The mother and the feminine in early Daoist cosmology and cultivation

To gain a better understanding of the mother and other feminine traits described in early Daoist texts, I offer two routes of analysis, making a distinction between the metaphysical notion of cosmic generation that begins with Dao and equates Dao to the mother, and between political philosophy that implies the practical cultivation of the sage as a ruler and the suggestion to abide by feminine traits. In the Laozi, the Taiyi Shengshui, the Fanwu Liuxing, and other Daoist or “proto-Daoist” texts, the term mother is used in reference to the beginning of all existence—“the mother of heaven and earth.” Furthermore, in the Laozi, both female and feminine traits are favored over male and masculine traits, and in the personal cultivation of the ruler and his governance over the state, the aspiration is to be “the female.”Footnote ¹

Beginning with cosmology and cosmic generation, the view of the Laozi and other proto-Daoist excavated manuscripts differ from other texts and philosophies of the time. The cosmology in the “Zhou Book of Changes” (Zhouyi) shows us a world of correlativity—yin and yang, sun and moon, heaven and earth, feminine and masculine, all are complementary, working in mutual correspondence.Footnote ² Furthermore, understanding the world in complementary terms means that every existence and phenomenon involves the cooperation of two forces. One of the projections of this world view is seen in the notion of “sky as father; earth as mother” in various ancient Chinese texts. However, this view does not imply a strict separation between the complementary forces, as there is always an interaction between the two. For example, the dyad of yin and yang, known to denote opposite phenomena such as light and dark, earth and heaven, water and fire, etc., together forms a unity, one Dao. Thus, the Xici shang commentary to the Yijing says “One yin and one yang is called Dao.”Footnote ³ Even within one body—regardless of sex—there are yin organs and yang organs, yin traits and yang traits. And the same goes for phenomena of the natural world—winter is yin, however day is yang, and furthermore, once we reach the winter solstice, yin starts to decline while yang starts to strengthen.

In addition, in the world view of correlative cosmology, or a cosmogony initiated by an ultimate origin as suggested by Daoist texts, the cosmos (or nature) and human are parallels as a macrocosm and microcosms, mirroring one another and constantly interacting. Hence, cosmic and natural forces are to be found in human beings, allowing the terminology used in the discourse of cosmic generation to be applied to the human realm.

The Laozi does not discuss generation in terms of Qi or yin and yang, rather emphasizes the role of Dao and the interactions between wu(absence) and you(presence) that bring forth the generation of the myriad beings.Footnote ⁴ This basis of generation is more of a metaphysical notion than an ontological one—it focuses on the process as a whole and remains vague on the details.

In contrast, the cosmogony presented in the Taiyi shengshui, a text excavated from the same tomb as the earliest known versions of the Laozi in Guodian, begins with an ultimate origin equivalent to Dao, but goes further and details a complete process listing all forces involved from beginning to “end” in a logical order. Interestingly, this manuscript, unlike the earlier versions of the Laozi, does mention yin and yang and places them after heaven and earth, the stars, sun and moon (shenming) in the cosmogonic progression of generation. The stars, sun, and moon assist each other and produce yin and yang; and in repeatedly assisting each other (fu xiang fuye), yin and yang produce the four seasons. The Taiyi shengshui also states that the eternal movement of taiyi一(“Great One”), who makes herself the mother of the myriad things, is not something that yin and yang can bring to closure.Footnote ⁵ In this case, yin and yang are merely a part of the cosmogonic process and as in the Laozi, yin and yang are natural phenomena and do not refer to either femininity or masculinity.

The Fanwu liuxing, an excavated manuscript from an unknown origin held in the Shanghai Museum, also takes a different route in describing cosmic generation. First, the text begins with a series of questions about the world of myriad phenomena, and only later mentions the ultimate origin of all things:

Through the questions asked at the beginning of the text, we may note that the cosmic process begins in formless changing, going through a process of transformation and formation—flowing from the quasi-form and fluidity (liuxing), to complete body (chengti), to life (sheng), stability (gu), and harmonious integration (he). The ultimate origin in the Fanwu liuxing is the “One,” and interestingly it presents the sequence in a similar manner to the Laozi. Whereas chapter 42 of the Laozi states,

The Fanwu liuxing says,

Dao is the mother of all existence in the Laozi and the female completes the bond in the Fanwu liuxing: both place feminine traits as key links of cosmic generation. Whereas in the Laozi the mother is the starting point of the process, in the Fanwu Liuxing, the female is the final link in the generative process.Footnote ⁶

Regarding cultivation and governance, both the Taiyi shengshui and the Laozi invoke the feminine and the female. In the Laozi the ruler is equivalent to Dao, the singular versus the many, or the mother of the state. In the ruler's process of self-cultivation, he is to abide by the female and learn from feminine traits found in the natural world like the female animal and the spirit of the valley. In the Taiyi shengshui, taiyi as the ultimate origin is described as the mother of heaven and earth.

The common thread between the texts mentioned is that they present a synthesis of political philosophy and cosmic generation. The primary concern is to establish a unified and well-regulated state through emphasizing the necessity of the ruler to understand and emulate the ultimate origin and the cosmic patterns. While each text begins with a different ultimate origin, all of them are associated with feminine traits, and the process of cosmic generation is one of endless reversal and recurrence rather than a linear progression forward. The cyclicality is observable from nature, such as the waxing and waning of the moon, the alternation between day and night, the cycle of the seasons, and even the menstruation of a female follows natural patterns as it reoccurs every month during her fertile years—making her an inherent force of nature.

Mother and the generative process

The Laozi, known by the title Daodejing, is, as the title suggests, a philosophy concerning Dao and De. The record in the “Biographies of Laozi and Han Fei” (Laozi hanfei liezhuan) in the Shiji mentions that the book written by Laozi has two sections, and that it discusses the meaning of Dao and De in 5,000 characters.Footnote ⁷ It has thus been traditionally divided into two sections, one focusing on Dao, composed of chapters 1–37, the second on De, consisting of chapters 38–81. The division is seen in the Wang Bi received version, the Mawangdui silk manuscripts, and the Peking University Han bamboo slips. It is safe to conclude that the main notions the Laozi focuses on are Dao and De (Zheng Reference Kai2019, 87).

There are two central relationships in the Laozi which are in parallel to one another. The first is the relationship between Dao and the myriad beings (wanwu), and its parallel is the relationship between the sage-ruler (shengwang) and the people (baixing or min). However, for the ruler to perceive and cultivate his function as parallel to the function of Dao towards the myriad being, it is difficult to remain on abstract cosmological terms. Thus, another relationship is brought forth: the relationship between mother and son.

The first chapter of the Laozi begins with a description of Dao:

Although there is not much discussion on the cosmic process of generation in the Laozi, the first chapter begins by telling us something about the initial stage of the world. We learn that without a name—wuming—is the beginning of heaven and earth, and that the named—or literally, youming “to have a name”—is the mother of all beings.

There are two points to be observed here: first, the subject of this chapter is Dao. Wu and you are two aspects of the Dao, as the phrase “they share an origin but differ in name” tells us, Dao is both. The myriad things are generated from you and wu. You and wu are not connected in a sequence, one leading to the other, but rather are parallel, Dao generates you and wu and both exist at the same time. You refers to a general existence that has a form in the formless, yet wu is formless, independent, and unchanging—wu is part of you (Liu Reference Xuyi2009, 5).

This point is further amplified by chapter 2 that says, “absence (wu) and presence (you) generate one another” (wu you xiangsheng), and by slip 37 in the Laozi Guodian A version that says: “All things under heaven were generated from you, generated from wu.” In this earlier version of the Laozi there is no indication that wu is prior to you—rather it is the interaction between wu and you that bring forth the generation of all things. For Wang Bi, however, the concept of wu is restricted to the formless and nameless. His commentary on the lines “nameless, the beginning of heaven and earth; named, the mother of ten thousand things” in the first chapter reads:

According to Wang Bi, wu is the origin of all things because it is the original state of all things. Things were non-existent before, now they exist, but eventually they are to return to non-existence. The relationship between wu and you is further explored in chapter 11:

The description of the wu-you relationship here can relate to the emptiness of the womb as a location in which wu and you interact in a perfectly harmonious manner. The emptiness of the womb allows the growth of a fetus, the existence of the womb allows the existence of the fetus to begin with. The mother, both bearing her child in a wuwei manner by not interfering with his growth and allowing the fetus to grow by nourishing it without purposeful intention, birthing the baby and nourishing the baby by the milk produced in her body without her intervention, is the ultimate metaphor for the wuwei mode of Dao, and the closest parallel to the way Dao functions towards the myriad things.

The assumed predominance of wu over you from the time of Wang Bi onwards has led commentators and scholars to elevate this notion, equate it to Dao, and thereby also to the mother. In her paper “Nothingness and the Mother Principle in Early Chinese Taoism,” Ellen M. Chen states that Dao is the origination, destiny, creative principle, as well as final cause of all things in the world—and its ultimate aspect is conceived to be wu (1969, 391). In chapter 4, the Laozi tells us:

As the emptiness of the container, the attributes of wu include stillness or quietness that underlies the phenomenal world. Dao is the dark, unfathomable depth, which is the origin as well as destiny of all things. The idea of the emptiness is connected to the emptiness of the womb. Thus, Chen concludes, in the Laozi, the ultimate principle of the world is regarded as a mother principle (Reference Chen1969, 401). Furthermore, when wu relates to the emptiness of the female and her productive power, we find that wu is not impassive or immobile. The female is the origin of motion, life, and unity in all things.

Second, the nameless (wuming) aspect is the beginning of heaven and earth. Although heaven and earth are also wu, they are unlike wanwu which are generated from the mother—as they do not “generate” themselves, and so they do not, like plants which have flowered, begin to die. As chapter 7 states: “Heaven is long-lasting and earth is enduring. The reason heaven and earth are able to be lasting and enduring is because they do not generate themselves” (zisheng). Heaven and earth are particular within the category of beings/things because they do not reproduce themselves, they change more slowly than other “living” things.Footnote ⁹

The character shi for “beginning” used in the phrase “the nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth” is composed from the radical of the “female” nü and a platform tai. The ancient dictionary of the Shuowen jiezi (“Explanation of Characters”) defines shi as “a woman in her beginning,” meaning that this woman, or girl, is not yet married and cannot reproduce, but does already inhibit the ability to do so. In fact, she is born with the ability to do so, and even in vitro already has a womb.

Liu Xuyi illustrates the difference between wu and you with the example of a young girl and a mother. A young girl has not given birth, so she is wu (shi); however, she still has the potential to exercise her reproductive ability to become you, or a mother (Reference Xuyi2009, 287). A young girl becoming a mother is the way of Dao; Laozi's Dao is the mother of all things. This is representative of Dao's unity of you and wu, of shi and mu. In chapter 52 this unity of shi and mu is articulated in terms of generation and the mother-son relationship:

The difference between a “woman in her beginning” and a mother is merely a difference in the sequence of time, not in essence. As the ancient characters for woman and mother attest, the mere difference is that the character of mother depicts breasts in addition to the nü radical. Thus, being a mother is not merely the ability to grow a fetus and give birth to a baby, it is also the ability to nourish, and that is the crucial aspect that relates the mother to Dao. Hence, there is a distinction between the mother and other feminine traits, while feminine and masculine together form the unity of the Dao, the mother embodies the ability to unite yin and yang in her own body, create a life, nourish it, and bring it to maturation. Thereby, the mother can become a metaphor for the Dao in the manner that Dao generates all things and is hence positioned above the “feminine and masculine” distinction which belong to the realm of the “myriad beings.”

Another point in regard to the first chapter and any other instance where the cosmogonic process is discussed in early Daoist texts is the usage of the verb sheng “to give birth.” However, this notion is not limited to mammals giving birth to an offspring, rather includes a broader range of generation. As Sarah Allan points out: “the earliest character is a pictograph of a plant sprouting from the earth … Like wu 物, sheng refers equally to the plant and animal world” (Allan Reference Allan1997, 98–99). The Dao is a life-giving force that generates all the living things, but it does so in the way water gives life, not in the manner of a creator god.

Moreover, Dao, as the life-giving force, does not stop once life is generated. Like a mother, Dao also nourishes and raises the things, brings them to maturity, and allows them to prosper. As both chapter 10 and 51 state, Dao “gives life to the things and nurtures them. Giving life without managing them and raising them without lording it over them—this is called dark efficacy (xuande).” In the Laozi there is no strict distinction between Dao and De. This dark efficacy is henceforth equivalent to Dao, making both the terms xuande and shangde synonyms of Dao (Zheng Reference Kai2019, 16).

The main component of this xuande is wuwei, to which we could also add the notion of ziran. As Dao generates the things and beings, nourishes them, raises, and matures them without lording over them, that is, Dao is wuwei towards the beings—it allows the things to flourish on their own terms. As mentioned in chapter 57:

The zi (self) constructions can only exist when Dao, the mother, or the ruler, adopt the methods of wu and do not manage or lord over the myriad beings, the offspring, or the people. In the Laozi, the virtues of birthing, nourishing, raising without controlling, are associated to the way a mother raises a child, and to the way that the ruler is to emulate Dao in governing the state. In this regard, the female (pin)is associated to the character xuan—dark, as in chapter 6: “The life force of the valley (gushen) never dies—this is called the dark female (xuanpin). The gateway of the dark female—this is called the root of the world. Wispy and delicate, it only seems to be there, yet its productivity is bottomless” (Hall and Ames Reference Hall and Ames2003, 85). Lu Yanying suggests that terms such as xuanpin—the “dark female” (translated as “great womb” by Henricks Reference Henricks1989, xviii) and gushen—“valley spirit” refer to motherhood. Moreover, she maintains that, while Dao is the mother, de refers to infants as infants maintain the original, natural, true state of beings and greatest potency (Reference Lu2016, 36–37). The reference to de being equivalent to the infant is derived from chapter 55:

However, as Hall and Ames's translation shows, de has more than one meaning, and in the case of chapter 55, de refers to vitality. In contrast, the de as a political and ethical term referred to as “dark efficacy” is associated with Dao and the Mother.

Zheng Kaianalyzes xuande in the Laozi by contrasting it to “shining virtue” (mingde) in the Confucian tradition (Zheng Reference Kai2019, 13). Footnote ¹⁰ Dark efficacy is subtle, not seen, not exemplified like in the Confucian tradition where virtues are displayed in actions such as humaneness (ren), rightness (yi), and propriety (li). According to Zheng, xuande in the Laozi consists of two aspects including political and ethical contents (Reference Kai2013, 142).

Following his analysis, the Laozi can be seen as a philosophy that seeks to overturn existing contemporary values, thus preference for the more motherly or feminine attributes of being non-active, dark, low, soft, and weak become primary and are seen as having an ethical superiority to the Confucian ideals of humaneness, rightness, and propriety. Chapter 5 exhibits the rejection of the Confucian ideals:

The sage, in this case, is to emulate the cosmological processes of Heaven and Earth and the principles of nature which brings the Laozi to examine motherhood and femininity, rather than to abide by a man-made social centered ethics. This point is best exhibited by chapter 25:

This chapter summarizes best the parallel relations of Dao and the myriad things, mother and offspring, ruler and people. Dao is directly noted to be the mother of heaven and earth, the nameless, the source of all beings and the destination for their return. The four grandees of the universe are Dao, heaven, earth, and human beings.Footnote ¹¹ The way of the world begins with Dao, is exhibited in nature, and is to be carried on by human beings. In this sense, the mother, whether a human mother, an animal mother, or mother nature herself, is not merely a metaphor for Dao. She is a force of nature, she is Dao.

The feminine in cultivation and rulership

The metaphysical and cosmological terminology used in ancient philosophy are applied to the human body; the living body is conceived as a microcosm embodiment of cosmological forces. Thus, through observation of Dao, the ruler cultivates his own body, nourishes life, and attains longevity.Footnote ¹² The political position of a ruler is perceived as a “masculine” position, while the advice the Laozi offers to the ruler does not discard masculinity, but also embraces femininity and feminine attributes.Footnote ¹³ The emphasis on the feminine has led scholars to view Daoism in general as “yin,” as opposed to “yang” or “masculine” Confucianism (Needham Reference Needham1956, 61). Footnote ¹⁴ However, a more holistic approach reveals that Daoist thought does not make such a separation, but rather seeks unity. Hence, both masculine and feminine are to be embraced, just as the merging of yin and yang creates harmony.Footnote ¹⁵

In addition to the mother, the Laozi uses two other sets of terms in relation to femininity, pin and ci. Pin refers to female animals in general (in contrast to mu which refers to the male) and ci refers to hens, as opposed to xiong which refers to roosters (Wang Reference Wang, Garry, Khader and Stone2017). Pin appears in a total of three chapters and five instances. In chapter 6, as seen above, it serves as a metaphor of the origin of the cosmos, as the life-force of the valley that never dies. As the chapter exhibits, xuanpin serves as a definition of the spirit valley. The Laozi thus connects the root source of all things and beings to the feminine, and further applies this to the fundamental principles of social behavior, making the metaphor both descriptive and prescriptive (Liu Reference Xiaogan2003, 181). Ci, denoting the hen, appears in two chapters (10 and 28), in the context of de and cultivation. Chapter 10 reads:

The female and femininity, whether as mother or as a soft, gentle, and supple being, shows that femininity has great significance for the Laozi and Daoism (Wang Reference Wang, Garry, Khader and Stone2017, 35). Liu Xiaogan adds that the female in the sexual act and in mothering is the perfect example of doing something in a wuwei manner (Reference Xiaogan2003, 200). This connects us to the point that females were conceived to behold traits of softness, stillness, and passivity. Ma Lin argues that the feminine occupies a central place in the Daodejing, which is not defined through a relation to the masculine, either in terms of a harmonious and complementary relationship, or in terms of mutual contradiction and distinctiveness from one another (Reference Lin2009, 269).Footnote ¹⁶ Furthermore, a correlative reading of the feminine and masculine risks taking femininity and masculinity as two sides within a unity, thereby neutralizing and obscuring the thrust of the verses concerning the central importance of the feminine.

Karyn Lai understands the relationship between femininity and masculinity through Daoist notion of complementarity. In this understanding femininity and masculinity are interdependent, mutually inclusive, and in addition, remain distinct and irreducible to one another (Lai Reference Lai2000, 146–47).

Chapter 28 is of particular importance to understanding the feminine imagery used in the Laozi:

According to this chapter, the feminine is not just portrayed as yin and the soft and subtle force of the world, but emphasizes a hidden structure in the background, while masculinity specifies what is prevailing, exposed, and at front. As chapter 42 mentions, all things embrace yang and embody yin. Robin Wang points out that one of the main meanings of the word fu, translated as “embody,” is to carry or bear something on one's back, that is, in the background. Fuyin then refers to things that are not confronted, not seen, but still carried along (Reference Wang, Garry, Khader and Stone2017, 39). Together, fuyin and baoyang reveal an awareness of two aspects of reality that manifest in chapter 28 as well—there is the masculine aspect of explicit presence (know the male; know the clean; know the white), and the feminine aspect, the hidden underlying structure (safeguard the female; safeguard the solid; safeguard the black).

The continuity between polar opposites, a persistent theme in the Laozi, here applied to gender, suggests that the Daoist image of the sage and the fertile person is an androgyne who has access to the full range of gender traits (Ames Reference Ames1981. 33). As the opposites are inseparable, the Laozi argues that our natural tendency is to observe the obvious, that which stands before us, and ignore the latent in the background. Thus, the Laozi counteracts this tendency with a focus on the feminine who should be guarded (shou) and protected (bao).

The feminine in the Laozi is portrayed as a complement of the masculine and the realization of the sage in the world. Rather than being a reduction to feminine traits or values, the realization of a sage lies in a reconciliation of opposites as manifested in the embodiment of Dao.

In chapter 61 an analogy between a great state, the lower reaches of water's downward flow, and the female is made:

In their commentary on this chapter, Hall and Ames stress that it is not stillness or passivity that the female brings to her relationship with the powerful male, but an achieved equilibrium, and underneath. As we saw in chapter 6 and elsewhere, the female is a river valley. “Her deference is a function of her capacity to accommodate and stabilize the relationship by drawing the energy of her emptiness. She ‘bests’ the male by being able to absorb and reinvest any excess energy in her reproductive role” (Hall and Ames Reference Hall and Ames2003, 173).

Chapter 61 notes that the female overcomes the male by her qualities of stillness, and chapter 28 tells us that to attain union with Dao, one should abide by the female, cultivating the qualities of weakness and softness. Thus, the image of the feminine is not merely one of generating, giving, and nurturing, but also contains elements associated with the darker side of things (exhibited through the notions of yin and xuan).

In the Laozi, along with “mother of all existence,” we also find terms such as “mother of the kingdom” (chapter 59). Noteworthy in this context is that the Laozi mentions only motherly, not fatherly love. It speaks of ci, motherly love, that spreads evenly, embraces all and excludes none, never withdraws itself and never claims credit. Galia Patt-Shamir explores how the conceptual framework of motherhood challenges the definition of self-identity. She notes a “paradox of motherhood” from both theoretical and practical perspective: the self-effacing yet self-fulfilling, giving oneself for another and the annulling of “self.” As a mother, by definition, nourishes others, and in some sense is others, when a mother is known, the offspring cannot be ignored (Reference Patt-Shamir and Pang-White2016, 252). In other words, the unique identity of mother is an identity of direct and necessary co-dependence, just as the myriad things and Dao are co-dependent, and equally, so are the ruler and the people. Chapter 67 speaks of the ruler in terms of a loving mother:

This chapter exhibits what Patt-Shamir describes as “the mysterious female annulling herself not in the sense of sacrificing herself, but in the sense of being able to make way for others” (Reference Patt-Shamir and Pang-White2016, 259). Hence, notion of the mother has several implications in the Laozi, here used to guide the ruler in his political practices.