The Tao-te-ching very often casts its ideas in paradoxical form:
-In order to achieve X, do what seems to be the exact opposite of X. (“Wishing to be above the people, you must put yourself below them” ch. 66)
-The best kind of X is the exact opposite of what people associate with X. “(Highest virtue is not ‘virtuous’” ch. 38)
This love of paradox gives rise to some difficulties in interpretation. The following is an attempt to sketch a way of resolving these difficulties. The main idea can be cast in terms of a metaphor common in traditional Chinese thought, that of “roots and branches.” Tree branches are what is most noticeable. But branches will not flourish without good roots. If you want to care for a tree, nourish the invisible roots – good roots produce good branches. In the same way, external results such as the admiration of others, “shining” socially, are what people notice most. But when people try directly to shine, by boasting, showing off, and so on, this is like trying to produce good branches without good roots. Branches without proper roots will not flourish. “One who shows off will not shine.”
The Tao-te-ching urges one to nourish “roots” and trust that good roots will (“naturally”) produce good branches. Laoists emphasize the way in which “nourishing roots” frequently requires doing the opposite of what you might tend to do. For example, a basketball player trying directly to shine will want to get the ball as often as possible and perform crowd-pleasing slam-dunks and other spectacular athletic feats. Laoists emphasize the way this style of play has the potential to damage team effort and team spirit. They much prefer a “team player,” someone willing to be a self-effacing facilitator, setting up plays that maximize the potential of other players, so they can individually shine while he is willing to stay in the background. They are confident that others will eventually recognize his very important but less visible contributions to team effectiveness, and so he will actually be greatly admired and “shine.” This they think is a better kind of shining because it is deeply rooted in his contribution to the team as a whole – it contributes to the “organic harmony” of the team, in contrast to hot-shot players who tend to damage this organic harmony. It is also in their minds a better kind of shining because it is allowed to happen “naturally.” That is, this player just goes about doing his job well and self-effacingly, and this attracts the spontaneous admiration of others. This is in contrast to the player whose style of play has the main purpose of directly calling attention to itself. This in Laoist eyes gains a kind of “forced” admiration, branches without proper roots. They emphasize the way in which this showing off can get out of hand and turn people off, achieving the opposite of the desired effect.
When Laoists say, “He does not show off, so he shines.” (4[22]), it would be stupid to interpret this to mean that anyone who does not show off will surely shine – that “not showing off” of any kind will always produce “shining.” An intelligent Laoist will think of that kind of “not showing off” that will plausibly provide proper roots attracting “natural” admiration. That is, in general we must imagine a person doing something that is worth admiring (e.g. the team player skillfully setting up plays for others), who is additionally admirable because he does it in a self-effacing way. I believe that Laoists emphasize doing the opposite of what people tend to do because what they offer is basically “corrective” wisdom. They exaggerate this aspect because they want to correct normal human tendencies. A person who wants to establish proper roots and foundations for gaining the esteem of others must be willing to be self-effacing.
As Chapter 8 says:
The highest Te [virtue] is like water.
Water,
excellent in nourishing the thousands of things,
does not compete.
it settles in places all others despise.
“Compete” here stands for competing for high status in the society. Rather than competing for a high place, water sinks downward into mud puddles and swamps everyone wants to stay away from. But this flowing downward is what enables it to nourish all the plants. In the same way, a shih whose job it is to “nourish” society should do so by self-effacing service, the opposite of self-assertively competing for high social status. This is the genuinely “highest” kind of virtue/charisma [Te].This general thought-pattern in the Tao-te-ching can be diagrammed in the following way:
Branches without Roots
E.g. “One who shows of will not shine.” (1[24])
“Turn back” is a term used often in the Tao-te-ching. It usually occurs as advice to “reverse directions” – do the opposite of what you would normally tend to do. “B” in the diagram represents “not showing off,” “turning back” to do the opposite of what people normally do (A) when they want to shine.
But B is not the end. If a person does B rightly, it will provide roots for a better kind of shining, “C”. C will be a better kind of shining because it is now a “branch” with good roots. Nourish the roots, and this will “naturally” produce good branches. Doing B rightly means of course not just any kind of “not showing off,” but focusing one’s attention on doing something worthy of admiration, additionally worthy of admiration because it is done in a self-effacing way.
Some readers confuse the idea expressed here with a kind of self-denying humility – e.g. repress your desire to “shine” socially, and “be humble” instead. But this conflicts with promises that the person who does not show off will certainly shine – “not showing off” ultimately furthers an individual’s desire to shine. The Tao-te-ching is not really in favor of “humility” if this means denying one’s desire to shine. It is addressed to shih who want to serve their society in positions of leadership. A good leader must gain the respect of others.
A bad Laoist, of course, could look upon being self-effacing as only a devious means of gratifying an egotistic desire to shine. At its best, however, Laoist advice is advice to set “shining” leadership on a solid basis by self-effacingly attending to those things that make a person worthy of admiration.
All this illustrates a thought-pattern that applies to many other areas of thought in the Tao-te-ching.
There is a “natural,” organic kind of
– admirable personal excellence,
– enjoyment of things
– activity
– organization
– influence
– effective achievement
“Natural” and “organic” mean
1 – rooted in qualities that form an integrated whole with the rest of the reality they are connected to
2 – all activity or conscious intervention is inserted smoothly into the uncontrolled flow of things
3 – results flow naturally of their own accord (e.g. people’s allegiance to a ruler is “natural” when it is a spontaneous response to his good qualities and beneficial policies, rather than forced by threats)
When all things in the above list are properly rooted in this way, they flow naturally from their root, without any added sense of direct straining or “working” to produce them
But people are often attracted to admiration, enjoyment, stimulated activity, influence, and effective achievements separate from this proper root
They are attracted to them precisely because these things stand out in people’s minds as especially desirable, they stand out in sharp contrast to the background of more “ordinary” reality
People often try to directly achieve these things, apart from the root; this requires direct straining and working at what will not happen without such direct straining and working
– “Boasting” strains to directly gain the admiration of others, rather than letting admiration come naturally out of attempts to be and do things worthy of admiration
– Directly trying to appear virtuous takes constant straining to emphasize certain personal characteristics and impulses and repress others, rather than getting in touch with all the elements of one’s being and bringing out the best in this unique package, achieving a balanced integration of all existing impulses and needs that won’t go away
– Trying to enjoy life by providing oneself with stimulation and excitement means that this enjoyable excitement is not integrated into one’s ordinary life, and this causes strain on one’s bodily and emotional well-being; enjoyment is well rooted when one takes care of one’s physical/emotional/mental health and well being; the highest quality of enjoyment is rooted in cultivation of total health and well-being, making one able to find enjoyment in simple things people might normally find “unexciting”.
– Trying to organize and control the affairs of life by devising a fixed set of categories that everything will fit neatly into, then trying to make everything conform to this neat organization – this takes constant direct straining against the messiness of the world we actually have to face every day. This forced organization stands in contrast to the way that our minds tend naturally to adapt themselves and bring some order to each individual situation, respecting the unique configuration of elements in each situation without trying to impose the same pre-established fixed mode of organization on every situation encountered.
– Trying to wield power and influence in the world by direct aggressive self-assertion means trying directly to force others to give in to one’s demands, which they would not do without such forcing. This stands in contrast to the willing respect and cooperation from others that comes from just being a truly good person selflessly devoted to the good of society and other people.
– Trying to achieve great results by directly aiming at the final “great achievement” itself – this causes people to overlook the importance of careful attention to small details, to the “dirty work,” and to indirect tactics.
The more natural roots of true excellence will seem associated with “undesirable” characteristics that are the opposite of the more striking, apparently desirable out-standing ones.
Laoists take this mentality as the main obstacle that needs to be overcome.
Much of Laoist wisdom is corrective wisdom, meaning to pull people in the direction directly opposite to this tendency to admire what appears in their minds as out-standingly desirable. This is often done by the use of exaggerated and paradoxical language, using negative-sounding words like Weak, muddled, disgraceful, Empty, Nothing, and so on.
This is why Laoists picture Nothing as the “origin” of Being [40]. “Being” is what makes a great, solid, forceful impression on people’s minds. But to make Being truly rooted in real worth requires that people turn back to Nothing — that is, to what normally seems to be the opposite of great, forceful, and impressive.
Turning Back is Tao-movement…
Being is born of Nothing. (Ch. 40)
In the Tao-te-ching “nothing” is very similar in meaning to “Empty,” which has a very different meaning in Laoism than it does in Buddhism. (Click here for an explanation of the contrast.)
What Laoism wants people to “turn away from” and “turn back to” can be described by speaking of some of the long term damaging effects of the social environment on one’s own internal psychology and attitudes to one’s own being; and indirectly on the quality of social interaction due to the psychology of interacting individuals
Some damaging influences today:
competition for social status and influence
social pressure to meet standardized norms
anonymity, constant contact with unfamiliar strangers; emphasis on formalities
pressure to perform
dehumanizing effects of modern hyper-organization
overemphasis on impersonal rationality needed to function successfully in modern society
need for specialization in order to succeed
constant stimulation
advertisements stimulating acquisitiveness
Some effects of these damaging influences:
alienation
feeling like a nobody
being embarrassed about aspects of one’s being that don’t measure up to social ideals of “normalcy” or what is ideal; partial self-rejection; artificial straining to meet external standards and compete for social recognition and rewards
humiliation, low-self image and self-rejection when unsuccessful in competition
looking up to models unlike oneself (overweight ladies reading Cosmopolitan)
straining to always feel and appear “together,” organized, purposeful, articulate, skillful, successful
addiction to stimulation, inability to put up with “boring” quiet; general state of constant “distraction”
acquisitiveness, caught up in need to buy new stuff which will soon be unsatisfying and generate need to buy more new stuff
Laoism advocates long-term efforts (“self-cultivation”) at internal psychological restructuring to undo these damaging effects of society; aimed at a different way of being, taking a different attitude toward one’s own being, ultimately aiming at a high level of deeply satisfying (“useful”) internal organic harmony (this harmony in its most ideal state is “Tao”); doing this will also improve the quality of one’s interactions with others as well, making them more intrinsically satisfying and harmonious.
For a person whose mentality is already greatly affected by internalizing these damaging influences, undoing them will require embracing things about herself that will feel undesirable, negative, or negligible (“empty/nothing”) because this is the way society looks at them. This is the reason for Laoist advice to embrace what feels “Empty/Nothing” or “Shameful/Embarrassing.
But this kind of advice needs to be interpreted so that it leads to something positive, the Laoist ideal of organic harmony.
Positive analogies to organic harmony. More familiar ideas that it is something like (but also unlike).
full self-identification, full self-acceptance
“being yourself”; “being natural”
being real, genuine, down to earth
being comfortable in one’s own skin
being centered, “staying within yourself”
protecting your humanity against dehumanizing social forces
deep self-knowledge, knowing, accepting, and integrating all aspects of yourself that are insistently present; balanced integration; wholeness
valuing your own uniqueness; being your own best self; your being is a unique “package” of elements — make this package the best it can be measured only by its own possibilities
Laoism assumes an audience which is already greatly under the influence of these damaging social influences. This is the source of most of its paradoxes, the persistent use of negative-sounding words to describe its own ideals.
E.g. “Know what is ‘praiseworthy’, but cultivate what is ‘disgraceful'” (17[28]); social pressure to live up to society’s norms tends to make you embarrassed about certain aspects of yourself, feeling them as “disgraceful” because this is how they make you feel in social situations. This causes partial self-rejection. To reach full self-identification, starting from where you are at present, you need to undo this damaging effect of social pressure by deliberately attending to and valuing some things that feel disgraceful, but could potentially become part of an admirable and beautiful version of your particular package.
This also explains the use of terms like “Empty” (“worthless”), “Nothing,” “Soft-and-Weak,” and (in a society dominated by masculine competitive aggression) “Femininity”. Society sometimes makes you feel like a “nobody,” rejecting parts of your own being as “nothing.” To reach full acceptance and organic harmony within your own being, you need to “turn back” against the universal tendency to reject what feels socially useless, to embrace what feels like “nothing.”
A Note on Ancient Chinese thought about “Femininity”
The Tao-te-ching counts “Femininity” as one of the qualities one should cultivate in oneself and “turn back to” (most likely it is addressing an all-male audience).
Unfortunately, The Tao-te-ching itself gives very few clues as to what “Femininity” meant to its authors. I offer here an excerpt from a newly found ancient Chinese text (roughly 200 b.c.) that associate Femininity with other ideas found in the Tao-te-ching, suggesting that Femininity there also is more or less synonymous with other qualities the Tao-te-ching favors: tranquility, appearing “timid” and “unable,” yielding the first place to others, being flexible (“soft”), and so on. By contrast, Masculinity is associated with arrogance, excess, love of strife, rigidity, and so on.
As in the Tao-te-ching, a “masculine” way of acting sometimes brings success but it is a success that is short-lived (branches without roots), whereas a “feminine” way of acting brings true and lasting success (branches properly rooted). It is very clear in this text that “female” and “male” refer to attitudes or styles of behavior, perhaps reflecting ancient Chinese sexual stereotypes, but otherwise having nothing to do with being biologically female or male.
The following is a short excerpt from a translation posted on the internet by Prof. Gary Arbuckle, who says that the Chinese text that he is translating is an excerpt from “one of the four lost works excavated from Han Tomb #3 at Mawangdui [in China] in December of 1973. My source for the texts, and the reference for page numbers given below, is the version published in Mawangdui Han mu boshu 1, Peking: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980.”
Arrogance, excess, love of strife, and plotting in secret are unlucky;
they are shaped by what is proper to the male, and are in peril of death and ruin.
Taking and not giving, such a state will be destroyed immediately. (p. 78)
When the Da Ting house possessed all under Heaven [the Chinese Empire]
they placidly followed the correct and tranquil,
and what was proper to the flexible was determined in advance.
Compliant and good, respectful and frugal,
(their) humility and restraint produced flexibility.
(They) constantly took the rear and did not fail in ritual,
were correct and trustworthy in order to be selfless,
were compassionate and kind, showing concern for others,
were upright and brave but did not dare to take precedence of others thereby.
There was no abusiveness in the feelings they cherished inside;
they embraced Oneness and did not seek (from others).
Shaped by what was proper to the female,
what they produced was flexible…
Established in timidity, (they) acted in inability.
In battle they displayed timidity;
the position they manifested was (that of) inability.
Holding fast to what was proper for the flexible,
(they) forced their opponents to become rigid;
they waited for what was proper for the male to reach the end of its resources,
and built on this (to gain victory). (p. 79)
To be filled with pride, arrogant and haughty: this is called what is proper to the male;
[compliant and genial,] respectful and frugal, this is called what is proper to the female.
Now those with what is proper to the male are self-satisfied fellows;
those with what is proper to the female are the disciples of restraint .
When you succeed by virtue of what is proper to the male,
you will not then be blessed on that account;
when you are ruined by virtue of what is proper to the female,
you will invariably be rewarded in the future.
When you succeed repeatedly through what is proper to the male,
this is called “accumulating calamities”;
evil fortune and anxiety will come time and again,
bringing you close to death and ruin.
When you are ruined repeatedly through what is proper to the female,
this is called “accumulation of Te.” (p. 70)
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