Chapter 10第10章

Can you keep body and soul together without them splitting apart? Can you concentrate your breath and become soft as a newborn child? Can you cleanse your inner vision until it's flawless? Can you love the people and govern the state without being clever about it? Can you play the feminine part as the gates of heaven open and close? Can you understand everything and yet act as if you know nothing? To give birth and to nourish, to create without possessing, to act without expecting, to guide without controlling — this is the mysterious virtue. It sounds paradoxical, but it works the way a good garden works: you set up the conditions, and then you get out of the way.

This is a series of rhetorical questions that describe what we might call the psychedelic virtues — states of being that are accessible only when the ego-dominance program has been suspended. Can you embrace unity without separation? Can you concentrate the breath and achieve suppleness like an infant? Can you cleanse the mirror of dark seeing until no flaw remains? These are not merely poetic devices — they are descriptions of specific altered states of consciousness. And then the kicker: to generate without possessing, to act without dependency, to lead without dominating — this is the mysterious virtue. What's being described is a mode of being in which agency flows through you rather than from you. You become a conduit for the Tao rather than an obstacle to it.

Wang Bi reads each of these questions as a spiritual challenge. 'Carrying the bodily soul and embracing unity' — zai means to dwell, to inhabit; the One is a person’s genuine nature. Can you remain clear without separating from the myriad things, so that all things naturally treasure themselves? 'Concentrating the breath to the utmost softness' — zhuan means to entrust, zhi means to push to the limit. Entrust yourself to your own breath and push softness to its extreme, so that you become like an infant with no desires — then things are whole and your nature is fulfilled. 'Cleansing the dark mirror' — xuan is the ultimate of things. Clear away impurities to the limit, and do not let external things obstruct your clarity. When clarity reaches its utmost, it becomes one with the dark mystery itself. 'Loving the people and governing the state without knowledge' — employing techniques and pursuing results through calculation, that is cleverness. Can you govern without it? 'When the gates of heaven open and close, can you be the feminine?' — the gates of heaven are what all under heaven passes through; opening and closing mark the boundary of order and chaos. Respond without initiating; follow without fabricating. 'Clarity reaching in all four directions without action' — the Tao is always without action; if rulers can hold to this, the myriad things transform themselves. To generate without possessing, to act without relying, to lead without dominating — this is the mysterious virtue. When Wang Bi says 'mysterious virtue,' he means: virtue that is present yet its source is unknown, action whose origin cannot be traced.

Wang Bi’s commentary on this chapter is among his most systematic and reveals his core metaphysical method. Each rhetorical question maps to a specific dissolution of ego-function. 'Carrying the soul and embracing the One' — the One is a person’s authentic nature, zhen. Can you remain in clarity without separating from things? If so, things naturally become precious of their own accord. 'Concentrating the breath' — entrust yourself to natural breath-energy and push softness to its limit. Become like an infant without desire, and things preserve their wholeness and nature is attained. 'Cleansing the mysterious mirror' — xuan is the ultimate of things. When you purify perception to its limit and no object interferes with your clarity, your clarity becomes identical with the mystery itself. This is phenomenological reduction taken to its endpoint. 'Governing without knowledge' — using technique and calculation is zhi, cleverness. The sage governs without cleverness, just as one would not use cunning to seize power. 'Being the feminine when heaven’s gates open and close' — the gates of heaven are what all things pass through; opening and closing are the hinge of order and chaos. Respond but do not initiate; follow but do not fabricate. 'Clarity in all four directions without action' — the Tao is constant non-action; if rulers hold this, things transform themselves. The mysterious virtue: do not abandon the source, things arise of themselves — what achievement is there? Do not suppress their nature, things complete themselves — what doing is there? All 'mysterious virtue' has this signature: virtue is present but its master is unknown; action occurs but its origin is untraceable.