Daodejing, Laozi, Chapter 61

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Chapter 61


"A great nation flows down To be the world's pool,
The female under heaven In stillness
The female constantly overcomes the male,
In stillness Takes the low place.
Therefore a great nation Lowers itself
And wins over a small one.
A small nation keeps itself low
And wins over a great one.
Sometimes becoming low wins,
Sometimes staying low wins.
A great nation desires nothing more
Than to unite and protect people.
A small nation desires nothing more
Than to enter the service of people.
When both get what they wish
The great one should be low."
-  Translated by Stephen Addis, 1993, Chapter 61  

"A great state is like a great river,

Down flowing with movement and life,

Of all under heaven the union,

Of all under heaven the wife.

Consider the female, the woman

Overcomes by her quietude wholly,

Some make themselves lowly to conquer,

Some conquer because they are lowly.

And so a great state condescending

 Will win smaller states to unite,

And small states, themselves by abasement

Will conquer far more than by fight.

If the great state desire but to nourish,

And the small to preserve and extend,

Then each has secured what it sought for,

But to do this the great one must bend."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 61  

"A great kingdom, lowly like running water, is the Meeting-place of the world.
It is the feminine quality of the world.
The feminine quality always overcomes the masculine by stillness.
In order to be still, we must become lowly.
Therefore, if a great kingdom is lowly towards a little kingdom it will take possession of the little kingdom.
If a little kingdom is lowly towards a great kingdom it will take possession of the great kingdom.
So one becomes lowly in order to conquer,
The other is lowly and yet it conquers.
If a great kingdom only desires to unify and nourish men,
If a small kingdom only desires to enter in and serve men,
Then the Master, in each case, shall obtain his desire.
He who is great ought to be lowly."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 61  



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.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 61 


ta kuo chê hsia liu.
t'ien hsia chih chiao.
t'ien hsia chih p'in.
p'in ch'ang yi ching shêng mu.
yi ching wei hsia, ku ta kuo yi hsia hsiao kuo.
tsê ch'ü hsiao kuo.
hsiao kuo yi hsia ta kuo, tsê ch'ü ta kuo.
ku huo hsia yi ch'ü.
huo hsia erh ch'ü.
ta kuo pu kuo yü chien hsü jên.
hsiao kuo pu kuo yü ju shih jên.
fu liang chê ko tê ch'i so yü.
ta chê yi wei hsia.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 61  



"Here is the formula
for discovery
of the original self
see yourself as a great river
identify wit the fountainhead in the mountains
identify with the watercourse across the land
identify with the emptying into the great sea
this is the receptive
rest peacefully within the shape of
an empty vessel
blanketing your bodymind with stillness
tranquil sitting
balances the naturally expressive
with the naturally receptive
see the great river within you
see the great river beneath you
see the great river above you
see yourself as small within the great river
the great and the small have no meaning
on their own
because they are the same thing
they wish to serve each other
bring them together
as the river connects the mountain spring
to the vast ocean
and the original self
will appear."
-  Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006, Chapter 61  


"Un gran reino es como un cauce profundo
hacia el que todo fluye.
Es como la hembra del mundo.
La hembra,
domina al macho al mostrarse cautelosa con él.
un gran reino, mostrándose cauteloso,
adquiere un reino pequeño.
Un reino pequeño, mostrándose cauteloso,
adquiere un gran reino.
Por lo tanto, uno adquiere mostrándose cauteloso,
el otro adquiere mostrándose cauteloso.
Un gran reino, sin sobrepasar sus fronteras,
reúne a todos y los nutre.
Un reino pequeño, sin sobrepasar sus fronteras,
sirve a la gente.
Asi, ambos reciben lo que desean.
Para provecho de ambos y el logro de sus deseos,
el más grande debe mostrarse cauteloso."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 61


"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 favor. 
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."
-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 61  

Chapter 61 of the Tao Te Ching

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching

English Language Translators' Index

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