Translation

The larger spreads below where all under heaven meet.
Of all under heaven, The female normally uses stillness to overcome the male.
Using stillness she serves the lower position.
For this reason, the larger, using the lower position, normally takes in the smaller,
The smaller, using the lower position, normally takes in the larger.

For this reason, the low as well as taking in, the low yet taken in. ^(a)
The larger only wishes to concurrently raise the people.
The smaller only wishes to join in the affairs of the people.
Both each satisfying the position they want,
The larger fittingly serve the lower position.

big (great; fully) country ? below (down; under; lower; inferior) flow (drifting; spread; circulate), land under heaven of hand over (give up; meet; join).

land under heaven of female (of some birds and animals) female (of some birds and animals) ordinary (normal; constant; often) use (take; so as to_and; as well as) still (quiet; calm) victory (surpass; wonderful; be equal to) victory (surpass; wonderful; be equal to) male.

use (take; so as to_and; as well as) still (quiet; calm) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) below (down; under; lower; inferior).

reason (cause; on purpose; hence) big (great; fully) country use (take; so as to_and; as well as) below (down; under; lower; inferior) small country, standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) take (get; seek; adopt) small country.

small country use (take; so as to_and; as well as) below (down; under; lower; inferior) big (great; fully) country, standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) take (get; seek; adopt) big (great; fully) country.

reason (cause; on purpose; hence) perhaps (or; either…or…; > someone) below (down; under; lower; inferior) use (take; so as to_and; as well as) take (get; seek; adopt), perhaps (or; either…or…; > someone) below (down; under; lower; inferior) <conj.>(and / but (not) take (get; seek; adopt).

big (great; fully) country merely (however; only) desire (wish; want; about to) double (simultaneously) raise domestic animals human being (person; people; adult).

small country merely (however; only) desire (wish; want; about to) enter (join; agree with) matter (affair; thing; involvement) human being (person; people; adult).

husband (man) two (both; either; some) ?each (every; various; different) get (obtain, gain > satisfied_need; must) place desire (wish; want; about to),

big (great; fully) ?suitable (appropriate; fitting; should) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) below (down; under; lower; inferior).

^(a) Translating this line, paradoxical ‘omnipotent’ nature of the lower position, is more extemporaneous and iffy than most, especially as I’m striving to stay as close to the original. Capturing the feeling requires few words, few words increases the murky like muddy water–ness. Oh well… We’ve always got D.C. Lau’s poetry to fall back on.

Original

大国者
下流，
天下之交。
天下之牝。
牝常以静胜牡。
以静为下。
故
大国以下小国，则取小国。
小国以下大国，则取大国。
故
或下以取，或下而取。
大国不过欲兼畜人。
小国不过欲入事人。
夫两者各得所欲，
大者宜为下。

Commentary, January 2011

The virtue of the humble, lower position is universally acknowledged. Yet, I am also drawn to success and the ‘higher’ position—not surprising seeing how animals, and especially humans, want to have ‘it’ both ways (e.g., decrease taxes not benefits, eat rich food not get fat, and countless other double-dealings). Happily I am able to notice this and take the lower position with increasing grace as each year passes. You might say the female (time) only reveals herself after much of the male (energy) has spent himself.⁽¹⁾

A key issue for me is the wax and wane dynamic that complements all the streams of the world uniting. Chapter 36 puts it wonderfully: If you would have a thing weakened, you must first strengthen it; if you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up. Interestingly, noticing one phase or the other, but not both as inextricably connected, is all too easy.

Indeed, I think we are innately blind to Nature’s omnificent cyclic nature. In an ironic way, we suffer the illusion of expecting that action (the waxing, strengthening, ’setting it up’ phase) leads directly to resolution. It does, in a long term way, just as all the streams of the world unite… at the lower reaches. The illusion is that one’s contentment is tied directly to successful action. The further irony is that the lower position, the female is felt as the position one must avoid at all costs⁽²⁾. We are innately driven to contend long and hard to reach the top. Yet, reaching the top, all we can ever see is the lower position.

Personally speaking, it has taken years of living to fully appreciate and viscerally feel nature’s ‘game’. Now, that doesn’t mean I get to quit playing the game prematurely (before death). However, it does permit me to understand more deeply the game’s rules. While all in nature experience the game’s dynamic, only humans think they know. The snag here is how the dynamic itself drives our thoughts to think that success brings peace. Sure it does for about a minute before we find ourselves at the end-of-the-line once more. That subtly is lost on us. Only after years of being hoodwinked by our biology, do we begin to see a possible resolution: One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone.⁽³⁾

Really, isn’t this drive to succeed just Mother Nature’s way of keeping us alive, resisting entropy until the full-on entropy of our last dying breath? Yes, it is nature’s way. However, if we’re going to circumvent nature’s restraints as are want to do, we would be wise to understand a little deeper how she hoodwinks us as well. Otherwise, we’re bound to lose balance, stumble repeatedly and suffer needlessly.

Nevertheless, understanding that nature is hoodwinking me doesn’t prevent me from ‘enjoying’ the illusion. Just as knowing a magician’s tricks are just tricks doesn’t hinder my sense of awe at his illusions. I find the true benefit of knowing I am being hoodwinked lies in helping me know, yet think that I don’t know. This cuts down on the alternative: “Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty”.

⁽¹⁾ Female and male here have nothing to do with gender; women have just as much male as men have female. These just express themselves differently among us all. The surface only appears different; the deeper we look the more mysterious sameness we see.

⁽²⁾ We begin each moment from a lower position drawn toward a ‘higher position’, the male, merit. The illusion that resolution and peace come with success drives us to struggle on. The beautiful irony of this is that we begin each moment from resolution (the lower position) and essentially go in full circle (or perhaps a ‘mysterious’ spiral) only to arrive back at the beginning. It helps to know it’s a game—not real—no matter how real it feels.

⁽³⁾ This has less to do with actual doing; it’s more about our actual expectation of accomplishment. Without dreams of success bugging us to over-do, we naturally tend keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action, with an emphasis of taking! Simple necessity (need) drives action, more than imagined necessity (desire).