The Shen of valleys cannot die.
We call this hidden womanhood.
Hidden womanhood opens a gateway.
We call this the base of Heaven and Earth.
Going on and on, it seems undying 5
And you use it without even trying.
***
NOTES
line 1, the Shen of valleys: For Shen, spirit, see Introduction section IV.2. In poem 39 Laozi also associates Shen with valleys, although not as explicitly as here.
line 2, hidden womanhood: Valleys are also associated with the female principle in poem 28.
COMMENTARY
Several important Daoist themes interweave in poem 6, starting with Laozi’s praise of women and the female principle (see Introduction section IV.5). Here he associates it with receptivity: Just as valleys are repositories for Shen (and the world is the vessel of Shen, in poem 29), so too is your own body a repository and vessel of Shen, and capable of creating life, regardless of your gender, by forming an immortal fetus (see Introduction section IV.6). This is your hidden womanhood, an idea also referenced in poem 10. Yet even a mystical feat such as this is fundamentally natural, and so it is accomplished without striving or struggle or even trying – which is to say, through non-action (see Introduction section IV.3). For the uninitiated into Daoist practices, Laozi is making a more basic reminder about your Yin adaptability and making yourself lower, which is to embrace stillness, as poem 61 explains. And stillness awakens Shen.
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 