Long ago
The masters at following Dao
Were subtle and mysterious.
Profound and penetrating
Too deep to be recognized 5
They surpassed understanding.
All they left for us are the details of their demeanor:
Such care, like stepping onto thin ice
Such vigilance, like danger was near
Such reserve, like a respectful guest 10
Such expansiveness, like ice in thaw
Such simplicity, like uncut wood
Such openness, like a deep ravine
Such obscurity, like a dark lake
Who can use stillness to clear murky water? 15
Who can use stillness to generate action?
Embracing Dao, you stop seeking fulfillment.
You grow empty and can rot away in peace.
***
NOTES
line 18, can rot away in peace: I have taken a liberty here. More literally, the original line is, “can wear out and not be renewed” – a wording that contradicts line 4 of poem 22.
COMMENTARY
I’ve always found poem 15 to be one of the most beautiful of all the poems of the Dao De Jing, certainly for its central cascade of images, but also its quiet and dark opening and provocative conclusion. The opening describes the ancient Sages as being subtle and mysterious, qualities used to describe Dao in poems 1 and 32. That those Sages left virtually nothing for us about themselves is regarded as especially praiseworthy. On one level, this lack of a trail is simply their sheer competence, insofar as there was nothing extraneous to leave behind – precisely the qualities lauded in the opening of poem 27. On a deeper level, their unknown status reflects their disinclination to own what they produce or to lay claims on what they assist, as poems 2, 10, 34, and 51 celebrate. More deeply still, their namelessness indicates their union with something that has no name, so I call it Dao (poem 25). It is not surprising that Laozi references here in poem 15 one of the book’s most potent images of purity, simplicity, potentiality, and completeness: the uncarved block (see Introduction section IV.4).
The power of stillness is praised in lines 15 and 16, with the latter offering a shout out for non-action, without employing the term (see Introduction section IV.3). Laozi’s tone here, a rhetorical Who can rather than the direct Can you of poem 10, shares something with his more despairing observations, the “nobody uses it” admissions of poems 70 and 78. That tone may explain the rather stark ending of poem 15, in which fulfillment is renounced and eradication embraced.
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 