Govern the Po by embracing unity.
Can you be undivided?
Regulate Qi to engender softness.
Can you become the newborn?
Clean and polish your hidden mirror. 5
Can you be free of all flaws?
Love the people, rule the nation.
Can you act without action?
Heaven’s gate opens and shuts.
Can you attain womanhood? 10
True awareness of all.
Can you know without knowledge?
Produce them and nurse them.
Produce but don’t own them.
Assist but don’t claim them. 15
Develop but don’t control them.
We call this hidden De.
***
NOTES
line 1, the Po: The ancient Chinese believed that each of us acquires at birth a Hun spirit and a Po spirit. The Hun represents yang energy, Heaven, the spirit body, and immortality; the Po represents yin energy, Earth, the physical body, and mortality. A lifetime of emotional and physical indulgence, depleting and scattering the Three Treasures (see Introduction section IV.2), leads to the death of the body and the separation of the Hun and the Po. The Po returns to Earth and vanishes, and the Hun rises to Heaven but eventually descends, either to vanish as well or else to form another incarnation with a different Po. Only united can the two arise to enduring existence, the Po led on high by the Hun after an undivided existence that followed Dao and nourished life.
line 3, Qi: Energy. See Introduction section IV.2. Poems 42 and 55 also reference Qi.
line 8, act without action: See Introduction section IV.3.
lines 9 and 10: See commentary to poem 6 and Introduction section IV.5.
lines 13–16: These lines also appear in poem 51 and are referenced in poems 2 and 34.
line 17: This line also appears in poems 51 and 65.
COMMENTARY
An array of Daoist themes is assembled in poem 10: unity, Qi, non-action, womanhood. They’re held together by a structure that resembles the TV game show “Jeopardy”: first the answer, then the question. That we’re dealing here with an A&Q session is typical of Laozi’s sense of humor and paradox. But the first four A’s also anticipate the poem’s four penultimate lines (13–16), in that all eight are imperatives. Just as De is not the static code of ethics we call virtue, but rather a dynamic principle of self-realization through harmony with Dao, so too these answers open doors rather than close them, they are possibilities to explore rather than explanations to memorize. And Laozi makes Assignment Number One embracing unity (see Introduction section IV.8) – which is everything, because that’s what it means to follow Dao. Having unity, you can answer yes to all of poem 10’s questions, including the capacity for non-action (see Introduction section IV.3).
When lines 13–16 appear in poem 51, we are told that Dao and De do these things; here in poem 10, you are told to do them – because you can, they’re part of what it means to follow Dao. Sages do them too, we’re told in poem 2, and that’s what makes them Sages, because their way of living is so close to Dao. Laozi ends by referencing the role of De, because only a fully realized personality can produce and nurse and assist and develop others without trying to impress its ego on them.
Links To:
The Classic of Dao and De by Laozi: Contents
For more on Daoism, see:
Film Dreams: Frank Capra
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 