Yielding, you become whole.
Bending, you become direct.
Emptied, you are filled.
Worn down, you are refreshed.
Minimizing, you acquire. 5
Maximizing, you spread confusion.
Therefore
Sages embrace unity
Defining a pattern for the world.
Without self-display, they come to brilliance. 10
Without self-assertion, they come to glory.
Without self-praise, they come to achievement.
Without self-promotion, they come to endure.
Truly
Because they don’t contend 15
There isn’t anyone who can contend with them.
When the ancients said
Yielding, you become whole
Was that a lot of hot air?
Returning, they become perfect. 20
***
NOTES
line 9: This image also appears in poem 28.
lines 15 and 16: These lines also end poem 66.
line 19, hot air: More literally, “empty words.”
line 20, returning: See Introduction section IV.7.
COMMENTARY
The opening line of poem 22 sums up all of Laozi’s veneration of the female principle, the images of women, water, valleys (see Introduction section IV.5). The importance of line 1 is underscored by its repetition toward the end of the poem. From this fundamental truth, the paradoxes of the next three lines follow naturally. Lines 5 and 6, however, take more the form of admonitions – and while the second might seem self-evident, the first is an insight based in Laozi’s understanding of the empowering nature of reduction and of nothing: To minimize is not simply to have less, but rather to renounce extraneous distractions and bring focus and precision to obtaining what you want.
Also celebrated in poem 22 is unity (see Introduction section IV.8). Laozi observes that Sages, having embraced unity, don’t waste their energy trying to contrive for themselves the very state to which De brings them naturally. Thus their success is assured. Their refusal to be diverted into self-related contrivances also reflects an overarching disinclination to contend, which is never necessary when De is at work – what poem 68 calls De’s independence from contention.
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 