To shrink
Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching, Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Translated by John Minford. 2021.
First stretch.
To be soft
First be hard.
To destroy
First raise up.
To steal
First give away.
This is the subtle light.
Soft and gentle
Precede hard and strong.
Never take a fish
from its deep.
Never display
the sharp weapons
of a Nation.
This chapter seems to be composed of three parts: two halves, and a line—”This is the subtle light”—that separates them. The first half shows the different ways that the law of reversion works. These are concepts that represent the aspects that make up the material world from the most basic, volume and density, to the more complex ones, composition and actuality. It is the simple message of the law of reversion: if the aim is to get to one state, then the way is to go toward its opposite. But why is that? What is the subtle light that this talks about?
The first part of the second half repeats this use of oppositions but orders them in a more linear fashion. Before “hard and strong” is “soft and gentle”. However, is it not that the law of reversion works vice versa? How can one end of an opposing pair come before the other?
Then the chapter ends with two new images: a fish in the deep and hidden weapons. I was going to write “weapons on display” but the line clearly says not to do so, and so I wondered how the image can be written as and thought of the opposite: hidden. A fish in the deep and weapons not on display. Both are hidden, out of sight. But what is their relationship to each other and to the rest of the chapter?
What happens when a fish leaves the deeper parts of the sea? They become much easier to hunt; a hungry bear sees a fish in the shallow waters and the hunger is soon solved. How about a different image: a fish being hunted right into the depths of the water? This case is more dangerous to the hunter as the depths provide security for the fish. It is better to hunt from the shallows.
What of the weapons then? Could the imagery of the fish be the key to understanding why weapons—sharp weapons, in particular—should not be put on display?
What happens when they are? They can easily dull due to exposure. Sharp weapons, like knives, also dull easily when used for things other than their intended purpose. To be put on display is not the function of sharp weapons. When they are on display is akin to fish being in the shallow parts of the water, too. No longer hidden, they become invitations for an attack that being in plain makes them more vulnerable toward. Having a hunter dive into the depths first before being able to make an attack is effortless security that needs not the sharpness of the weapons to be used. By the time the hunter reaches the weapons, they would have made themselves at much risk… in the deep water.
(22 August 2022, 12:22 pm)