.” But others, such as Gao Heng, say, “These lines speak of the Way of heaven. Though they have led some to accuse Laozi of advocating subtle maneuver, that is wrong. Laozi is warning against taking what is waxing for a permanent state, against counting on the stronger, against rejoicing in promotion, against craving to be provided for.” Gu Li writes: This stanza encompasses seeing the unseen while recognizing the obvious, observing that when something is in its positive phase it is moving toward its opposite. . . . However, this stanza undeniably includes statecraft and calculation, though there have always been those who deny that side of Laozi in an effort to protect his name. Gao Heng’s view is one-sided. . . . Lines like “raise up whom you would remove” refer to governing and are clearly linked to the final line. . . . Han Feizi absorbed from Laozi ideas about statecraft and subtle maneuver. Sima Qian understood this all too well when he combined the biographies of Laozi and Han Feizi in a single chapter; in that chapter Sima Qian wrote, “Han Feizi’s severity and lack of benevolence derive from the thought of the _Dao De_.” Chen Guying interprets the last line to mean “Do not put on display the armed power _(li qi)_ of the state.” But this translation of _qi_ as “weapons” may be too concrete. Another possibility is “policy.” For this interpretation there is support in two usages in _Zuozhuan_. The _Zuo_ under Mingong 1 winter (661 B.C.) reads: “The kingdom of Lu has not abandoned the rituals of the royal Zhou house, and Lu’s rule cannot be disturbed. Be advised to concentrate on calming the uprising in Lu and befriending their rulers. Befriend those who follow ritual; rely on solidly established kingdoms; overthrow only those kingdoms that are in confusion and disorder. This is the policy _(qi)_ of a king who seeks \[wider\] power in the realm.” This advice fits well with the implication of this stanza’s last four lines: the wise ruler keeps to a soft line just as the fish keeps itself safely hidden in the depths of the water. The _Zuo_ under Chenggong 2 reads: “The ruler’s reputation _(ming)_ and policy _(qi)_ can never be shared.” This stanza is not found in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 37 1 The _Dao_ in constant circum-motion, 2 Pursuing no end leaves nothing not done— 3 Let lords and kings to this conform 4 And all shall turn to them in trust. 5 Should then desires assert themselves, 6 We shall humble them with stark no-naming— 7 Yes, humble them with the starkness of no-naming, 8 And thus there shall be no desire; 9 And out of the repose of no-desire, 10 The world on its own will come to order. COMMENT This stanza ends , the _Dao_ section, of the poem. For the Mawangdui editor, and possibly for Han Feizi and Wang Bi as well, this was the final stanza of the entire poem, and thus a kind of summing up. The closing vision of universal order suggests the stanza’s importance. The Mawangdui text differs from the Guodian text. Because of this stanza’s importance, translations of the Mawangdui and Guodian versions appear for comparison in note 4. This stanza explicitly addresses those who hold power and urges them to take a course of inaction and restraint or, in the Mawangdui version, a course of rejecting fame. Even if this course leads to success and they win the trust of many, desire—for rulers and ruled both—must be guarded against and kept at the level of stark simplicity. This is the _yumin_ policy advocated in : keep the folk unaware. To political rulers who conform to the _Dao_ by preserving simplicity (no names, no culture, no law) the ten thousand things will offer their tribute or allegiance freely (_zi_, of themselves), without royal edicts, administrators, or armies. At the core of this stanza is the phrase _zihua_, “turn to them in trust,” in line 4, which imagines the ten thousand turning in trust to the ruler who observes the _Dao_. Should this bring forth new desires to possess the ten thousand, then “we,” that is, those in power, will have to suppress those desires by removing names _(ming)_ from things/persons _(wu)_. Since law depends on names and definitions, it is clear that rule by law has no place in this vision of no naming, in which the enlightened ruling self (_wo_ or _wu_) guides the kingdom. This reading follows Gu Li’s view that _hua_ is used in the political sense: the response of all people to the moral influence of the king. To Gu Li, _hua_ stands here for the phrase _guihua_, which means give their allegiance and accept our authority, echoing the phrase _zibin_ in line 5 of : “Ten thousand things as honored guests attend.” Law does not convert; it compels. Most translations render _hua_ as “transform.” Like many of Laozi’s stanzas, this one describes a cyclical pattern: restraint by the ruler leads to everything being done and all things turning toward him. For this reason the repeated term from , “common lasting,” (_chang_, or _heng_ in the Guodian and Mawangdui texts) is translated here “circum-motion”; it describes a perpetual process. The last line is different in both the Guodian and Mawangdui texts. The Guodian has: “The ten thousand will then come to order of themselves \[or: will be stabilized\]”; the Mawangdui: “And heaven and earth will come to right order of themselves.” The received texts all say: “And the world under heaven will be stabilized.” The shift from _wanwu_ to _tianxia_, from “ten thousand things” to “the world under heaven,” may signal an editorial touch of the Jixia Academy of the kingdom of Qi (fl. last half of the fourth century B.C.). In the _Guanzi_, a representative work of the Academy, the social benefits of governmental under-action are emphasized, rather than the benefits of _wuwei_ to the ten thousand. The pronoun _wo_, “we,” in line 6, referring to those in control, means “our side” in Sunzi’s _Art of War_ chapter called “Weakness and Strength” (“Xushi”). However, the term may also be understood in contrast to _fa_, law—that is, in contrast to an impersonal rule by principles or decrees that transcend any human authority. Laozi approves rule by a _wo_, we, but criticizes _si_, self-interest. He thus tries to overcome the conflict between personal rule and personal interest by imagining a ruler who looks to the Way for his model. As early Laozi Daoism evolved into Huang-Lao Daoism in the kingdom of Qi, the Way was reconciled with the law and was even conceived of as the parent of the law. Note the phrase _shifa yongsi_ (for the ruler to let go of the law and rely on himself) at the end of the “Youdu” chapter of the _Han Feizi_. This shows law and self in opposition. An almost identical phrase appears in the Mawangdui text _Cheng:_ “Do not let go of law and use the self _(wo)_.” ### STANZA 38 1 High virtue by obliging not 2 Acquires moral force. 3 Low virtue obliges always 4 And thus lacks moral force. 5 High virtue neither strives 6 Nor acts for its own ends. 7 Low virtue does not strive 8 But acts for its own ends. 9 High kindness does strive 10 But not for its own ends. 11 High service also strives 12 And does so for its ends. 13 High ritual not only strives 14 But, compliance failing, stops at nothing 15 To compel conformance. 16 Thus the loss of the Way 17 Meant the advent of virtue, 18 The loss of virtue 19 The advent of kindness, 20 The loss of kindness 21 The advent of service, 22 The loss of service 23 The advent of ritual rule. 24 Ritual rule turned loyal trust to deceit, 25 Leading to disorder. 26 All that has been learned adorns the Way 27 And engenders delusion. 28 Hence those strong and true keep commitment, 29 Shun deceit, 30 Stay with the kernel that’s real, 31 And shun flowery adornment, 32 Choosing the first, refusing the last. COMMENT This stanza is not found in the Guodian text, yet it is the first stanza of the oldest known full _Laozi_, the Mawangdui, which begins with the _de_ or “virtue” half of the _Laozi_. Either the Mawangdui text is based on a different text tradition from the Guodian, or this stanza was later added to the Guodian collection, or it was not included in that collection; the answer is not known. With as the opening stanza, the emphasis of the entire work shifts from cosmology and cosmogony to history, social organization, and politics. The first eight lines of elaborate on the concept of _wuwei_ (non-striving, non-action, withheld action) by evaluating types of action by whether or not they are assertive (_wei_, strive, act upon, have an effect upon); and whether or not they are calculated (done for the sake of, or for the name of, the doer). The stanza describes social degeneration as the devolution of values—descending by stages from disinterested nonreciprocal benefit to others (lines 1–2) to favor done for favor, in sheer calculation of return—until it reaches the real object of its critique: _li_, ritual, which means to Laozi the complete externalization and hence falsification of human relations. Ritual, cherished by all Confucians, entails exchange through mutual obligation: one side acts, and must act demonstratively (as in adornment) in expectation of reciprocal favor—indeed in order to oblige favor. Thus coercion is implicit in ritual. The strongest refutation of this stanza’s view is found in the opening chapter of the _Book of Ritual:_ “The Way, virtue, benevolence, righteousness—all depend on ritual for their achievement.” Unlike _li_ (ritual), _de_ (virtue) is an inner quality. In _Analects_ 9.17, _de_ is contrasted with _se_ (appearance, appeal, countenance): “I have yet to find one who loves the inner quality so much as the outward show.” Confucius, too, was suspicious of the tendency of ritual to mere display, but he only argued for greater frugality and simplicity in ritual. Mozi followed Confucius on this point. Laozi, on the other hand, opposes ritual in toto and never speaks of reforming it. Water exemplifies Laozi’s social ideal: “Perfect mastery works like water” (). Water performs its service in common, humble, self-sacrificing fashion; obligating no one, it is scarcely noticed and demands no thanks. This is “high virtue.” “Low virtue” seeks its reward from people, from heaven, or from the ancestral gods. The chapter “Lie Yukou” in the _Zhuangzi_ elaborates on some of the themes in this stanza. Compare, for example, the phrase “There is no crime greater than virtue conscious of itself” _(zei moda hu de youxin)_. ### STANZA 39 1 From ancient time the foremost number 2 Has kept the heavens clear and pure, 3 The earth below firm and secure, 4 And made its spirits animate, 5 And its vales exuberant, 6 Enabled beings to procreate, 7 And kings and lords to tell their fate. 8 Without that one prime integer 9 Heaven would crack, since not kept pure, 10 And earth would split, since not secure. 11 Spirits would fade, since not vital, 12 And valleys fail, since not fruitful. 13 All things would die, not procreating, 14 And kings would fall, their fate mistaking. 15 The noble by the lowly are sustained; 16 Those above must have support below. 17 Hence lords and kings themselves proclaim 18 “Bereft,” “bereaved,” or “humble slave,” 19 Relying on a lowly name. 20 Is it not so? 21 Thus “frequent praising brings no fame.” 22 “Prefer not jade’s gentle chime 23 To dull stone’s harsher tang.” COMMENT describes the manifestation of the Way through virtue; describes the manifestation of the Way through the number one. combines the historical and the political and ends with a critique of ritual; , on the other hand, combines the cosmological and the political and ends with a critique of elegant music. Interpretation of this stanza depends on the definition of _yi_ (one, the prime integer) given in . In that stanza, the number one, standing between the Way and the ten thousand things, is a metaphor for the actualization of the Way in all things—a common denominator that undergoes development and complication. One is the first number but also the lowest, the beginning of the ten thousand, all of which depend on it just as the high and mighty depend on the lowly. In one crucial respect Laozi’s “one” differs from later numerological formulas such as _taiyi_ in the _Yijing_ or in the Guodian text _Taiyi sheng shui_ (The great number one gives birth to water): Laozi’s “one” is always subordinate to the Way. It also differs from the use of “one” in political contexts in the _Mencius_ and in Mawangdui texts other than the _Laozi_, where it refers to political unification of the kingdoms. The contrasting images of precious jade and humble stone bring the stanza to a conclusion. This kind of thematically inspirational couplet is often found at the opening of a poem in the _Book of Odes_. The Han commentator Yan Zun says, “As an object jade is fine and rare, while a rock is heavy and commonplace. Thus the former is considered noble the latter of little worth.” The issue of social status is underscored by comparison with _Analects, Mencius_, and _Xunzi_ passages that use the pure tone or polished surface of jade as metaphors for the superior man _(junzi)_. The general function of “one” in this stanza is to show that _Dao_ not only gives birth to the ten thousand but, as heaven and earth, has to mother and sustain them too. The horizontal line representing “one” can be seen as a metonym of the graph for “heaven” (which has a straight horizontal line on top) and an anticipation of the later term _yuan_ (origin), the graph for which also has a straight horizontal line on top. Another graph in this cluster is _ri_, sun, which has a straight horizontal line in the center of an oblong box (bone and bronze inscriptions, on the other hand, show a circle with a large dot in the middle). These associations between the number one, the sun, and heaven may be what endow the graph with its numinous power, a power reflected down to modern times in honorific epithets for Japanese as well as Chinese emperors. If the flat line also represents the ground, as in graphs such as _dan_, dawn, and _li_, standing, we have to consider Yin Zhenhuan’s suggestion that _yi_ here refers among other things to the primacy of agriculture (the fruitful valleys). “One” plays a part in the _Guanzi_ chapter titled “Neiye” (Tasks for the inner man). A passage in this chapter reads: “Who holds the one and does not lose it can be the lord of the ten thousand. When a true leader commands things and is not commanded by them, it is because he has attained the principle of the one.” This passage shows the transformation of Laozi’s concept of one into an active empowering principle. In the _Guanzi_ chapter “Zhiguo” (Governing the kingdom) the number one is linked to the priority of agriculture in ensuring economic prosperity. _Dao_ and the one are also distinct in name and function. _Dao_ is no more than a contrived name (), while one is a function, a dynamic unity of two, as in : “A duad from this monad formed. / The duad next a triad made; / The triad bred the myriad.” ### STANZA 40 1 The Way moves on by contra-motion; 2 Yielding is the application. 3 Becoming begets all beings below, 4 Becoming begotten of negation. COMMENT In , _you_ and _wu_, a key pair of antonyms for Laozi, are translated as “what is” and “what is not.” Here, because they suggest two mutually dependent processes—a building up and a breaking down—they are translated as “becoming” and “negation.” The oft-cited lines 3 and 4 are usually rendered: the ten thousand things issue from what is _(you);_ what is itself issues from what is not _(wu)_. Perhaps “nonentity” as a translation for _wu_ better captures the social point: that humans share a common ancestry with all things, an ancestry that derives from nothing and is thus no source of pride or status, no justification of superiority and domination. The Huang-Lao legalists shifted this idea of a transcendent factor to which all are subject from the cosmic to the social, as in the phrase from the _Guanzi:_ “Ruler and vassal, high and low, noble and mean all comply with law.” In the _Guanzi_, law itself is the social application of the Way. For Laozi the emphasis is on the social microcosm within the natural macrocosm. No complex state machinery is envisioned. He never uses the common phrase “ruler and vassal” _(junchen)_. Classed as one of the ten thousand, humans descend from negation and then return to negation. In this primitivist model, the Way is best applied by receding, by remaining no more than a part of the ten thousand, thus yielding (_ruo_, weakness, passivity) and moving backward, that is, toward negation. Compare this with the emphasis on _ruo_ (meaning gentleness) in : “What more gentle in this world than water? / Yet nothing better conquers hard and strong.” The Mawangdui texts place the first half of directly following this stanza and place the intervening in front of this stanza. Yin Zhenhuan argues that lines 3–4 of and lines 1–8 of make a coherent stanza, while lines 1–2 of sum up the paradoxical themes of the previous stanzas. ### STANZA 41 1 When men of service hearken to the Way, 2 The lofty strive to see it applied, 3 The average cannot seem to decide, 4 While the lower sort grandly deride. 5 Their derision makes _Dao_’s reputation. 6 So the _Words of Guidance_ says: 7 “Seers of the Way seem not to see, 8 And those who advance, to retreat. 9 The smoothest path seems unsure, 10 Honored virtue seems undistinguished, 11 Ample virtue unqualified, 12 Resolute virtue undependable, 13 Stable virtue unfaithful. 14 Pure white seems impure, 15 Broad planes lack angles, 16 Great works take time, 17 Mighty voices rarely sound, 18 Grand vision has no set design, 19 Unknown the Way and thus unnamed.” 20 But the Way it is, the Way alone, 21 That brings first motions to fruition. COMMENT The Way manifests itself in duality and works by contra-motion (): what unfolds reverses what seems to be, only to be itself reversed. Thus naming is confounded. Those who see the world this way may themselves appear different from what they are; for they avoid self-display and self-assertion () and “Acknowledge the white / But remember the black” (). “Mighty voices” is the translation of _dayin_ in line 17. Another possibility (though not raised by commentators) is that the reference is to the ritual court music of the ancient sage kings. _Dashao_, for example is the music of Shun, and _shao_ contains the graph _yin_, meaning sound, sound of music. The sacred music of Yao was called _Dazhang;_ the sacred music of Yu was called _Daxia_. The implication of “Mighty voices rarely sound” or “Mighty music rarely sounds” is that it is rare for a sage to be in power. As for “grand vision” in line 18, both the Guodian and Mawangdui texts have “heaven,” not “great,” so the meaning may be that the patterns or pictures in the sky—the aspects of the constellations, planets, sun, and moon—have no set configuration. People’s fates are controlled by the invisible Way that surrounds them, not by the visible heaven. Line 10 follows commentators who read _gu_, valley, as _su_, undistinguished, commonplace. This reading links the line to the theme of “blending with the lowly dust,” that is, becoming part of the ordinary; see . The geometric metaphor of line 15 is interpreted by Gu Li as principle without rigidity. Alternatively, if we take _ou_ (usually translated “corners”) as “angles,” it might mean “the square \[the upright person?\] has no sharp angles.” The Heshang gong commentary describes the average man of line 3 as a kind of pharisee, dedicated to Confucian learning. This stanza precedes in the Mawangdui texts. ### STANZA 42 1 The number one of the Way was born. 2 A duad from this monad formed. 3 The duad next a triad made; 4 The triad bred the myriad, 5 Each holding _yang_ 6 And held by _yin_, 7 Whose powers’ balanced interaction 8 Brings all ten thousand to fruition. 9 By the names men most of all abhor— 10 “Orphaned,” “wanting,” “destitute”— 11 Kings and lords make themselves known. 12 For in this world 13 Those who take less shall have more, 14 Those given more shall have less. 15 These words men have taught 16 And so shall I teach: 17 “Who live by might never do die right”; 18 These my authority, my guiding light. COMMENT The connection between lines 1–8 and lines 9–18 may be the primacy of the lowest. As the creation rises out of the lowest number, so political authority is effective only when it positions itself beneath all subject to it (see and ). The term _yi_, “one,” is developed in “Chengfa” (Established law): “One rapidly unfolds; by the few know the many.” For more on the place of the number one in the cosmological structure, see the comment to . “Duad” may or may not refer to _yin_ and _yang_—terms that occur only in this stanza; “duad” could also refer to _you_ and _wu_ (what is and what is not) or to _tian_ and _di_ (heaven and earth). The word _san_ (three, triad) is a homophone of the word for disperse, disintegrate, so line 4 may be a variation on “As simplicity disintegrated useful things were forged” (). After “three” _(san)_ the formative structure expands out _(san)_ to the ten thousand. Alternatively, _san_ may stand for _can_, conjoin. Lines 5 and 6 say literally “embracing _yang_ and bearing _yin_ on its back.” These two terms are used for the interdependent opposites with which all things are endowed. Each has its respective _qi_, its powers, energy fields, or animating forces—positive and negative. For Laozi _yin_ and _yang_ seem to be equal and, like heaven and earth, subordinate functions of _Dao_. _Yin_ and _yang_ became dominant concepts in the philosophical schools of the eastern Qi kingdom when the understanding of them as natural, equal forces interacting in a balanced manner was revised and they were each assigned to sets of social factors. For example, in the _Cheng_ section of the _Huangdi sijing, yang_ is associated with heaven, large kingdoms, sovereigns, males, and so on, while _yin_ is associated with earth, small kingdoms, vassals, females, and so on. Comparable passages are found in the _Wenzi_. In this way _yang_ became associated with dominance and dynamism, _yin_ with submissiveness and quietism. Laozi, if anything, favored _yin_ functions. In _Zhuangzi_’s “Tiandao” chapter _yang_ is linked to activity and _yin_ to stillness, but they remain equals, as they are presented in this stanza. Line 10 gives three humbling terms by which rulers referred to themselves. The third, _bugu_ (literally, no foodgrain) may have influenced the Japanese _boku_, your servant—a common word for “I, myself.” The second part of the stanza develops some of the themes of . ### STANZA 43 1 In this world below the sky 2 The gentle will outdo the strong, 3 And the nonmaterial are able 4 To enter the impregnable. 5 Thus I know and know for sure 6 The gains that under-acting yields. 7 But teaching by the word unspoken 8 In this world few can master; 9 The gains that under-acting yields 10 In this world few realize. COMMENT In the _Laozi_ the word _rou_, translated here as “gentle,” refers to water, a metaphor for _Dao_. “What more gentle in this world than water? / Yet nothing better conquers hard and strong” (). Water is also the purposeless benefactor of the world (). The word _rou_ is familiar in English as the first syllable _(ju)_ of the Japanese word _judo; do_ is the Japanese reading for _dao_. Both the terms _rou_ and _shui_ (water) are used in military contexts, for example, in the _Sunzi_, to describe how the weak can cope with the strong. The “Buer” (Contra diversity) chapter of the _Lüshi chunqiu_ says, “Lao Dan valued _rou_.” _Rou_ is thus more than a military metaphor. Its range of meaning includes flexibility, docility, gentleness—characteristics of things first forming, at the inception of their life, when they are malleable and adaptable. One opposite is _jian_, strong, meaning hard and fast, hardened into fixed form, like things at the end of their life. These antonyms are found in , which describes the human being as soft and tender at birth but rigid and stiff at death, and plants as pliant and delicate when coming forth but dry and frail when dying. The present stanza links the concept of _rou_ (in the combined sense of docile and emergent) with the concept of _wu_ (“nonmaterial,” or “nonexistent,” in line 3). This link suggests that the nonexistent includes the potential—something that does not yet exist but is in process of formation. _Wuwei_ (“under-acting” in line 6), then, suggests an action that is fluid, attuned to the emerging possibilities of a situation. In the word _ru_, humility—related phonetically to _rou_—is the key virtue to be preserved. In , the idea of enduring disgrace is linked to kingly conduct: “He who for the kingdom’s sake bears shame / Earns the name—master of the shrine.” Thus the concept of _rou_ can be further extended to include “bearing shame.” _Rou_ is a necessary tactic for the government of a weaker, smaller kingdom that has to cope with powerful ambitious neighbors. This suggests not a small kingdom that is merely trying to survive, but one that has a _tianxia_, a “realm-wide” perspective from the center—a kingdom like that of the royal Zhou house itself. This recurring view from the center is important for positioning the _Dao De Jing_ philosophically and chronologically, since disdain for the realm and its problems is the hallmark of certain post-Laozi Daoists, notably Zhuangzi, who is noted for his refusal to serve in office, and Yang Zhu, who advocated a self-protecting, self-valuing philosophy and opposed any bid for political power. For a revision of Laozi’s formulation, see the “Sanjin” section of the _Huangdi sijing_ text _Jingfa:_ “The Way of men includes both soft and hard; the soft \[alone\] cannot be used, the hard \[alone\] cannot be relied upon.” Another word in the _rou_ family is _ruo_ (weakness, yielding). As says, the Way works through weakness and in this manner controls the myriad phenomena—a cosmic expression of the power of the gentle over the strong. Thus the terms for weakness and yielding are used in the _Laozi_ on both the social and the cosmic levels. The Heshang gong commentary says, “The nonmaterial _(wu)_ means the _Dao_, which has neither shape nor substance yet moves in and out of what seems solid and impenetrable to reach the spiritual. . . .” “Nonmaterial” may also refer to consciousness, or to something spiritual that can enter into and even transform something physical. The subtle working of the nonmaterial can alter the internal dynamic of the material and thus prove more effective than overt declarations or direct action. ### STANZA 44 1 Is the name or the man the more precious? 2 Does the man or his goods count for more? 3 Does the gain or the loss bring more pain? 4 Extreme economies entail great waste, 5 And excess holdings heavy losses; 6 But a humbling is spared by few wants, 7 A miscarriage by knowing the limits; 8 Thus one can abide and endure. COMMENT _Ming_, “name,” includes honor, face, fame, title, and rank, as well as personal terms of address—all of which register social status and function. Whether social order is sustained by ritual or by law, name is the instrument for its common acceptance and enforcement. Names also serve to describe the realm of the ten thousand, and when so used become a device by which people through social organization appropriate the ten thousand for their own consumption. Despite their major differences, Laozi and Mozi shared a conservative outlook on economics, based on a preference for limited productivity. Mozi had criticized funerary ritual for its extravagance and had singled out the wastefulness of “music,” that is, great entertainment festivals. By the early to mid third century B.C. there was a sea change in the sphere of economics. In the writings of Xunzi, who borrowed heavily from Laozi but for purposes opposite to Laozi’s, one finds a sense of burgeoning productive power, making the self-limiting economics of Mozi and Laozi seem obsolete. For Xunzi the human economy is not antagonistic to nature but rather creatively integrates itself with nature, drawing upon it for expansion and improving nature in the process. The final object of Xunzi’s philosophy is the conquest of the ten thousand things, a conquest that envisions their use for human beings rather than their own independent _(zi)_ self-development. Laozi would probably have grieved at Xunzi’s application of his philosophy of minimizing human impact on nature. ### STANZA 45 1 Great successes may seem flawed, 2 But their benefits injure no one. 3 Great abundance may seem spent, 4 But its supply is endless. 5 Great honesty may seem unfair, 6 Great eloquence like reticence, 7 Great artistry like clumsiness, 8 But they stand the trial of use. 9 Keen cold yields to excitation, 10 And heat of passions to repose: 11 On reflection and repose rely 12 To rightly rule the world below the sky. COMMENT Hovering over this stanza is a sense of military dialectics. Sun Bin’s chapter “Ten Questions” (“Shiwen”) in _Art of War_ says that when attacking a strong and large army, “Announce your lack of courage; display your lack of ability; passive and clumsy, await the foe, in order to make them arrogant and weaken their determination; thus the enemy will not know \[what you are doing\].” The word _qing_, translated here as “reflection,” is usually translated as an adjective (pure, limpid) but is almost surely a noun in this stanza, equal syntactically to “repose.” _Qing_ means clear water, or clear as water, but it also means made clear by refining (as in wine). Applied to conduct, the word means clean; applied to thought, it means clear, suggesting concentration, or refining reflection. Both understanding, which extracts the vital essence of things, and repose, which is the power to resist temptations, are required for the ruler to see the negative and positive sides of things. Lines 9 and 10 may simply be folk aphorisms concerning the interaction of contraries. Reflection and repose are Laozi’s method for dealing with the relationship between contraries. As Wang Bi says in his comment to this stanza, “Through reflection and repose \[wise men\] attain the various ‘greatnesses’ mentioned earlier.” Building on Wang Bi’s comment, Su Che writes: Honesty without flexibility is honesty that must break; honesty must follow the inner law governing things, and even if it twists and turns, it is honesty. Art without crudeness is art that will lose its appeal; but if art stays close to things as they are, though crude, it is art. Eloquence that leaves nothing unsaid is eloquence that will exhaust itself; but speech that conforms to principles, though reticent, will be eloquent. Unflawed success, unfailing bounty, inflexible honesty, facile artistry, loquacious eloquence—these are all like energy that cannot find repose, or repose that cannot be aroused. For activity can overcome cold, but cannot overcome heat; repose can overcome heat, but cannot overcome cold. Each is trapped in its one-sidedness and thus is not objective. Only dispassionate reflection and repose are immune to onesidedness. ### STANZA 46 1 When the Way prevails below the sky 2 Disbanded chargers dung the land; 3 But when the Way the world deserts 4 War horses breed outside the towns. 5 No crime exceeds desire sanctioned, 6 No woe is worse than discontent, 7 No omen more dire than desire gained. 8 Truly with few wants content, 9 Contentment lasts as long as life. COMMENT The first four lines of this stanza are not found in the Guodian text. The complete stanza form is in the Mawangdui text, with the first four lines set off in the A text. Apparently, the Mawangdui editor wanted to link the antiwar theme with the theme of controlling desire. Thus the desires of the ruler—ambitious expansion and acquisition—become the focus of the stanza. But in fact desire is a broad category of which military ambition is only a subsection. The most common interpretation of line 4 is that meeting increasing demand for horses requires bringing female horses into field camp and battleground—once good farmland—to breed. _Jiao_ (suburb, countryside) is contrasted to the administrative center in the _Book of Odes_. The Heshang gong commentary says that the female horses give birth in the war camps because the war has kept them from returning home for so long. ### STANZA 47 1 No need to venture past the door 2 To know this world below the skies, 3 Nor peer outside the window frame 4 To see the heavens’ works and ways: 5 “Distant ventures, meager knowledge.” 6 For this reason men of wisdom 7 Know the world not having walked it, 8 And name it true not having seen it, 9 And gain success not striving for it. COMMENT The world of Laozi was filled with educated elite who traveled widely as diplomats. Their mission was to arrange alliances and treaties, both military and commercial. These _youshui_, circulating persuaders, were renowned for their knowledge of history and current events and for their skill in talking rulers and advisers into staying a course or changing one. Another category of travelers was the scholars who flocked from many kingdoms to the Jixia Academy in the kingdom of Qi. In this stanza Laozi opposes the “open door” epistemology of broad engagement with the world of objects and forms. He shuts out the outside world and severs intercourse with it in order to maintain clarity about it. For example, “Interdict all interaction; / Seal and bar all gates and doors” is the formulation of . Laozi’s claustrophilia echoes his accent on the female, who was confined to domestic spaces and had no place in public. The image of a secure interior from which to view more clearly the outer world profoundly affected the eastern, or Qi, branch of Daoist Legalism. This school is represented in the _Huangdi sijing_ and in the _Guanzi_, whose chapter “Mental Functions” (“Xinshu, shang”) says: “Cleanse the palace and throw wide its portals. The palace refers to the mind, and the mind is the place where understanding dwells. The gates refers to the senses, the means to see and hear.” Though the architecture in the _Guanzi_ passage has changed from the humble abode implied in this stanza of the _Laozi_, the epistemology is consistent: knowledge is a function of internal discipline and cultivation. For Laozi, however, the mind is the primary resident of its abode; for the author of the _Guanzi_ chapter, clear consciousness is a kind of guest (_guiren_, treasured person) who may not enter if the lodgings are not to his liking or may depart if the service is inadequate. Mental clarity is essential for the proper control and utilization of the senses. When desires are suppressed, the mind controls its officers, the senses. The _Guanzi_ passage thus amends Laozi’s rejection of the senses (), claiming instead that purity of mind is the precondition for the successful acquisition of objective knowledge through the senses. In later texts such as the _Han Feizi_ and the _Huainanzi_ this stanza was used to support the idea that the sovereign could never know enough to govern by his unaided powers; he had to rely on the knowledge that was brought to him by others. ### STANZA 48 1 To pursue learning, learn more day by day; 2 To pursue the Way, unlearn it day by day: 3 Unlearn and then unlearn again 4 Until there is nothing to pursue: 5 No end pursued, no end ungained. 6 Whoever means to win this world below 7 Never undertakes that task; 8 Whoever does make that his task 9 Is not fit to win this world below. COMMENT Learning _(xue)_ means striving to know the world beyond the door, the world that Laozi dismisses. The purpose of learning was expansion and extension, the acquiring of ever-wider bureaucratic, diplomatic, and technical expertise. Laozi opposes such learning because it leads to economic development, territorial expansion, and war. This is the theme of lines 1–5. In the Guodian text, line 6 is the orphaned line that opens in the received text, but which modern editors have sometimes shifted to the end of : _jue xue wu you_, “Reject the teaching of the young / And thereby suffer no distress.” This four-word line (two lines in English) probably completes the present stanza as found in the Guodian manuscript. Note also the connection between this stanza and made in the _Zhuangzi_ chapter “Zhibeiyou” (see notes to ). The famous line 5 of this stanza: _wuwei er wubuwei_, usually translated “By inaction nothing is left undone,” could also be translated in the potential: “Not acting makes all action possible.” The line is effaced in Mawangdui A and incomplete in Mawangdui B. Lines 6 through 9 use two military terms, _qu_ and _shi. Qu_ (win, prevail) is common in military texts, where it is used in the sense of seize or take power. Its use here in an antimilitary context is probably an intentional reversal of convention, as if to say, “This is how to ‘conquer’ the world.” The term _shi_ (task, a cause to serve) also frequently appears in military texts in the sense of military matters or factors. Lines 6–9, which are missing in the Guodian text, were not originally a sequel to lines 1–5 but rather an independent stanza or comment added to the text to illustrate its usefulness to those in power. This fortifies the theory of Guo Qi that the Guodian text is a version of the _Laozi_ that argues for return to simplicity, while the Mawangdui and all other _Laozi_ texts apply that argument to the ends of statecraft. ### STANZA 49 1 The wise maintain no constant mind, 2 But take as theirs the people’s mind. 3 “Those minded to do good we take for good, 4 As we do those not so minded”: 5 And this obligates their goodness. 6 “And the trusted I trust, 7 As I trust the not-to-trust”: 8 And this obligates their trust. 9 In the world the wise man stands 10 All-enfolding, all-accepting— 11 No longer apart from the world, nor above. 12 The people lend him their eyes and their ears; 13 The wise man cradles them like babes. COMMENT The opening image reverses the conventional Confucian position on the authority of the ruler over the ruled. The Confucian ruler is the judge of right and wrong and those he rules will follow the direction he sets, as grass bends to the wind’s course. The Guodian text _Ziyi_ (Dark robes) attributes to Confucius these words: “The people take the ruler to be their mind, the ruler takes the people as his body. What the mind enjoys the body feels comfortable with; what the ruler enjoys the people will desire.” Making the ruler and the mind the determinative factors and the people and the body the responsive factors is a commonplace of Warring States Confucian thought. In the Guodian text _Dexing_ (Virtuous conduct) the mind is spoken of as the ruler of the physical senses, the people as the physical being of the ruler. Laozi’s ruler does not act as a superior director, however. Like water that seeks the lowest level and yet holds sway, the mind of Laozi’s ruler follows the contours of those he rules. The wise ruler is a nonjudgmental, self-effacing mother. The phrase _xi-xi_, “all-enfolding, all-accepting,” in line 10 is associated with the female. Laozi’s ruler does not judge, just as the mother abandons no child; this universal embrace echoes the lines of : “Accordingly, the wise know how to salvage men / And make sure none go to waste; / They know how to salvage things / And make sure none go to waste.” The closing line has the word _hai_, child (in the received version), which suggests the child in his or her mother’s arms, as opposed to _zi_, the socially recognized child. With virtually no changes in text, a rather different reading of these lines is found in the Heshang gong commentary. Lines 3–4 are understood to mean that when the people do good the sage accordingly treats them as good, and when they are not good he converts them to good. The same for the trust in lines 6–7. Lines 9–10 are taken to mean that in the world the wise are anxious lest their good fortune lead to pride and profligacy. So also, lines 11–13 are interpreted: the sage allows his mind to be confused for the people’s sake and so their eyes and ears have to serve him. The sage raises them with love, expecting no reward or return. This stanza is not found in the Guodian manuscript. ### STANZA 50 1 They come forth into life and they go to the dead: 2 The gateways of life are thirteen in all, 3 And the gateways of death the same thirteen. 4 But people in pursuit of life 5 Drive themselves to where death waits 6 At any of the thirteen mortal points. 7 And why is this? 8 A way of life too rich. 9 Men say those who secret themselves well 10 Will meet no gaur or tiger on the land, 11 Nor suffer weapon’s wound in war: 12 Present the gaur no place to gore them, 13 Nor the tiger place to claw them, 14 Nor the foe a place to stab them. 15 And why is this so? 16 Their mortal points are not exposed. COMMENT In “Jie Lao” Han Feizi lists thirteen vital functions: eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, excretory organs, and the four limbs. This stanza’s second half seems to speak of a kind of supernatural invulnerability not consistent with the rest of the _Laozi_. Perhaps some contact with a medical or military text led to this stanza’s incorporation into the _Laozi_. A similar but more developed passage in the _Zhuangzi_ speaks of the quasi-magical effects of spiritual training: The perfect man can walk under water without choking, can tread on fire without being burned, and can travel above the ten thousand things without being frightened. . . . This is because he guards the pure breath—it has nothing to do with wisdom, skill, determination, or courage. . . . His spirit has no flaw, so how can things enter and get at him? When a drunken man falls from a carriage, though the carriage may be going very fast, he won’t be killed. He has joints and bones the same as other men, yet he is not injured as they would be because his spirit is whole. . . . If he can keep himself whole like this by means of wine, how much more can he keep himself whole by means of heaven! The sage secrets _(cang)_ himself in Heaven—hence there is nothing that can do him harm. This stanza is not in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 51 1 Ten thousand _Dao_ begets and breeds, 2 Which its power tends and feeds 3 As objects all take varied shape, 4 As things to use reach final form. 5 For this the natural myriad 6 Honor the Way, esteem its power. 7 Such honor and such high esteem 8 No mandate from above decreed; 9 It is their norm of self-becoming. 10 _Dao_ indeed begets and breeds, 11 All its power tends and feeds 12 And fosters and then raises up 13 And brings to full maturity 14 And still preserves and still protects. 15 For _Dao_ begets but does not keep, 16 Works its way but does not bind: 17 Authority that does not rule. 18 Such is the meaning of “hidden power.” COMMENT In this stanza the procreative powers of the Way are cast in a parental metaphor rather than a numerological one as in . The parental aspect of _Dao_ and _de_ in this stanza is reinforced by the stanza’s affinities with ode 202, “Liaowo,” whose fourth stanza has lines that virtually match lines 1–6 of this stanza: Father, he begat us, and mother, she embraced us And stroked us and tended us And fostered us and raised us And watched us and protected us And gave us comfort wherever she went. To requite such virtue and favor _(de)_ Would be like requiting the heavens infinite. This is the second and last time in the text that the terms in its title, _Dao_ and _de_, are found in conjunction. In , _de_ (power, favor) is a handmaiden to _Dao_, a partner assisting _Dao_’s creative mission. The largess of _Dao_ and _de_ is not without design. Thus _Dao_ and _de_ work unseen and never look for repayment from the things they have given life to. _Dao_ does not begrudge its effort; _de_ does not seek repayment for gifting the ten thousand with self-becoming. This is what sublime favor or power means: it goes unacknowledged; there is no way to reciprocate. For that favor, _Dao_ and _de_ enjoy the honor and esteem of all things, but given freely, not in ritualized response to ordained authority. Indeed, they preempt the honor and esteem normally demanded of children and subjects. ### STANZA 52 1 The world below has its gestation; 2 We hold there’s a mother of all below. 3 The mother gained 4 The children known; 5 The children known, 6 The mother regained; 7 Then your life will not miscarry. 8 Interdict all interaction; 9 Seal and bar all gates and doors; 10 Thus prevent debility. 11 Open paths of interaction; 12 Busy furthering your ends; 13 Then never make recovery. 14 True vision marks the smallest signs; 15 Real strength keeps to the gentler way. 16 Apply your view, 17 But regain true vision’s inner home. 18 Fall not into life’s misfortunes; 19 Strive for the common lasting norm. COMMENT The first thirteen lines of this stanza combine the theme of —“No need to venture past the door / To know this world below the skies”—with the maternal aspect of the Way. The innumerable offspring—the effects—must be “known” and kept in perspective. But the original cause should never be forgotten. Hold fast to the source of things; then the relation of _Dao_ to things, cause to effect, “mother” to “child” will always be clear. As Wang Bi’s comment says, “Do not neglect the fundamental and pursue the trivial.” This is “true vision” _(ming);_ this is reaching “the timeless constant norm.” The second part of the stanza is a reprise of the theme of keeping the people from knowledge. Following Heshang gong, the word _dui_, “interaction,” is usually taken to mean the eyes (or by extension, the senses), which receive the outside world; the gates and doors are the mouth, and perhaps hearing as well. These lines may also refer to wider commercial and political intercourse. In the _Huainanzi_, sealing in is related to _yin_, opening out to _yang_. The theme, in the third part of the stanza, of noting the smallest signs was opposed by Mencius in his description of a man with vision _(ming)_ keen enough to detect a fine hair but blind to a wagonload of wood (_Mencius_ 1A7.10). Interestingly, Mencius uses this analogy to advocate taking action _(wei)_ to further fundamental principles and goals. Mencius saw Daoist inaction as a kind of small-scale hedonism that serves the self alone and avoids extending oneself to serve others. Mencian altruism advocates the patriarchal family as the model for the state. This is Mencius’s application of his basic principle of _ren_ (benevolence, humanity, kin-kindness). ### STANZA 53 1 Grant me this: to firmly know 2 That in walking the great high Way 3 I shall fear only to deviate 4 From the high way plain and fair; 5 For to byways men are lightly drawn. 6 The court is richly blessed, 7 But the farm fields are wasting, 8 And the bins bare of grain; 9 And courtiers dress in elegance, 10 Bear well-honed swords, 11 Gorge on food and drink— 12 This superflux of wealth and goods 13 Is the piper’s tune for thieves, 14 The negation of the Way. COMMENT This is one of the stanzas that define the _Dao_ in a political context; it is not found in the Guodian text. For the most part, these protest stanzas are spread across both halves of the received text, but they tend to be more common in the non-Guodian part of the text. The criticism of abusive official power compares in its sharpness to that found in the “Rifling Trunks” and “Robber Zhi” chapters of the _Zhuangzi_. “He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord—and we all know that benevolence and righteousness are to be found at the gates of the feudal lords.” In the _Zhuangzi_ chapter “The Way of Heaven,” Laozi, in an imagined conversation with Confucius, contrasts benevolence and righteousness _(renyi)_ with simplicity _(pu)_. Notably, however, such direct attacks on _renyi_, a core Confucian term, are not found in the Guodian text. ### STANZA 54 1 Virtue well-founded nothing uproots; 2 Virtue fast-bound no one can steal; 3 And this ensures through generations 4 The sacred services be not cut off. 5 Cultivated in his character, 6 His virtue pure and simple. 7 Cultivated in his clan, 8 His virtue well suffices. 9 Cultivated in his district, 10 His virtue offers leadership. 11 Cultivated in his kingdom, 12 His virtue brings prosperity. 13 Cultivated in this realm below, 14 His virtue knows no limitation. 15 This is the reason to consider 16 Character in terms of character, 17 Clan in terms of clan, 18 District in terms of district, 19 Kingdom in terms of kingdom, 20 And the world below as the world below. 21 How do I know this is true of the realm? 22 By this very means. COMMENT Possibly referring to lines 16–21 of this stanza, a passage in the _Guanzi_ reads: “You will be unable to govern the township if you treat it as a clan; you will be unable to govern the kingdom if you treat it as a township; you will be unable to govern the world if you treat it as a kingdom.” The _Guanzi_, in its institutional orientation, drops the issue of virtue in rule and confines itself to opposing the Confucian extension of the standards of the smaller unit to the larger—the family as the model for the state. This stanza retains the term “virtue” as the foundation for guaranteeing the continuity of the clan rites, that is, the survival of the kingdom, but it is virtue as defined in the _Laozi_. The locus classicus for the Confucian expansion model is found in _The Great Learning (Daxue):_ self-cultivation is required for ordering the clan, ordering the clan for governing the kingdom, governing the kingdom for bringing peace to the world. Laozi proposes instead that each level of social organization be distinguished, seen, and ruled in its own terms. Confusion of the levels is caused by the aggrandizing of a lower level upon a higher. Virtue may be necessary at each level, but those of “well-founded” virtue will have the qualities requisite for that particular level. Another formulation of the same problem is found in the _Huangdi sijing_ text “Liufen”: “To consider the kingdom, consider the ruler; to consider the family, consider the father.” This stanza is found in its entirety in the Guodian text, where it follows . ### STANZA 55 1 Who holds within the fullest power 2 To a newborn may compare, 3 Which no insect stings, 4 No wild beast seizes, 5 No taloned bird snatches. 6 Though soft-boned and weak-limbed, its grip is firm. 7 Before it ever knows of intercourse, 8 Its standing phallus shows its full life force. 9 It cries all day without a loss of voice, 10 A sign of its perfect balance. 11 Knowing balance means constant norm; 12 Knowing the norm means inner vision; 13 Enhancing life means good fortune; 14 Mind controlling spirit means inner strength. 15 “Beware old age in pride of manly might,” 16 For that means working against the Way. 17 “Work against the Way, die before your day.” COMMENT Regarding lines 1–5 Wang Bi comments: “Having no demand nor desire, the infant does not provoke any of the ten thousand creatures.” Su Che adds: “Being formless, _Dao_ cannot be seen, much less harmed by anything. Men come to manifest themselves when the mind develops. After intention comes form; after form comes opposition and enmity. . . . Indifferent in its lack of desire, the infant’s physique is at its perfection. When an external object presents itself, it lacks the consciousness to respond.” In his chapter “Kengsang Chu” (name of a purported disciple of Laozi) Zhuangzi elaborates on the virtue of the infant: “The baby howls . . . yet . . . never gets hoarse . . . makes fists . . . yet its fingers never cramp. . . . It has no preference in the world of externals. To move without knowing where you are going, . . . riding along with \[things\] on the same wave—this is the basic rule of life preservation.” Neither _xin_, “mind,” nor _qi_, “spirit,” in line 14 is a major term of the _Laozi_. In the chapter “In the World of Men” (“Renjian Shi”) Zhuangzi describes the fasting of the mind: “Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things.” For the Zhuangzi Daoists, spirit is a higher consciousness or receptivity that the assertive, subjective mind cannot achieve. In the _Laozi_, however, spirit is a lesser power and has not superseded the mind. The bonding of _qi_ to _Dao_ is a key theme of the _Xiang’er_ commentary. ### STANZA 56 1 Those who know it do not say it; 2 Those who say it do not know it. 3 Those who know bar interaction, 4 Shut and seal the gates and doors; 5 They dull their keen edge and 6 Resolve their differences, 7 Reconcile the points of view 8 And blend with the lowly dust. 9 This we call sublime at-oneness. 10 Favor affects them not, 11 Nor disfavor, 12 Neither advantage 13 Nor injury, 14 Neither honor 15 Nor dishonor. 16 Thus those who know are honored in the world. COMMENT The word _yan_, “say,” in line 1 is mainly used to refer to organized speech, the statement of a position. The sage avoids exposing his advocacy; he takes no side and thus does not become one of a pair of opposites. Lines 3–7 describe the ways of interdicting conflict and disputation so that the ruler can keep his subjects free of knowledge and desire, hence free of conflicts. Gu Li thinks this stanza is addressed to a weakening nobility. “From the beginning of the Spring and Autumn era, conflicts among the slave-holding nobles . . . have led to many a bloody incident. . . . Laozi was particularly concerned by this, and his goal was to moderate these conflicts. . . . The overarching theme is ‘balance or moderate major grievances’ ().” Zhang Songru comments: “Seeing contradiction, Laozi seeks harmony. This influenced Zhuangzi’s relativism.” Su Che says that lines 3 and 4 describe blocking external influences and lines 5–8 describe inner cultivation, the achievement of disengaged impartiality. The phrase _he qi guang_, “reconcile the points of view” has not been convincingly explained. Waley says, “All glare tempered”; Chan and Lao say, “Soften the glare.” These translations seem to follow the Heshang gong commentary, which says, “Though you have rare insight, blend it and make it seem dark and unknowing rather than allow it to dazzle.” The unique phrase in line 9, _xuantong_, “sublime at-oneness,” occurs in Zhuangzi’s chapter “Rifling Trunks.” Following Waley’s translation in , Watson translates _xuantong_ as “Mysterious Levelling,” referring to the cessation of polemics among various philosophical schools. ### STANZA 57 1 Rule kingdoms by right; 2 Wage war by deceit; 3 To win the world forsake ambition; 4 How do I know that this is so? 5 The more thou-shalt-nots for the world, 6 The more the people are deprived. 7 The more devices that bring gain, 8 The more the clan and kingdom’s bane. 9 The more that clever crafts expand, 10 The more strange artifacts abound. 11 The more the laws and writs declared, 12 The more that crime and violence spread. 13 Hence the wise in rule have said, 14 “May we under-govern and 15 The ruled uplift themselves. 16 May we remain inactive and 17 The ruled right themselves. 18 May we forsake ambition and 19 The ruled enrich themselves. 20 May we have no more desire 21 And the ruled keep their simple ways.” COMMENT This attack on ritual, invention, and law ends with an emphasis on the ruler’s self _(wo)_ as the standard for governing. Not law nor directive Confucian rule but self-restraining, self-effacing sagely rule will liberate the people, who then “of themselves” _(zi)_ will prosper and enjoy good order. This becomes possible when the rulers “forsake ambition” (_wushi_, a phrase close in meaning to _wuwei_). Waley translates it “letting-alone.” The implicit opposition between the terms _fa_, law, and _wo_, self, in this _Laozi_ stanza contrasts with other _Huangdi sijing_ texts that reconcile _Dao_ and law. They speak of the ruler as a creator and a follower of the law. “_Dao_ gives birth to law. . . . He who controls the _Dao_ gives birth to law and never dares to violate it.” “Have no more desire” in the closing lines does not refer to biological desire, but rather to the socially created desire that drives economic ambition. The last word of the stanza, _pu_ (simple, primitive, pure, elemental), suggests the opening binoms of the next stanza: _men-men_ (restrained and contained) and _chun-chun_ (simple and wholesome). _Pu_ also suggests the simple utopia described in . ### STANZA 58 1 Under rule restrained but caring 2 Simple and wholesome stay the ruled; 3 But under rule that probes and prods 4 They connive and they contrive. 5 Good fortune stands beside ill fate; 6 Beneath good fortune ill fate hides. 7 Who can find the turning point? 8 For it there is no standard rule: 9 Rule reverses to exception, 10 Boon reverses to affliction, 11 For which men have lost direction 12 For a time of long duration. 13 This is why the wise who rule 14 Keep to the square but form no edge, 15 Gather gains but will not thrust, 16 Stay straight and true but cross no line; 17 And shed light but not to blind. COMMENT As and also describe, the Way works by reverse motion through the dialectic of opposites in each thing. Only by holding fast to oneness can a person cope with the changes. Zhuangzi cites Laozi in his chapter “Kengsang Chu”: “Can you embrace the one? Can you keep from losing it? Can you, without tortoise shell or divining stalks, foretell fortune and misfortune?” According to Gu Li, the closing lines of this stanza could also mean one should stick to one’s principles without sacrificing flexibility. Though not in the Guodian text, this stanza seems responsive to the previous stanza, which is in the Guodian. See the last point in the comment for . ### STANZA 59 1 For ruling men, for serving heaven. 2 Nothing surpasses having in store. 3 For it is having in store 4 That we call taking precaution. 5 And taking precaution we call 6 Bent on amassing one’s powers. 7 Bent on amassing one’s powers 8 Means overcoming all obstacles. 9 Overcoming all obstacles 10 Means having no known turning point. 11 Having no known turning point 12 Gives dominion over the kingdom. 13 The mother-source of this dominion 14 Yields staying power— 15 What is known as deep roots and strong base, 16 The Way of extended life and sustained reflection. COMMENT The interpretation of this stanza depends on the word _s_e in line 3, “having in store.” _Se_ means “reserving grain” but has usually been read as a metaphor for political control based on discipline over one’s mental and physical powers. This has been the prevailing interpretation in both Chinese commentaries and English translations. Following Wang Bi’s comment, however, Yin Zhenhuan develops the idea that _se_ refers to giving priority to agriculture. The reference in line 13 to the fruitful earth supports Yin’s interpretation. Su Che does not follow Wang Bi’s agricultural explanation and suggests that the qualities described in lines 14–17 of the previous stanza are instances of “having in store.” In line 1 the word “heaven” _(tian)_ is often interpreted naturalistically, as it is in the _Zhuangzi_. This stanza is in the Guodian text, where line 1 has “provide” _(ji)_rather than “rule” _(zhi)_. “Provide” supports the interpretation of _se_ (restraint) as _se_ in the sense of “gathering in the harvest”—over the interpretation of Han Feizi, who reads _se_ as garnering or conserving (the leader’s) virtue or spiritual powers. The present translation, however, keeps to the received wording because of the surrounding stanzas, which contain advice to those in power. ### STANZA 60 1 Rule a great state as you cook a small fish. 2 Through the Way take a ruler’s place in the world, 3 And the ghosts of the dead shall have no force. 4 Is it that they have no force? 5 Or that their force can do no harm? 6 That their force can do no harm? 7 Or that the wise lord does no harm? 8 Nor ghosts nor wise lord doing harm 9 To their joint virtue thus redounds. COMMENT Doing no harm, the wise lord leaves no wronged party to summon a ghost, no injustice proclaimed that the spirits of the dead must return to redress. This stanza is based both on the Mohist view of ghosts as agents of justice and on folk wisdom about the avenging role of the underworld. Mozi argues that ghosts descend to punish the evil and reward the good. The phrase “great state” in line 1 is not seen earlier in the _Laozi_. Wang Bi says, commenting on this line, “The larger the kingdom, the quieter should the ruler be.” Such a kingdom would present the specific problems of modernization, aggrandizement, and war-making that Laozi has been addressing all along. Wars are declared in the ancestral temple, and the sacred dead are summoned to bless the cause. “Cooking a small fish” represents minimal handling, which would include a minimum of official activity, war requisitions, regulations, imposts—all the activities that disturb agricultural work. The fish remains intact, uninjured; the metaphor suggests attentiveness to what is small, as well as gentleness toward small kingdoms (in addition to consideration for the farmers). Laozi’s opposition to war and ritual are thus connected. Fortune and misfortune generate one another; they do not come from the supernatural or the ancestral dead. Those who rule according to _Dao_ are cognizant of this. says, “Good fortune stands beside ill fate; / Beneath good fortune ill fate hides.” Mozi took the first step in demystifying the spirits when he made them responsive to the deeds of all, not simply ancestral agents at the service of the aristocracy. Laozi goes a step farther in declaring that the dead will lose their power to affect the living when rulers rule by the Way. The Zhuangzi chapter “Mending the Inborn Nature” says, “At that time the _yin_ and _yang_ were harmonious and still; ghosts and spirits worked no mischief.” And the “Way of Heaven” chapter of the _Zhuangzi_ says, “With a unified mind one can become king of the empire; then the ghosts will not plague.” This stanza, and indeed the entire _Laozi_, may be counted as one of the voices of protest against the idea that ghosts and spirits have power over humans. This is another way by which Laozi replaces historical time with natural time. The opening line seems to have no connection to the remainder of the stanza and was probably an independent saying. ### STANZA 61 1 A mighty kingdom stays downstream, 2 Female of this world below, 3 Where all courses intersect. 4 Dam holding still has ever conquered sire. 5 But to hold herself still 6 She must remain below. 7 By lying below a small kingdom 8 A great one takes it over. 9 By lying below a great kingdom 10 A small state is taken over. 11 By moving lower the greater takes over. 12 Lying low the smaller is taken over. 13 A great kingdom seeks no more 14 Than to absorb and protect. 15 A small state no more than to enter its service. 16 Thus for both to fulfill their desire 17 Lower must the greater lie. COMMENT The water imagery in this stanza evokes the closing lines of , “The Way’s a presence in the realm of men, / As valley streams join rivers, then the ocean,” and also relates to the neighboring antiwar and . addresses internal policy; this one, external affairs. The two stanzas seem to form a set. Neither is found in the Guodian text. In this stanza Laozi urges great rulers to find a benign balance in relation to unequals, both stronger and weaker, rather than pursue a course of conquest. Gu Li argues that such a position reflects the late Spring and Autumn political context rather than a middle or late Warring States context. The stanza fits into a world of hegemonic _(ba)_ or league-forming _(meng)_ rulers who need to expand their blocs, rather than the late-third-century B.C. world of large kingdom alliances that were made when most of the smaller kingdoms had already been devoured by the greater. However, one could also argue that Laozi’s prescriptions for international peace are hardly different from Mencius’s. In Mencius 1B.3 a king of Qi asks, “Is there a proper way to interact with the neighboring kingdoms?” Mencius replies, “Only the humane \[ruler\] can lead his greater kingdom to serve a smaller one. . . . When we have a great kingdom serving a smaller one it shows a love of heaven; when we have a smaller serving a greater it shows an awe of heaven.” For both Laozi and Mencius the fate of the smaller kingdoms of the realm was a critical issue. ### STANZA 62 1 A midden for the myriad, 2 The Way is sacred to men of merit 3 And a safeguard to all who do wrong. 4 Fine words may buy high station, 5 Fine deeds win men’s acclaim, 6 But why turn from those who do wrong? 7 For when the son of heaven is enthroned, 8 And his three elder statesmen are installed, 9 Better to counsel them in the Way 10 Than ride an envoy’s four-horse coach 11 Heralded by the jade disc of state. 12 Why did men of old honor the Way? 13 Has it not been said, “Through the Way 14 Shall right be found, wrongdoers spared”? 15 For this the world honors the Way. COMMENT Nothing from the sacrifice is considered waste; all leavings go to the sacred midden, much as the Way receives all people and all things. “\[T\]he wise know how to salvage men / And . . . things” (). The one who can teach a king how to transcend contradictions, to use the negative as well as the positive, is worth more to the kingdom than the tribute of the rich and the acclaim of men. ### STANZA 63 1 Do what is undone; 2 Serve the unserved; 3 Savor what lacks savor; 4 Make bigger smaller, more less; 5 Repay a wrong with friendly favor. 6 Forestall trouble when it’s easy to. 7 Act on the major when it’s still minor. 8 For this world’s troubles start with simple things, 9 And major matters rise from little ones. 10 Thus the wise, not making much of them, 11 Can always see their great works through. 12 But “lightly granted rarely honored”; 13 And much too easy means much trouble. 14 Even the wisest looks for the trouble ahead, 15 And ends up with the trouble spared. COMMENT Lines 1–5 describe how a ruler moves in a direction contrary to expectations and self-interest in order to minimize conflict. _Wei_ (“do” in line 1) is connected in with _zhi_, govern, and means govern in the phrase _weibang_ in the _Analects. Wuwei_ describes action that has so little personal purpose, so little subjective dimension, that it is highly responsive to objective circumstances, which are always changing. Thus the disinterested actor can perceive the becoming in the existing. The first line reads: _wei wuwei_. Perhaps this ambiguous three-word phrase implies its sequel, _wu buwei_, in : “No end pursued, no end ungained.” Most translations suggest “act without acting” or some variation thereof for _wei wuwei_, but a verb-object construction is more likely. of this translation reads: “acting . . . without taking the lead.” Other meanings of the semantically complex word _wei_ include acting for a subjective gain or purpose, and acting in an artificial manner. The phrase _wei wuwei_ has the power and ambiguity of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be,” and possibly the same syntax too. If lines 1–3 are translated “to act or not to act; to serve or not to serve; to savor or not to savor,” then the rest of the stanza would consist of the bases for making these choices. Lines 1–3 probably critique Confucian bureaucrats, for whom self-cultivation, social ambition, and banqueting were primary. Laozi limits ambition and appetite, humbly grants the small and the few their due, and disdains prideful retaliations. These are the preconditions for undertaking the tasks the rest of the stanza enumerates. The Confucian model is to develop a world order out of the educated statesmen _(junzi)_ in government service, based on the logic of “from the self to the other”: “as you establish and achieve for the self, establish and achieve for the other” (_Analects_ 6.28). Laozi, on the other hand, like Mozi, sees the development of the self and its sphere as an obstacle to the ordering of the world not as a precondition for it. The Guodian text of this stanza is much briefer, consisting of only lines 1–3, the first half of line 4, and lines 13–15. ### STANZA 64 1 What’s stable is easy to secure, 2 The unmanifest to plan against, 3 The fragile to splinter, 4 The incipient to dissolve. 5 Act before events occur: 6 Decision can prevent disorder. 7 A tree of girth 8 Grows from a twig. 9 A nine-tier tower 10 From a basket of earth; 11 And a thousand-mile journey 12 Begins where one stands. 13 Those who take the lead shall fail. 14 Those who cling lose hold. 15 This is why men of wisdom, 16 Taking no lead, do not fail, 17 Not clinging, do not lose hold. 18 How often do people, assuming a task, 19 Ruin it at the verge of success? 20 Hence the saying, 21 “Careful at the end as at the start, 22 And your task shall not abort.” 23 This is why the worldly wise 24 Seek what others do not seek, 25 “Prize not goods hard to find,” 26 Learn what others do not learn: 27 Redeem the wrongs many have done. 28 In this way support and sustain 29 The self-becoming of the myriad, 30 And do not presume to act upon them. COMMENT Explaining the final lines of this stanza, Han Feizi tells the following story: A commoner of the kingdom of Song came into possession of a rich piece of gem ore and offered to present it to Zihan \[a minister in the kingdom of Zheng\]. When Zihan refused the gift, the commoner said, “This treasure should go to a noble man, not to an unimportant one.” Zihan replied, “You treasure the treasure. I treasure not accepting your stone.” Thus the commoner valued the stone, but Zihan valued not desiring \[_yu_\] the stone. This explains Laozi’s lines 25 and 26: “Seek \[_yu_\] what others do not seek; prize not goods hard to find.” The last lines of this stanza seem to have influenced the passage in “Xinshi” (Conditions and circumstances) in the _Guanzi_ that says, “When \[the ruler\] achieves the way of heaven, his undertakings seem like those of nature itself . . . no one realizes that he is taking action.” The opening lines were adapted in the first chapter of the _Guanzi_, “Mumin” (Guiding the people): “Those who possess the Way are able to prepare for trouble before it has begun to take form.” Both these _Guanzi_ chapters seem to have been heavily influenced by the _Laozi_. With line 13 of this stanza part one of the Guodian _Laozi_ ends; the remainder of the stanza is placed at the end of the third and last part. Presumably, then, these were separate passages for the Guodian editor-scribe. But why? In the view of scholar Gao Chenyang, this separation suggests that the Guodian text was selected from a larger text. He writes: “This stanza first says that when things are in a quiescent or incipient condition or are undergoing the initial changes, they are easy to deal with. The stanza then proceeds to emphasize acting before events occur, speaking metaphorically of the tree that grows from a slip. Finally the stanza speaks of being as careful at the end as at the start.” If the Guodian editor broke up a whole stanza, Gao Chenyang suggests, then perhaps we should look at the entire Guodian text as excerpts, rather than as the original _Laozi_. A different approach to this stanza is taken by Yin Zhenhuan. He sees no connection between the two halves of the stanza and thinks they were originally separate stanzas or statements. ### STANZA 65 1 Those of old who pursued the Way 2 Never meant to make their people see; 3 Their purpose was to keep them unaware. 4 The people are harder to manage 5 For knowing things. 6 To have the learned govern the kingdom 7 Is a bane to the kingdom. 8 Not to have them 9 Is a boon to the kingdom. 10 Know always that this double dictum 11 Defines a guide to judgment, 12 Which when firmly fixed in mind 13 May be called sublime virtue. 14 Such virtue, deep and reaching far, 15 In counter-motion like all things, 16 Achieves congruence with the Way. COMMENT Mencius (3A4.8) describes how the sage-kings of antiquity first taught _(jiao)_ the people to sow and reap and then appointed a minister of education to teach the people about social relations and their attendant ethical codes so that the people’s virtue _(de)_ would be stimulated. Laozi opposes the entire Confucian principle of government by education. There are relevant passages in the _Analects_ as well to which this stanza may refer. _Analects_ 8.9 says, “What the people may be made to follow they may not be made to understand.” This passage is sometimes adduced as a parallel to of the _Laozi_, a variant on the theme of keeping the people ignorant. However, Confucius may simply be acknowledging the limits of the people in a particular situation rather than, uncharacteristically, opposing teaching the people. More typical of Confucian thought, _Analects_ 13.9 speaks of teaching _(jiao)_ the people after seeing that they have multiplied and grown wealthy. This passage comports well with the tenor of the _Analects_, with its advocacy of open enrollment, learning for government service, and lifelong devotion to education. This stanza and and are thematically related to : “Thus under a wise man’s rule / Blank are their minds.” Chinese commentators are divided over the meaning of _yu_, “unaware,” in line 3 of this stanza. Does Laozi mean to keep the people ignorant or merely simple, to deceive them or to guide them back to an elemental life? Gu Li takes a power-politics standpoint and favors the former; those taking a utopian, simplify-society view, such as Chen Guying and Zhang Songru, favor the latter. This stanza is not found in the Guodian manuscript. ### STANZA 66 1 Why is it that the rivers and the ocean, 2 Like kings, can lead the many valley streams? 3 Knowing how to stay below, they 4 Draw to them the many higher streams. 5 For this reason wise and worldly rulers, 6 Wishing to remain above their people, 7 Need to stay below by what they say; 8 Or if they wish to go before their people, 9 They need to take their place behind. 10 Beneath such rule the people feel no weight; 11 Such leadership the people feel no threat. 12 All the world rejoices and supports them 13 And never tries to cast such rulers off. 14 Is it not because they will not strive 15 That no one in this world can strive with them? COMMENT Laozi reverses the top-down model of Confucian leadership here. In _Analects_ 12.19 Confucius says: “The virtue of the true prince _(junzi)_ is like the wind that bends lesser men below as if they were grass.” Laozi’s rulers, who “take as theirs the people’s mind” () leave the people saying, “This was no one’s doing but our own” (). Lying low, Laozi’s leaders never seek high station nor exert power from above. In the Guodian manuscript this stanza follows and may be a logical continuation of 19’s emphasis on simplicity and lack of desire, presumably in those who rule. Of the eighty-one received stanzas, is the last found in the Guodian text. _Wang_, “king,” in line 2 was defined early on by the homophone “to draw toward,” so the king was someone who attracted a wide following because of his moral charisma. In _Mencius_ the term is exalted by connection with _Dao_ in the recurring term “kingly way” _(wangdao)_, which described idealized governing by a virtuous king. ### STANZA 67 1 “All the world declares me great.” 2 Be great but do not seem to be. 3 For it is seeming not to be 4 That makes you great. 5 Otherwise, by seeming so, 6 You’d long ago have ceased to matter. 7 We have always our triple treasure, 8 Which we rely upon and cherish: 9 “A mother’s heart, a frugal hand, and 10 No drive to boldly lead this world.” 11 A brave heart takes a mother’s heart, 12 A giving hand a frugal hand; 13 And one who will not lead to serve 14 As sacred elder of this world. 15 Forsaking love for bravery, 16 Frugal hand for giving hand, 17 Staying back for leading forth 18 Mean entering the gates of death. 19 A mother’s heart holds battle lines 20 And also makes defenses sure. 21 The man whom heaven means to keep 22 It protects with mother-heart. COMMENT In the _Laozi_, the pronoun _wo_ (I, we) refers either to those in power or to the author. In line 1 of this stanza _wo_ probably means the ruler. Perhaps the first line is intended as the speech of a ruler and the second line as the author’s reply. Unlike all other texts, the Mawangdui included, Wang Bi has put the word _Dao_ after _wo_ in line 1. Such a construction, _wo Dao_ (our Way), resembles the construction _wu Dao_ in _Analects_ 4.15. Though many translations have followed Wang Bi’s emendation, modifying _Dao_ with a personal pronoun is not compatible with other uses of the word _Dao_ in this book. Lines 1 and 2 are subject to extreme variation of interpretation in commentary and translation. This stanza speaks of maternal rather than patriarchal authority. The Confucian patriarch teaches his people (who are his “children”) to follow his example _(xiao)_ and be true to him (_xiao_, filial piety). But the beings created by _Dao_ can only be themselves (_ziran_, self-becoming). They do not resemble or imitate the _Dao_ that produced them, nor revere it as a superior, nor stand in its debt, even though they learn from it and apply its laws. The same maternal authority, not the power of the ancestors, guarantees the security of the political ruler. Under-translation of the term _ci_ (translated here as “mother’s heart”), which refers only to the love between parent and child—usually from the parental side—has led to a weakening of the force of this stanza in English versions. In Warring States usage, _ci_ may contrast with _xiao_, filial piety, as “parent love” or may serve as a reinforcing adjective to _xiao: ci-xiao_, kind-hearted filial piety. Given the thematic emphasis of the _Laozi_, however, “mother-love” seems preferable to “parent-love” as a translation. Moreover, Han Feizi’s comment on this stanza in the “Jie Lao” starts with the phrase _cimu_, loving mother. This stanza weaves the theme of staying low and holding back in together with the earlier theme of keeping to the female principle in . In the present stanza Laozi links both themes to military strategy and finally to heaven’s protection. Heaven does not mandate _(ming)_ a male sovereign in Laozi’s text, but it does see to the safety of a ruler that lives by its principles. The idea of an attentive heaven appears only in the non-Guodian stanzas. For this and all remaining stanzas— through —there is no Guodian counterpart. , , and form a unified set. Lines 19–20 have two variant readings: “With _ci_ form battle lines and you will hold the front,” and “With _ci_ engage in battle and you shall win.” The second is popular in modern Chinese editions and English translations but seems overconfident, given Laozi’s recessive style, so I have chosen to translate this line according to the B-text reading of the Mawangdui _Laozi_. This reading also accords better with Laozi’s preference for defensive war—war only if war cannot be avoided. ### STANZA 68 1 Warriors who excel do not parade; 2 Commanders who excel do not anger; 3 Victors who excel don’t lightly engage; 4 Skilled managers of men are humble: 5 This defines the power of no-conflict, 6 The way to manage men’s strength, 7 The union with heaven, the acme of old. COMMENT The previous stanza emphasized the maternal virtues; this stanza complements it by emphasizing their male form. According to this stanza, restraint is the qualification for becoming an ideal ruler, like Wenwang (King Wen, “the civil king”). The closing line has the phrase _peitian_ (matching heaven), which is also used in the _Book of Odes_, in odes “Wenwang” and “Si Wen.” A marital term, _peitian_ means becoming a partner to heaven, hence, heaven’s mandated representative. This borrowing from the _Odes_ is another case of incorporating Confucian political terms into the Daoist agenda. In the _Book of Odes_ the virtue of Wenwang qualifies him to receive the mandate of heaven and overthrow the reigning Shang dynasty. Wenwang came to be considered the founding emperor of the Zhou house, though it was his son, Wuwang, “the martial king,” who conquered Shang by force of arms. _Gu_ (old, ancient) appears in line 7 in some texts. This word is used sixty-two times on its own in the _Laozi_ and another thirteen times in combination. Such frequency marks the author’s repeated gazing back to a remote time when the ills and evils he describes did not exist. _Gu_ may refer to a pre-Zhou (i.e., Shang) period, or simply to an imagined time of simplicity. Laozi may have lived and written in the kingdom of Chu, which had roots in the Shang and maintained a tradition of resisting Zhou power. ### STANZA 69 1 Those who wage war often say, 2 “We prefer response to invitation, 3 The span withdrawn to the inch gained.” 4 This is formation that does not go forward, 5 Deflection with hand unraised, 6 The firm grip that holds no sword, 7 And the thrust that cannot be countered. 8 But “having no foe” is the greatest threat. 9 It leads to the loss of our triple treasure. 10 Once battle is joined, who gives way wins. COMMENT One of the meanings of _wuwei_ in a military context is defensive preparedness. A passive, defensive mode is more effective than an active, aggressive one. And a defensive psychology is essential for survival—a point that is made directly in line 8’s warning against self-confident disdain of an enemy. Mencius’s famous formulation goes: “Without enemy kingdoms and external dangers the state will fall” (6B.15). Some scholars see in _bao_, “treasure,” in line 9 a reference to : if we imagine we have no enemy, we will lose our caring (for the people), our frugality, and our reluctance to take a (military) initiative. In line 10, most texts have _ai_, mourn, instead of _xiang_, which is a near-homonym to _rang_ (give way, yield). With _ai_, this line has entered the Chinese language as a common saying: “soldiers who sorrow prevail,” in the spirit of . However, “yield” seems to make better sense in this context than “sorrow,” and there are a number of other examples of textual interchanges between the two words due to graphic similarity. The terms _zhu_, host, and _ke_, guest, are explored in the “Contending Clans” section of _Sixteen Canons:_ “When something should be done and is not done, the heavenly clockwork rolls on around, and man is left in the passive position \[as guest\].” “Contending Clans” departs from Laozi’s preference for the guest or reactive role and treats both proactive and reactive roles as having their proper time. ### STANZA 70 1 What we say is easy to know 2 And easy to do, 3 But the world does not know its worth 4 And does not act upon it. 5 Though we speak with an ancestral sanction 6 And serve on high authority, 7 Yet this remains unknown 8 And so we remain unknown. 9 And the less that we are known, 10 More precious our followers. 11 For this reason men of wisdom 12 Wear rough garb and the gem in the heart. COMMENT Most scholars and translators place this stanza in the biographical category (, ) as an instance of the author lamenting the failure of his teachings. In these lines Laozi is more pessimistic than in , where some follow his teachings and others scoff. Invoking ancestral sanction and high authority are unusual for this text and again suggest a willingness to adopt Confucian rhetoric. The metaphor of hiding the gem (i.e., talent) within occurs several times in the _Analects_. In _Analects_ 17.1, for example, Confucius is chided for not placing his talents at the disposal of the ruler: “Is that what you call ‘benevolent’—holding the gem within and letting your kingdom go astray?” ### STANZA 71 1 To recognize ignorance comes first; 2 Not to know to know this will cause harm: 3 Harm that the wise are spared 4 Because they recognize it. 5 Only by recognizing the harm 6 Can one be spared. COMMENT There are a number of Warring States references to the opening lines of this stanza, and the majority of commentators and translators follow an elaboration in the _Lüshi chunqiu_, “Bielei” chapter: “To know \[that one\] does not know is best / Not to know but to assume that one knows causes harm.” There is no reason, however, to restrict Laozi’s formula here with a pronoun. It is as important to recognize another’s ignorance as it is to recognize one’s own. Many commentaries make a connection to _Analects_ 2.17: “Let knowing it be taken for knowing it, ignorance for ignorance.” Many commentaries and translations of this stanza have been influenced by the verb-_wei_\-verb grammar of _Analects_ 2.17 and thus present Laozi as talking about knowledge taken for ignorance and vice versa. Laozi seems to be playing with Confucius’s formula by inverting it verbally, though arriving at a similar conclusion. In the _Analects_, knowledge _(zhi)_ is something valuable to be gained by learning _(xue)_. Laozi opposes knowledge as no more than a qualification for bureaucratic recruitment. In this stanza, however, a positive value for knowledge—suggesting knowledge of the Way—is suggested by the previous and succeeding stanzas. The grammar of the opening line—_zhi buzhi_ (literally, “know, not know,” translated here as “to recognize ignorance”)—leaves room for many interpretations. If we compare the grammar of _yu buyu_ and _xue buxue_—“seek what others do not seek,” “learn what others do not learn”—in , then a verb-object grammar seems best. And if line 1 has a verb-object structure, normally line 2 follows the pattern. Another translation of the opening lines according to this grammar would read: “To know the unknown is best / Not to know the known harms.” This reading resembles a line in the _Daoyuan_ text in the _Huangdi sijing:_ “Know what others are unable to know” _(zhi ren zhi suo buneng zhi)_. However, none of the major translators adopt this Machiavellian reading. Su Che reads the lines differently again. “To understand \[the value of\] not knowing is the highest; not to understand \[the danger of\] knowing is an affliction.” This interpretation seeks to preserve consistency with earlier admonitions against knowledge. To Su Che, Laozi is warning against distorting his rejection of knowledge into a complete alienation of society. Laozi advocates, rather, a different way of working in society—principled and self-effacing—and a different kind of society, but not a rejection of society. Therefore, certain forms of knowledge are necessary; knowledge as Laozi redefines it approaches _ming_, insight. In Wei Yuan’s edition and are grouped as one. He reads the opening lines as a continuation of ’s lament of the world’s ignorance of the Way, which requires the wise man to hide his knowledge in humble garb. ### STANZA 72 1 When people dread not the powers that be, 2 A greater dread is on the way. 3 Encroach not on their domain; 4 Do not burden down their lives. 5 Only of those who bear bearing 6 Will the people bear the burden. 7 This is why wise men who govern 8 Know themselves, show themselves not, 9 Conserve themselves, esteem themselves not: 10 Rejecting these, preferring those. COMMENT Does this stanza on preserving political authority speak for the ruled or for those who rule? Scholars hold opposing views. Some see Laozi as a populist and potential revolutionary; others see Laozi as a cunning adviser to a slave-owning (i.e., labor-owning) aristocracy. Taking a middle position between the two, Gu Li argues that Laozi represents former or weakened labor-owning aristocrats who see the imminent supplantation of their form of rule by rising land-owning entrepreneurs. For Gu Li, therefore, Laozi is an urgent voice of reformist admonition speaking to the aristocrats of presumably older, smaller kingdoms. It is likely that the first two lines are a short aphorism rather than part of the stanza, since they are set off in Mawangdui A. Yin Zhenhuan cites the well-known _Zuozhuan_ passage: “Only men of virtue can exert authority with tolerance. The lesser mode is that of severity. Because fire burns, the people regard it with dread and few die of it. Because water is soft and gentle, the people trifle with it for amusement and many die of it. Tolerance is truly difficult to govern by.” The final ten stanzas of the _Dao De Jing_, 72–81, develop the theme of gentleness and fairness in rule. Were these stanzas added to an earlier set to counter Legalist applications of Daoist thought—to argue for a more humane less policy-directed statecraft? ### STANZA 73 1 Be brave in daring: kill or be killed; 2 Be brave in not daring: live and let live; 3 One of the two brings gain, one harm. 4 But which man knows what heaven condemns, 5 What precedents it’s guided by? 6 The way of heaven masters all: 7 It prevails though striving not, 8 It replies though speaking not, 9 Comes although uncalled, 10 And gives good counsel though affected not. 11 Heaven’s net, cast far and wide, 12 Seems slack yet nothing slips outside. COMMENT Su Che comments: “The world contemplates heaven with eyes and ears, seeing one corner but not recognizing the whole. When good men meet with disaster and evildoers enjoy good fortune, who has not suspected that heaven’s net lets too much slip through? Only by grasping the whole process from beginning to end, comprehending the twists and turns, can one appreciate that nothing escapes the net despite its vast stretch.” The word “precedents” in line 5 is the translation of _gu_, a word derived from _gu_ in the sense of “ancient.” It means what is already well established, a basis. The term poses a challenge to two other forms of well-established authority through which judgments are reached and punishments administered: the ancestors and the law. Laozi warns that heaven’s judgments transcend and supersede those of humans. ### STANZA 74 1 If the people fear not even death itself, 2 How can execution frighten them? 3 If they are in constant fear of death, 4 And we seize and put to death 5 Committers of crimes, then who would dare? 6 But to keep the folk in constant fear, 7 Keep the master executioner near. 8 Let none kill in his stead, for that would be 9 To wield the knife in the master’s stead— 10 And no one who would for the master stand 11 Escapes with an uninjured hand. COMMENT These grim and cynical injunctions are set off but also necessitated by its gentler neighbors, and . The placement of Laozi’s biography together with that of the legalist Han Feizi in Sima Qian’s _Shiji_ may reflect the influence of this stanza. But many commentators, unwilling to see Laozi as a harsh proto-Legalist, have understood “executioner” to mean heaven’s judgment on wrongdoers. Modern scholar Jiang Xichang follows this interpretation. If that indeed is the sense, then it follows that the ruler who employs capital punishment is usurping heaven’s role and will injure himself. If, however, Laozi is confronting the essential questions of statecraft in –, in this stanza he may only be warning the ruler (the “we” of line 4) not to drive the people to desperation but to protect their livelihoods so that they will value their lives and thus accept his rule. Laozi may also want the ruler to distance himself personally from the necessary cruelties of suppressing crime, because ultimately the ruler bears that responsibility. In the words of the noted Song dynasty commentator Fan Yingyuan, “This stanza means that when people violate the laws in their struggle for gain, it is because their leaders aggressively pursue their own excessive desires. The leaders only need to minimize their desires in a spirit of clear-sighted tranquillity and they will enable the people to turn towards civilized conduct on their own with no resort to death penalties.” This comment applies to the next stanza as well. This stanza is a variation on a similar theme in _Analects_ 12.19. In reply to the question, “What do you think of killing the lawless to attract the lawful?” Confucius said, “When you hold political authority, why use the death penalty? Seek what is good and useful and the people will be good and useful. The virtue of the true prince is like the wind that bends lesser men below as if they were grass.” ### STANZA 75 1 The people lack for food 2 When those above them overtax; 3 That is why they lack. 4 And the people can’t be ruled 5 When those above them serve themselves. 6 That is why they can’t be ruled. 7 And when the people death defy 8 It is but to make their lives secure— 9 That is why. 10 Worthier far than living royally 11 Those who live not for themselves. COMMENT _Analects_ 12.9 records a conversation between Duke Ai, the patriarch of Lu, and You Ruo, a disciple of Confucius. You Ruo was urging the duke to make do with a tax rate of 10 percent. The patriarch replied that even 20 percent was insufficient for his purposes. You Ruo said, “If the people lack for means, with whom will your highness share your surplus?” Duke Ai ruled Lu from 495–94 to 470–69 B.C. Military strategist Sunzi spells out the extraordinary costs of war: “\[A\]nd so the internal and external expenses, providing for diplomatic guests and dignitaries, glues and paints for repair, supplying chariots and armor come to a thousand pieces of gold a day before an army of ten thousand can be raised and readied.” There is a division of interpretation among modern scholars regarding this stanza. Some see it as representing a popular opposition to the exploitation of rulers; others see Laozi as a reform-minded member of the ruling aristocracy intent on reminding those in power what happens to those who abuse the people. ### STANZA 76 1 Man alive is tender, gentle, 2 Hard and fast in death. 3 Living plants are tender, fragile, 4 Dry and frail in death. 5 For fast and hard are marks of dying, 6 And gentle, tender marks of life. 7 Strength in arms brings destruction, 8 As the strong branch will be broken. 9 Let strength and might be put below, 10 And tender, gentle in control. COMMENT This stanza uses physiology and botany to lead into a comment on military tactics and governance—a pattern resembling the _xing_ and _bi_, the “thought-provoking analogies,” often opening the poems in the _Book of Odes (Shijing)_. The emphasis here is on life as sacred, rather than on the dead. The lives of human beings, as one of the ten thousand, are to be measured by season only, by natural time, not by generation, which is socially measured time. Thus Daoist thought is distinguished from Confucian and Mohist, which stress hereditary continuity through patriarchal social organization as the basis for the domination of other people and of the natural world of the ten thousand. Lines 9 and 10 suggest the superiority of the female or maternal principle, that is to say, the biological or reproductive over the social or generational. ### STANZA 77 1 Heaven’s Way, like unto a bow full-drawn— 2 Low end raised, top bent down— 3 Subtracts from the have-mores 4 And supplies those in want. 5 Heaven’s Way—to supply who wants 6 By taking from the have-mores— 7 Is not the Way of men, 8 Who take from those in need 9 To serve those who have more. 10 Who will use the surplus to serve this world below? 11 None but men of the Way. 12 Wise rulers for this reason 13 Act without self-satisfaction, 14 For their deeds shun recognition 15 To conceal their contribution. COMMENT As the Song commentator Lü Jifu implies, the archer draws the bow to launch the arrow, not to raise the bow’s lower end or lower its upper end. So also heaven, a bowlike vault, creates all things without partiality. Those who rule should imitate heaven’s universal embrace. Marksmanship is a stock Confucian metaphor for personal responsibility in leadership. The archer has only himself to blame if his shot is not true. For Mencius, leaders must project their virtuous influence to attain the goal of humane government; if this goal is not reached, they are to blame. The use of archery in this stanza may also suggest sublimated rivalry, as in _Analects_ 3.7: “The princely man will not contend, except in marksmanship, which he cannot avoid. He ascends the shooting mound with deferential salutations; steps down when done and drinks the penalty cup. Such contending is indeed princely.” More generally, the bow stands for warlike competition. Laozi uses the bow as a new metaphor for the principle of _jun_, equity in distribution. The word _jun_, meaning fairly shared, is found once in _Laozi_ and once in the _Analects. Analects_ 16.1 says, “It is said that what the rulers of kingdoms and of clans need fear is not having too little but having it unfairly shared.” speaks of a time when heaven’s bounty was shared fairly among the people; the present stanza develops the theme of , which critiques economic imbalance. ### STANZA 78 1 What more gentle in this world than water? 2 Yet nothing better conquers hard and strong. 3 What else could take its place? 4 Gentle conquers strong, and tender hard. 5 Well-known as this is to all the world, 6 Who has proven able to apply it? 7 Wiser men accordingly have said, 8 “He who for the kingdom’s sake bears shame 9 Earns the name—master of the shrine. 10 He who for the kingdom bears ill-fortune 11 Earns the name of king of all the world.” 12 How untrue words of truth appear to be. COMMENT Distinguishing “master of the shrine” from “king of all the world,” Gu Li suggests that the former is likely to refer to the ruler of a kingdom, the latter to the son of heaven of the royal Zhou court, that is, the titular universal sovereign. Gu Li cites the _Zuozhuan_ text under Xuangong 15 (594 B.C.), which says, “As streams and marshes contain filth, and hilly woods harbor deadly beasts, and fine stones have hidden flaws, so the lord of the kingdom carries detritus.” Modern scholar Gao Heng suggests a link between this stanza and _Analects_ 20.1, in which the ruler says, “If we have personally committed an offense, my domains are not responsible; if somewhere in my domains an offense is committed, the blame rests with us.” ### STANZA 79 1 When great wrongs resolved 2 Leave further wrongs behind— 3 What good will come of that? 4 When wise men hold the left half-tally pledge, 5 They do not press their debtors for their debts. 6 Men of virtue hold the tally pledge; 7 Men lacking virtue work pursuing claims. 8 Heaven’s way does not show kinship favor 9 But rather joins with good and decent men. COMMENT This stanza on grievance has seemed to a number of modern scholars the proper place for the famous fragment traditionally located in : “Repay a wrong with friendly favor.” Chen Guying, for example, puts the fragment in line 3. The absence of the line in of the Guodian text strengthens the argument for moving it somewhere else, if not to this stanza. Laozi’s opposition to revenge is part and parcel of his opposition to striving and competing. One early Han text speaks of revenge as abundant in the Spring and Autumn period. Mencius (7B.2) says that there were no just wars in the Spring and Autumn period. Mozi, too, describes the endless warring between clan and clan, kingdom and kingdom in his chapter on universal love (“Jianai”). With regard to conflict, Laozi wants to prevent a wrong before it becomes a “great wrong,” for even when resolved, great wrongs never fail to leave a legacy of further wrongs. Following the theme of , this stanza likens the wise ruler to a creditor who would rather accept a loss than press for the return of what he lends. The creditor and the debtor each hold half of a split tally. When the debtor repays, the tallies are rejoined. If the debtor comes voluntarily, then there is no grievance. Those who pursue their claims—or overtax their people—only succeed in creating grievances. The closing line seems to accommodate the Confucian viewpoint: “Heaven joins with good and decent men.” However, the tally itself is indifferent and favors no one. Heaven favors whoever tallies with heaven. Heaven has no favorites, nor has it enemies. In the Mawangdui text, is the final stanza, since 80 and 81 follow . In the editor seems to extend an olive branch to the Confucian and Mohist schools, both of which argue for a heaven that is responsive to humans. The graph for _yu_ in line 9, here translated “joins,” shows two hands giving and two receiving. Perhaps there is an implication that heaven makes the generous ruler whole, repaying all he has given to others. Most commentators interpret _yu_ to mean to lend aid, to provide for, to be with. This stanza emphasizes the word _ren_ (human, man) rather than the word _min_, which means the common people—referring to economics or occupation. and are _min_\-oriented; – are _ren_\-oriented. _Ren_ may include _min_ as a subcategory, but if the context is social, _ren_ usually means those of higher standing, men of importance, personages. Accordingly, Gu Li and others read this stanza as a plea for compromise among the rulers _(ren)_ of the kingdoms, rather than as a critique of those rulers from the vantage of the ruled _(min)_. ### STANZA 80 1 Keep the kingdom small, its people few; 2 Make sure they have no use for tools 3 That do the work of tens or hundreds. 4 Nor let the people travel far 5 And leave their homes and risk their lives. 6 Boat or cart, if kept at all, best not to ride; 7 Shield and blade best not to show. 8 Guide them back to early times, 9 When knotted cords served for signs, 10 And they took relish in their food 11 And delight in their dress, 12 Secure in their dwellings, 13 Content in their customs, 14 Although a neighbor kingdom stood in view 15 And the barnyard cries of cocks and dogs 16 Echoed from village to village, 17 Their folk would never traffic to and fro— 18 Never, to the last of their days. COMMENT This stanza and the next are found in the Mawangdui texts following . The image of an ideal, simplified society seems to follow from the themes of the ideal people who are kept simple and ignorant () and the ideal, self-effacing rulers (). So the placement of this stanza in the Mawangdui texts has a certain logic, though its position as in the received text, culminating the preceding social criticism stanzas, is also understandable. pulls together the topics of –, which deal with gentle rule and social justice. The self-sufficient, autarkic village world Laozi idealizes also recapitulates earlier warnings against technology, trade, and bureaucracy. Perhaps Laozi is harking back to the time before the Zhou conquest of the Shang, when many tiny kingdoms dotted the Yellow and Huai river basins—a world that predated the process of cultural and economic integration of the embryonic “China.” The _Zhuangzi_ cites this stanza in the chapter “Rifling Trunks,” which speaks of an “age of perfect virtue.” The transformation of this ancient order is described in ode 237, “Mian.” The last two stanzas of “Mian” celebrate road building in the early Zhou period, which was followed by conquests among the surrounding peoples. This marked the beginning of imperial expansion and integration. This stanza is probably not too far in time from the mature Mencius, who uses the same imagery of cocks and dogs to describe the economic sufficiency of the glorious ancient kingdoms of Xia and the houses of Yin and Zhou (_Mencius_ 2A.1.10). ### STANZA 81 1 Words to trust are not refined. 2 Words refined are not to trust. 3 Good men are not gifted speakers. 4 Gifted speakers are not good. 5 Experts are not widely learned; 6 The widely learned not expert. 7 Wise rulers for themselves keep naught, 8 Yet gain by having done for all, 9 Have more for having freely shared; 10 Do good not harm is heaven’s Way; 11 The wise act for and not against. COMMENT This final stanza appears to be a synthesis of Confucian and Daoist political wisdom. The opposition of self _(ji)_ and other _(ren)_ in lines 7–9, so characteristic of the _Analects_ and _Mencius_, occurs in the _Laozi_ only here. Moreover, the criticism of eloquence recalls the complaints in the _Analects_ about cunning or artful speech _(qiaoyan)_ and sophists _(yingren)_, whose false learning and rhetoric are a threat to political order. In _Analects_ 13.27, men of humanity are described as _nuo_, reticent. Finally, in this stanza wide learning _(bo)_ is affirmed; in the _Analects_ wide learning is advised if disciplined through ritual. However, there is a textual variation for line 3. In the received text the word for eloquence in argument (_bian_, translated here as “gifted speakers”) has replaced the word “many” found in the Mawangdui texts. Does this mean that Laozi’s original complaint was against the paucity of good men in office, but that an authoritarian Han ruler had it changed to a complaint against criticism? The original final stanza was .