Laozi
大國者下流，天下之交，天下之牝。 牝常以靜勝牡，以靜為下。 故大國以下小國，則取小國； 小國以下大國，則取大國。 故或下以取，或下而取。 大國不過欲兼畜人，小國不過欲入事人。 夫兩者各得其所欲，大者宜為下。
James Legge
What makes a great state is its being (like) a low-lying, down- flowing (stream);—it becomes the centre to which tend (all the small states) under heaven.
(To illustrate from) the case of all females:—the female always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a sort of) abasement.
Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement leads to gaining adherents, in the other case to procuring favour.
The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.
Victor H. Mair
A large state is like a low-lying estuary, the female of all under heaven. In the congress of all under heaven, the female always conquers the male through her stillness. Because she is still, it is fitting for her to lie low. By lying beneath a small state, a large state can take over a small state. By lying beneath a large state, a small state can be taken over by a large state. Therefore, One may either take over or be taken over by lying low. Therefore, The large state wishes only to annex and nurture others; The small state wants only to join with and serve others. Now, Since both get what they want, It is fitting for the large state to lie low.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
A great country is lowly. Everything under heaven blends with it. It is like the female, which at all times and in every place overcomes the male by her quietude. Than quietude there is nothing that is more lowly. Therefore a great state gains the smaller state by yielding; while the smaller state wins the greater by submission.. In the one case lowliness gains adherents, in the other it procures favors.
For a strong state there is no safer ambition than to desire to gather men and care for them; and for the weaker state there is nothing better than the ambition to become an indispensable servant. [^1]
When each obtains what each desires the strongest should be the humblest.
A passage from “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” by William James (p. 372) forms an excellent commentary on this section of Lao-tzu’s writing—“Reenacted in human nature is the fable of the wind, the sun, and the traveler. The sexes embody the discrepancy. The woman loves the man the more admiringly the stormier he shows himself, and the world deifies its rulers the more for being wilful and unaccountable. But the woman in turn subjugates the man by the mystery of gentleness in beauty, and the saint has always charmed the world by something similar. Mankind is susceptible and suggestible in opposite directions, and the rivalry of influences is unsleeping.”
[^1] Dr. Carus has the following note to this chapter: “States in a federative empire, such as was the Chinese empire in the days of Lao-Tsze, grow powerful when they serve the common interests of the whole nation. It would be as impossible for great rivers to flow in high mountains as for great states not to be subservient to the universal needs of the people. Streams become naturally great when they flow in the lowlands where they will receive all the other rivers as tributaries. The largest states are not always the greatest states. A state acquires and retains the leadership not by oppressing the other states, but by humbly serving them, by flowing lower than they. This truth has been preached by Christ when he said: ‘Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.’ An instance in the history of China that illustrates Lao-Tsze’s doctrine, which at first sight appears as paradoxical as all his other teachings, is the ascendancy of the House of Cho, which under the humble but courageous Wu Wang succeeded the Shang dynasty, whose last emperor, Chow Sin (+1122 B.C.) received the posthumous title Show, the abandoned tyrant. Other instances in history are the rise of Athens in Greece and of Prussia in Germany. Athens’ ascendancy began when, in patriotic self-sacrifice, it served the cause of Greece, viz., of all the Greek states; and its decay sets in with the oppression of the Athenian confederates, i.e. when Athens ceased to serve and began to use the resources of the Ionian confederacy for its own home interests.” Lao-Tsze’s Tao-Teh-King, by Dr. Paul Carus, p. 313, 314.
Ursula K. Le Guin
The polity of greatness runs downhill like a river to the sea, joining with everything, woman to everything.
By stillness the woman may always dominate the man, lying quiet underneath him.
So a great country submitting to small ones, dominates them; so small countries, submitting to a great one, dominate it.
Lie low to be on top, be on top by lying low.