A large nation can be likened to a delta
Where the world has its convergence
The world’s womanhood.
Womanhood always, through stillness
Overcomes manhood. 5
To be still is to make yourself lower.
That’s why a large nation lowers itself
To a small nation
So it can win over the small nation.
A small nation, being lower 10
Than a large nation
Can win over the large nation.
Thus some make themselves lower in order to win
While others are lower and win.
A large nation seeks unity among people. 15
A small nation seeks to give service to people.
Truly
Each gets what it seeks
When the greater one correctly lowers itself.
***
NOTES
lines 1–3: Valleys are another geographical feature that Laozi associates with womanhood in poems 6 and 28.
line 19: The theme of ruling by being lower also appears in poems 66 and 68.
COMMENTARY
In another paean to the female principle (see Introduction section IV.5), Laozi celebrates deltas, the low lands where water and earth merge. He then observes how the female overcomes the male by utilizing stillness and making herself lower. His language challenges the cherished standards of not just ancient China but all patriarchies, because for Laozi, the capacity to be still and lower yourself is an essential human skill. This capacity leads you directly to Dao on your interior journey, and directly to the realness of other people on your exterior journey, because those who can be still and lower themselves will naturally see others more clearly and show them deference, patience, and tolerance. Laozi clinches his point by discussing the interactions of nations large and small – something on everyone’s mind amid the prolonged conflicts of China’s Warring States Period – and concluding that the greater nation is correct in seeking to lower itself.
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 