The Divine Feminine Tao Te Ching

This is an important new translation and commentary of this classic text, which every enthusiast will want to buy, and, as the title suggests, puts the emphasis on the Tao as intrinsically feminine with its frequent imagery referring to mother, virgin and womb of creation, as well as the injunction to 'act without acting' – wei wu wei – an approach of deep listening that the author also applied to the process of translation. The two main texts used where a silk manuscript discovered in 1973 and 730 bamboo slips only unearthed in 1993. The current Chinese technocracy is far more Confucian than Taoist with its emphasis on surveillance and control, even if trying to apply the principle of harmony, in this case trumped by stability. The Tao says that

Great rulers are unnoticed by the people

The next best are loved and praised

The next best are feared

The next best are scorned

When trustworthiness declines

Trust is not returned.

Wise people are in harmony with the rhythms and cycles of the universe and are aware of paradox in action exemplified in so many of the eighty-one poems to which one can have daily recourse:

Act before things appear…

Care at the end as at the start…

Return injury with virtue…

With non-interfering master the world…

To protect the tender is to be strong…

The wise have no set mind…

Know the masculine

But hold to the feminine….

Simple as uncarved wood.