(By Tom Bisio, Internal Arts International)
Parts 1-3 can be found below, beginning with August, 2025
Part 4
Dao De Jing Chapter 10: How to be Able To Act
If one sustains the spiritual and animal souls,
And embraces unity, one may be without separation.
If one concentrates the breath, if one produces tenderness,
One may resemble a little child.
By purifying and cleansing, one gets the dark look.
Is one able to be without faults?
In loving the people, in governing the country,
Can one be without knowledge?
The gate of Heaven opens and shuts.
Can one not be a female bird?
If it resplendent penetrates the four quarters.
Can one be without knowledge?
It generates and nourishes.
It acts and does not possess.
It causes growth and does not rule.
This is called the mysterious Te.
The spiritual and animal souls again refer to the Hun and Po respectively. The Hun and Po were discussed in Dao De Jing Chapter 1. The Hun and Po, and their connection to the body are considered to be a microcosm of the Three Powers: Heaven, Earth and human beings. Uniting the yin and yang energies within the body allows that the Three Powers, Yin, the spiritual and animal souls, to integrate into a single unity – the “One.”
Embracing Unity, or “Holding Fast to the One,” is a method of Daoist meditation in which the practitioner seeks to still the mind so that no thoughts, emotions or desires arise. Both the body and mind are still, with the body aligned and the spine straight. This gives one the potential to connect to the primordial, undivided state underlying consciousness. This state of Unity is sometimes referred to as the “mind of the Dao.”[1]
What the Laozi calls the “One,” according to He Shang Gong, refers to the purest and most potent form of qi-energy that brings forth and continues to nourish all beings. This is the meaning of de, the “virtue” or power with which the “ten thousand things” – i.e., all beings – have been endowed and without which life would cease. The maintenance of “virtue,” which the commentary also describes as “guarding the One,” is thus crucial to self-cultivation. A careful diet, exercise, and some form of meditation are implied, but generally the commentary focuses on the diminishing of selfish desires.[2]
If, in meditation, one concentrates on securing and concentrating the original breath, so that the breath and consciousness are not confused or disturbed, then the body becomes supple, tender and pliant like an infant, without worrisome thoughts or politically motivated actions.[3] If one is able to resemble a little child, inwardly without fear and outwardly without action, then the spirits do not flee.[4] By thus purifying the mind and cleansing the heart, it becomes clear and tranquil, profound and silent. When it becomes clear, the mind stays in the dark (mysterious; profound) places, the look knows all its doings. Therefore it is called the dark look.[5] The “dark look” refers to the inward directed gaze associated with meditation. Often it is fixed inside the body below the navel on the perineum, Mingmen/Dantian. If one is tranquil and without lust and desires (“without faults”), then the breath will be saved and concentrated.
Other passages in the Dao De Jing also refer to being like an infant. In Chapter 55, which He Shang Gong entitles “On the Charm of the Mystery,” we are told that:
Who holds the fullness of Te in his mouth,
May be compared to an infant.
Poisonous vermin does not sting.
Wild beasts do not claw. Birds of prey do not grip.
The bones are weak, the sinews are tender, but the grip is tight.
It does not yet know the union of the female and the male, but its membrum is erect.
It cries the whole day without becoming hoarse. This is the perception of harmony.
To know harmony is called eternal.
To know the eternal is called enlightened.
By fulfilling life, one becomes daily more happy.
The heart causes the breath daily to become stronger.
Things grow and then become old. This is called without Tao.
Without Tao one soon ends.
Although the infant seems soft and weak, its intention is fixed and does not change, so it can grip things firmly and hold onto them. It does not know of sex yet its essence (Jing) is abundant, hence it has an erect membrum (penis). Jing is associated with reproduction and sexual energy. In Daoist meditation, Jing transforms into Qi/Breath and Qi/Breath transforms into Spirit. Spirit in turn then transforms back into Jing, thereby replenishing it. Thus, abundant Jing is both a requirement for, and a result of, harmonizing the five spirits. Restraining one’s sexual desires also helps to guard the essence.
The infant’s heart is also pure and does no harm to others and so is not harmed by others – poisonous insects do not sting it, nor fierce beasts seize it. The infant’s heart does not force the Qi. This creates and abundance of Qi and breath. As a result, he or she can cry all day without becoming hoarse. Through a natural letting-go (rather than active interference) the infant lets Qi and breath circulate freely and unobstructed.
In traditional Chinese medicine, we recognize that infants are replete with Qi that is pushing outward. Hence infants have chubby cheeks and ruddy faces and their arms and legs look puffy like doughy bread. Infants spike high fever because their surplus of Qi pushes outward forcefully to repel pathogens, and they can run into a wall or fall in ways that would cripple adults, without injury. This is because their bodies are supple and soft rather than hard and rigid.
The heart and the emotions, if not still and focused, if not harmonious, pull on the reservoir of Qi and Jing, thereby depleting them. This is considered to be going against the Dao. The uninhibited circulation of the internal energies allows one to penetrate the dark mystery, so that the body becomes stronger inside and tender on the outside, like an infant. He Shang Gong adds, that if the harmonious breath disappears from the interior, the body daily becomes harder[6] (ie: less resilient – more brittle). When one has lost the Dao in this fashion one ages and dies. The ideal state is one of trying just the right amount. If one used the mind to force the Qi to move, the inner suppleness is lost, the “harmonious breath disappears from the interior”[7] and the body becomes harder and more brittle.
The implication is that external exercises and excess exertion, while they can make one externally stronger, internally they weaken the body. Hence, in the practice of martial arts, the dilemma of focusing on external strength and combat, rather than on internal cultivation and softness (pliability/suppleness). Training to0 hard pulls on the Jing and causes Qi to leak, so one must train carefully and with great attention to detail.
Xing Yi Master Li Gui Chang told me more than 20 years ago that after age 50 one should avoid sweating when practicing Xing Yi Quan, advice I was unable to accept until my mid-sixties. Pushing the body too hard during internal training, instead of gathering and storing vital force, drains it and ultimately weakens the body. Master Li’s disciple Song Zhi Yong is soft, like a bag of Qi that can move and transform at will.
Internal masters constantly caution the practitioner to not use external strength, and not to focus too much on the external movements. The famous boxer Wang Shang Zhai said that: “a small movement is better than a large movement; no movement is better than a small movement. Stillness is the mother of all movement.” Similarly, Xing Yi legend Guo Yun Shen when discussing Xing Yi’s San Ti Shi Standing Posture tells the student that
Within the posture, it is not your body and legs standing centered that makes it centered. Its centeredness is due to your abiding by the rules of the posture. Withdraw any hyperactive energy, returning it within, so that your true energy can be restored to its original state. There will then naturally be no extra vigor within, for within your mind is emptiness. This is what is called “centering”, and is also called the “Daoist mind”. You are to move in accordance with this.[8]
In regards to training for self-defense internal arts masters, like the great Xing Yi Boxer Liu Qi Lan said that:
There is no fist in the fist and no intention in the intention. The real intention is in the middle of intentionlessness. When there is no heart within the heart the heart is empty. Not empty and yet empty is true emptiness. Although empty, it is substantial. If someone suddenly attacks me I have no intention to strike, I just respond to his intention.[9]
This is similar to the idea of not forcing things in meditation and residing in a place of emptiness. In a style a bit reminiscent of the Dao De Jing, Guo Yun Shen uses the juxtaposition of apparently contradictory statements to force the reader to think outside normal channels in order to seek a point of balance:
One must not be stubborn in training boxing skills. If strength is sought on purpose, it can be restricted by strength. If Qi is sought on purpose, it can be restricted by Qi. If heavy ability is sought on purpose, it can be restricted by heavy ability. If light and floating ability is sought on purpose, it can be dispersed by light and floating ability. Therefore, in those with smooth training forms, strength take place naturally. In those with harmony in the interior, Qi can generate itself and the spiritual intention can return to the Dan Tian area and the body can be as heavy as Mt. Taishan. In those who could transform the spirit into emptiness, their body can be as light as a piece of feather naturally. It is necessary not to seek it on purpose. If something can be obtained by seeking it, it seems to exist but does not exist, and seems to be true, but is false. It is necessary to obtain these things by unhurried and steady steps, without forgetting and assisting them, without thinking and management of them.[10]
For a pithy summary of this way of thinking about internal martial arts in relation to Daoist meditation we can look to the introduction to Pa-Kua: Chinese Boxing for Fitness and Self-Defense, in which author Robert Smith quotes Master Wan Lai-sheng as follows: “If you ask how I strike the enemy, I cannot tell you: I only do my exercise.”[11] In other words, one focuses on self-cultivation or inner cultivation and let its external application take care of itself.
Interestingly one of the Daoist classics on Meditation, the Nei Yeh (Inward Training), gives very similar advice to the martial art masters mentioned above:
When your body is not aligned,
The inner power will not come.
When your mind is not tranquil within,
Your mind will not be well ordered.
Align the body and absorb the inner power,
Then it will gradually come on its own.[12]
Returning to Chapter 10, to be “without knowledge” is sometimes interpreted to mean that one should inhale and exhale without the ears hearing it. The next two lines are: The gate of Heaven opens and shuts. Can one not be a female bird? On a basic level the “Gate of Heaven” references respiration. Sinologist Arthur Waley tells us that the female (i.e. passive) opening and closing of the heavenly gates also refers to the opening and shutting of mouth and nostrils.[13]
Daoist Master Hua-Ching Ni provides another viewpoint on this passage. Ni says that the Gate of Heaven or the “Subtle Gate” opens when one receives life; when it closes, one’s life is transformed. The Subtle Gate is constantly opening and closing; therefore ones destiny is continually changing….The Subtle Gate is a door of no door, a gate of no gate. It is the constantly changing level of the mind which separates the reality of continuous transformability of or destiny from the unsentimental cycle of life. Ni adds that fixed idea ins relation to destiny and our emotions and passions are misconceptions bred by mental tensions.[14]
Daoist Commentator Wang An Shih says: As for Heaven’s Gate, this is the gate through which all creatures enter and leave. To be open means to be active. To be closed means to be still. Activity and stillness represent the male and the female. Just as stillness overcomes movement, the female overcomes the male.[15]
The metaphor of a “female bird” is used to describe one’s ability to open and close the “Gate of Heaven” (meaning, to govern and guide body’s internal energies). This relies on employing a gentle, nurturing, and unforced approach. A female bird is quiet and still. A bird’s bones are hollow and its body soft and light. As it breathes, the bird’s body naturally expands and fills with the Qi and Breath.
The next lines –If it resplendent penetrates the four quarters. Can one be without knowledge? – intimate that when the energies of the body are replete one’s intelligence reaches in every direction, while at the same time one appears to be without knowledge. Another commentary on these lines by Su Ch’e says: What lights up the world is the mind. There is nothing the mind does not know. And yet no none can know the mind. The mind is one. If someone knew it, there would be two. Going from one to two is the origin of all delusion.[16] Through meditation and stillness one attempts to return to the original undivided state where the two (yin and yang) reunite as a single unified energy and spirit.
When the internal intelligence gains this kind of understanding that is devoid of false distinctions, it can extend in all directions without being deceived or deluded and is able to do so with having a personal interest or investment – then as the last lines of Chapter Ten states: It generates and nourishes. It acts and does not possess. It causes growth and does not rule. This is called the mysterious Te.
Both generating and nourishing, the Dao bequeaths, but does not control. Generation and nourishing become tools and methods for use. Both Dao and De, when present in the heart, are mysterious and invisible. Daoist Commentator Wang Pi says: If we don’t obstruct their source, things come into existence on their own. If we don’t suppress their nature, things mature by themselves. Virtue is present, but its owner is unknown. It comes from the mysterious depths. Hence we call it dark.[17]
The last line in Chapter 10 refers to the “mysterious Te”, or Xuan Te. Te or De is often translated as “virtue.” However, this can be problematic, as in English, virtue implies some kind of morality containing judgments of right and wrong, virtuous and non-virtuous. The ancient explanation of De ( ) could be understood more as “the intrinsic virtue of a thing” – its specific nature, or latent power and ability. This relates to notions of efficacy and or potency. In relation to human beings and meditation practices, De is the life force and its inner potential. In this sense De, is the nature or potential given to all things by Dao.[18] De is often combined with Xuan – Xuan De (literally “dark virtue”). This can be understood as “profound efficacy”, “dark efficacy” or “mysterious efficacy” as in the final line of Chapter 10 (above). Professor Hans G. Moeller translates Xuan De as dark efficacy, which he sees as an affirmation of the inner power of growth that lies within all things themselves, Moeller says:
It is obvious that Dao and De are not creators in the strict sense of the word, but are rather, like the root of a plant, the ‘force’ within the cosmos that sustains all there is…the cosmos is conceived of in terms of biological reproduction and fertility; it is understood as an ‘organic’ process of life. Dao and De are integral elements within that process and not an external origin.[19]
Chapter 11: How to Make Use of Non-Existence
Thirty spokes unite in one nave.
Through what has not, the wheel can be used.
Of suitable clay vessels are made.
Through what it has not a vessel can be used.
By piercing doors and windows are made.
Through what it has not a room can be used
Therefore existence is advantageous
No-existence is useful
Therefore it is said: Empty nothingness is able to work on the existing forms.
Tao is empty.
This chapter talks about the usefulness of non-existence and the importance of emptiness, or “negative space” in functionality. In the three examples mentioned above, the hub of a cartwheel, a clay vessel, and a room, all achieve their functionality through emptiness or nothingness. Functionality resides in what is not there.
Music is composed of tones, but it is the space between them that gives them life and rhythm. In art, the negative space is what allows the image to be seen. Words unsaid can have a powerful impact. In the martial arts it is the space between the postures, and applications that makes them unfold so smoothly that an observer only sees the endpoint and the transitions are hidden or invisible.
Sinologist Hans-Georg Moeller tells us that the image of a wheel and the hub are also a metaphor of the Dao:
That the Dao is depicted as a wheel, as the wheel of a cart, shows right away that the Dao is not static, that it is not something that eternally stands still, but rather something that moves – even though it does not change its shape. The wheel is not merely a thing, it is a kind of event, it is rotation and motion. The wheel is a running, it is a “pro-ceeding,” a “pro-cess” (i.e., literally a “going forwards”).[20]
Moeller expands on the idea of the hub and spokes as follows:
The hub is not made of something. All the spokes are made of a material substance, whereas the hub is nothing but an empty space; it does not have any positive qualities. Because the material the spokes are made of is necessarily always a specific one, it is exchangeable. The wood of this tree or that can be used, one can even use something other than wood. No matter which material is used for making the spokes, the hub remains untouched. It is always made of the same nonmaterial. Materials like wood grow and wither, metal is cast and rusts. An empty space neither withers nor rusts. It is there or not; emptiness cannot increase or diminish in substance. There are no degrees of emptiness.[21]
The hub is empty within, yet it unites all the spokes of the wheel. In meditation, one gets rid of feelings and desires, thereby allowing the five viscera (the interior of the body) to be empty. When the interior is empty, the spirits can return and reside inside the body. The center of the hub of the wheel stands still. The wheel turns, but the empty hub is unchanged, still, doing nothing, yet by doing nothing it unites the spokes and the rim and allows them to turn and move. Stillness in the center, having an empty space inside, allows movement and change to occur and allows the spirits to be receptive.
Similarly in Ba Gua Zhang, while circling one seeks to find the empty infinitesimal center (axis) around which the turning revolves. Ba Gua legend Sun Lu Tang compares this to the mysterious gateway, the Xuan Pin, which was discussed earlier in this series of posts.
Ba Gua Quan is the left turning and the right turning. Both hips are like a picture that has no corners inside. The eyes gaze at the index finger tip of the front hand, which is opposite the center of the circle. This is the appearance. The turning is not fixed like the Tai Ji One Qi. Therefore Ba Gua Quan, in this picture, corresponds to Heaven. In Heaven is completed the form. Therefore the empty center of the Ba Gua Quan picture seeks the dark mystery. It is also compared to a mysterious gateway.[22]
The Daoist classic on Inward Training, the Nei Yeh, also stresses the importance the structured internal stillness and emptiness, similar to the metaphor of a cartwheel, or an empty clay vessel, but here employed in meditation and self-cultivation.
When you are properly aligned and can be still
Then you can be stable and settled
With a settled heart/mind at the center,
Your ears and eyes are sharp and clear,
Your four limbs are firm and sturdy
You can become a dwelling for essence [Jing].
This essence is Qi.[23]
Stillness is not just sitting in meditation. It also refers to refraining from engaging in purposeless, restless activity for its own sake.[24]
Wang Chuan Shen, a philosopher in the Ming Dynasty, explained the importance of stillness very succinctly when he said: the quiescent state is actually quiescent movement. It is not motionless. Therefore quiescent exercise is essentially quiescent movement. So entering the quiescent state is essentially quiescent movement.[25] Quiescent movement is “movement within stillness.” This movement within stillness is different from ordinary movement and can bring about psychological and physiological changes, one of which is that energy consuming processes change to energy storage, thereby retarding the aging process.[26]
In Vita Contemplativa, philosopher and cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han, takes a very similar viewpoint when he stresses the importance of inactivity and contemplation. Inactivity is not the opposite of activity. Rather, activity feeds off inactivity. He goes on to say that in creative people, it is the proportion of inactivity in their activity that makes possible the emergence of something altogether different, something that has never been there before. Only silence enables us to say something completely unheard of.[27] Earlier in the text Han describes inactivity as being time-consuming. One cannot seek short-term result, but must simply let things unfold or come to fruition in their own time. In Han’s view, this kind of “inactivity” requires a long whiling, an intense contemplative lingering.[28]
Notes
[1] The Shambhala Guide to Taoism by Eva Wong, Boston & London: Shambhala Publications Inc. 1997, p. 201.
[2] http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/
[3] Two Visions of The Way: A Study of Wang Pi and the Ho-shang Kung Commentaries on the Lao Tzu, by Alan K.L. Chan. p. 143.
[4] Ho-Shang-Kung’s Commentary on Lao-Tse, translated and annotated by Eduard Erkes, p. 26.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ho-Shang-Kung’s Commentary on Lao-Tse, translated and annotated by Eduard Erkes, p. 98.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Authentic Explanations of Martial Arts Concepts. Sun Fuquan [Lutang], March, 1924. Translation by Paul Brennan, April, 2013.
[9] Authentic Explanations of Martial Arts Concepts. Sun Fuquan [Lutang], March, 1924. Translation by Huang Guo Qi.
[10] Authentic Explanations of Martial Arts Concepts. Sun Fuquan [Lutang], March, 1924. Translation by Huang Guo Qi.
[11] Pa-Kua: Chinese Boxing for Fitness and Self-Defense, Robert Smith (Tokyo, New York & San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd, 1967) p. 10
[12] Original Tao, Harold Roth (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983) p. 66.
[13] The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its place in Daoist Thought. Arthur Waley (New York Grove Press Inc. 1958) p. 154.
(14] I Ching: The Book of Changes & The Unchanging Truth. Hua-Ching Ni (Santa Monica: North Star Communications 1990 and 1994) p. 508.
[15] Laotzu’s Taoteching: translated by Red Pine with selected commentaries of the past 2000 years (San Francisco: Mercury House, 1996) p. 21.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Cui, Xiaojiao. 2023. The Understanding and Translation of De in the English Translation of the Daodejing . Religions 14: 1418. p. 5-6. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111418
[19] Dao De Jing: The New Highly Readable Translation of the Life-Changing Ancient Scripture formerly known as the Tao Te Ching. Hans-Georg Moeller (Peru IL: Open Court Publishing, 2007 )p. 120.
[20] Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to the Fishnet Allegory. Hans-Georg Moeller (Chicago and LaSalle Illinois: Open Court Publishing, 2006) p. 27.
[21] Ibid, p. 28.
[22] Classical Baguazhang, Volume XIII: Sun Style Baguazhang (Ba Gua Quan Xie and Ba Gua Jian Xue) by Sun Lutang.Translated by Joseph Crandall, Smiling Tiger Martial Arts: Pinole, CA. 2002, p. 16.
[23] Original Tao: Inward Training (nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. Harold Roth
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1999) p. 66.
[24] Life And Teachings of Two Immortals (Vol. 1): Kou Hong. Hua Ching-Ni (Santa Monica: Seven Star Communications 1992).
[25] Qi Gong Essentials for Health Promotion. Jiao Guorui. (PR China: China Reconstructs Press) p. 61.
[26] Ibid, p. 66
[27] Vita Contemplativa – In Praise of Inactivity, Byung-Chul Han (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024) p. 17-18.
[28] Ibid, p. 10-11.
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