The Doctrine of the "Mysterious Female" in Taoism
The principal purpose of this paper is to suggest the approach of transpersonal psychology for analysis of some important aspects of the Taoist doctrine, that is, the concept of the Tao as a female universal principle and the Taoist attitude "to be like an infant" or even as an "embryo."
To understand these Taoist principles, we must begin from the very beginning-from the central concept of Taoism, that is, Tao (the Way, the True Way). This concept designates the prime ground of the World, the source of all life and the limit of every existence, as well as the rule and measure of beings.
The female, maternal image of Tao is the crucial point to understanding the psychotechnique (or psychopractical) approach of Taoism. It is possible to demonstrate its importance by citing some passages from the Tao Te ching (The Canon of the Way and its Power) or the"Lao-tzu," a famous Taoist classic:
1. §6:
The valley spirit never dies-it is called the mysterious female";
The gate of the mysterious female is called "the root of heaven and earth."
Gossamer it is,
seemingly insubstantial, yet never consumed through use.
2. §25:
There was something featureless yet complete, born before heaven and earth;
Silent-amorphous-it stood alone and unchanging.
We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth.
Not knowing its name,
I style it the "Way."
3. §28:
Know masculinity,
Maintain femininity,
and be a ravine for all under heaven.
4. §61:
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 fining for her to lie low.
E. M. Chen (1974), in her article dedicated to the role of the female principle in Chinese philosophy, notes that some aspects of Lao-tzu's concept of Tao makes it possible to propose that the formation of the teaching about Tao as a philosophical idea was preceded by the cult of some Mother-Goddess which was connected with the genesis of Taoism (Chen, 1974, p.53; Kravtsova, 1994, pp.208-213). She notes that in the description of Tao in the Tao Te ching there are all the meanings which are essential for the Mother-Goddess cult: Tao is like an empty vessel (§4); voidness (§5); mysterious darkness (§1); it is nonborn, but, nevertheless, it is the predecessor of the Heavenly Lord (§4); it is the Mysterious Female which is the gate of Heaven and Earth (§6); mother (§1, 20, 25, 52); female (or hen-§10, 28); female (§61); and Mother of all under heaven (§25, 34). In addition, Tao is often described as water (§8, 78) and as valley (§6, 28, 32, 39, 41). Clearly this valley is the principle of generation which bears all beings in its depth.
The Tao Te ching speaks much about the pre-existential, nonmanifested aspect of Tao which is the philosophical opposition to the manifested phenomenal existence as some potential being (wu). In this regard, § I is rather interesting. It describes this nonmanifested or mysterious (occult) aspect of Tao as the womb of the universal embryo, the womb which generates Heaven and Earth, which is the source of life. Briefly speaking, it is nothing but the Mysterious Mother of the world:
The nameless is the origin of the myriad creatures;
The named is the mother of the myriad creatures. Therefore,
Always be without desire
in order to observe its wondrous subtleties; Always have desire
so that you may observe its manifestations...
Mystery of mysteries,
The gate of all wonders!
This passage develops the leading idea of §1 about two aspects or "hypostases" of Tao: about Tao as "mysterious womb" and Tao as mother-nurse of all beings. Here we can recall the words of the famous commentator and thinker, Wang Pi (3 A.D.), that "Mysterious" (or "Unnamed") Tao nourishes and bears all creatures, and phenomenal named Tao feeds them; the analogous description Wang Pi gives to the character of the interrelations between Tao and Te.
What about the last sentence of the passage? It can be said that the character miao (mystery) of the sentence consists of two elements: "woman" and "little." We can suppose that its use here is not arbitrary. It is not too difficult to "ascribe" its etymology (probably it is not a scientific one) as this:
"something, that is little inside a woman," that is, embryo hidden in the womb, like the prototypes of things (see §21) are hidden in the "womb" of Tao. This opinion may be supported by the fact that the images of the womb and embryo are often used by Taoists to describe the "Tao-world" relation. So Tao can be metaphorically defined as the mother of the world, the source of life and being, and the universal female archetype. It is quite essential to understand the Taoist doctrine of immortality as well, because this doctrine considers Tao to be the life-giving principle which gives eternal life to the adept who has obtained unity with it. The Tao Te chitig also says (§52):
Having realized the mother,
you thereby know her children. Knowing her children,
go back to abide with the mother. To the end of your life,
you will not be imperiled.
Let's look at the child of the "Mysterious female of all under the heaven."
§55 of the Tao Te ching says:
He who embodies the flillness of integrity is like a ruddy infant.
Wasps, spiders, scorpions, and snakes will not sting or bite him;
Rapacious birds and fierce beasts will not seize him.
His bones are weak and his sinews soft, yet his grip is tight.
He knows not the joining of male and female, yet his penis is aroused.
His essence has reached a peak.
He screams the whole day without becoming hoarse; His harmony has reached perfection.
Harmony implies constancy;
Constancy requires insight.
Striving to increase one's life is ominous;
To control the vital breath with one's mind entails force.
Something that grows old while still in its prime is said to be not in accord with the Way;
Not being in accord with the Way leads to an early demise.
Here, an infant (a baby; the text uses Ch 'ih tzu, "red," or "ruddy" infant, i.e., a just newborn child) represents the image of the perfect sage hill of the vital force. An infant in the Tao Te ching is something like an androgyrie who does not know the parting of male and female, and who, because of this, is overflowing with vitality. His energetic essence (ching) does not flow below; it does not change into semen yet, and so it is perfect. Thus, an infant is like the great Tao itself Tao is a source of life, and like an infant also can not be tired, because exhaustion is a result of energetic deficiency. An infant enjoys absolute security; nature is not dangerous to it because he or she is at the center of its forces and powers. We should note the following words: Striving to increase one's life is ominous; To control vital breath with one's mind entails force. Here we can find a direct reference to the relation existing between ideas of obtaining immortality and religious psychopractice. Taoism proclaims that a human being is nothing more than an inseparable psychosomatic unity. So people can obtain inimortality only when their body-microcosm becomes a self-sufficient whole--a self-containing reservoir of the vital energy from one side, and when it realizes its potential, isomorphism with the world-body of the cosmos from another side. One of the most important means on the way to this exalted state is the so-called "regulation of the vital breath" (or "regulation of the pneumata" - hsing ch 'i), that is, a complex of gymnastical and breathing exercises, the aim of which is to obtain mind control over the flowing of the energy streams in the human body. The most important principle of such techniques is often repeated in medieval Taoist writings: "Pneuma (breath, ch'i) is led by will-consciousness (yi)." This means the presence of some volitional enforcement which leads the streams of the vital energy along the channels of the body (analogous to the meridians of acupuncture) in the desirable direction. The Tao Te ching is just one text which clearly formulates this idea in ancient times. Instead of the "volitional impulse" (yi), the Tao Te ching speaks about "mind" or "heart-consciousness" (Hsin), but it is the same idea.
It was thought for a long time that the concept relating the Taoist ideas of immortality and different practices was described only in medieval tests, but recent archeological discoveries in Ch'angsha Mawangtui (Hunan province) demonstrate the profound antiquity of both. Thus, the Mawangtui texts describe numerous respiratory exercises for the "regulation of the Pneumata" (hsing ch 'i) and postures of the Taoist gymnastics (tao yin). Special pictures painted on silk, which were known under the general title, Tao yin t 'u (Schemes of Gymnastics), were even dedicated to such practices. So it may be concluded that these practices were well-known in China in the days when the Tao Te ching is now regarded to have been composed (4-3 B.C., rather than the traditionally accepted period of 6-5 B.C.).
The Tao Te ching everywhere prefers the softness and weakness of the infant to the strong hardness of adults. Strictly speaking, a newborn child is the concentration or manifestation of the vital energy. This is quite clearly demonstrated in §76:
Human beings are
soft and supple when alive,
stiff and straight when dead...
Therefore, it is said:
The rigid person is a disciple of death;
The soft, supple, and delicate are lovers of life.
But the theme "infant-sage" cannot be reduced only to the metaphor of the newborn child. Much deeper and more interesting is the image of the nonborn child, which also plays an important role in the teachings of the Tao Te ching. Let us cite a part of §20 of the text:
All the people are glad and joyfull
as if they are celebrating upon the great sacrifice of oxen, as if they are mounting a tower in spring.
O! I am the only who is quiet and silent, like a baby who is not yet a child.
O! 1 am fastened and tied
and I have no place to return.
All people behave themselves as if they have more than enough
and I alone am bereft.
O! I have the mind of a fool!
O! Muddled and mixed!
All people are luminously clear
and I am the only one who is dark and conhised.
All people are exact and definite
and I am the only who is obscured and vague. O! I am wavering like an ocean.
O! I am flying in space and I have no place to stop in.
All people behave themselves
as if they have a purpose
and I alone am uncouth and simple.
I am quite different from others by honoring the mother-nurse.
This passage is worthy of careful analysis. It appears to me to offer a key to the understanding of the most essential features of Taoism. And the sentence: "O! I am the only who is quiet and silent, like a baby who is not a child yef' (in Chinese: wo tu p'o hsi ch 'i wei chaoju ying erh chih wei 'wi) is a key to this passage. So, it is best to begin an analysis of the passage with this phrase.
What is the meaning of the words "a baby who is not a child yet" or "a baby who did not become an infant yet"? I think that the text is speaking about the foetus in the maternal womb. In fact, even those commentators and translators who think that the hai (infant, child) here must be changed into its phonetical and practically graphical omonym (the difference between two characters is only one classificator "mouth" written before the original grapheme) agree with this interpretation. The second character hai means baby's cry or baby's smile. But a not-yet-crying baby is a not-yet-born baby.
Therefore, Lao-tzu here compares himself with the nonborn baby. What does he inform us about this baby? This baby-sage is "fastened and tied" by his embryonic "clothes" and umbilical cord, which unites him with the maternal body. This holy foetus has "the mind [or heart-the thinking and conscious organ according to Chinese tradition] of a fool," while at the same time it possesses the highest wisdom. This wisdom seems like nothing but stupidity to ordinary people proud of their common sense. This nonborn baby wavers in the ocean of the womb and "flies" in these maternal waves. The connection with the motherly body and nourishing and feeding the foetus is depicted quite clearly also at the end of the passage where "mother-nurse" (shi mu) is mentioned.
If the baby of §20 is a sage, Lao-tzu himself; who then is the mother? The information above makes it possible to conclude that this mother is the great Tao itself; it is the eternal and unspeakable Way and mysterious ground of every existence; the hidden depth of this Tao is the womb wherein the baby-sage dwells. This image directly correlates with Taoist cosmology and cosmogony. It considers Tao to be something like a cosmic womb which embraces the whole universe. The universe enjoys absolute unity (chaotic unity - hun yi) with the maternal body of the Way until its birth, differentiation and divorce from the Way in the course of cosmogenesis. Nevertheless, even in the "born world" some unity with Tao is preserved: it is fed by the power of Tao, which is called Te or Power-Virtue. For example: "The Way gives birth to them and integrity [i.e., Te] nurtures them" (§51). Thus, the connection between birth in the course of the cosmic evolution world and Tao looks quite like the connection between a mother nourishing her child, and the baby itself But in the case of humans, there appears a self concept, an independent, self-containing "I," as an unchanging subject of actions. This kind of egoistic self-consciousness harms the original unity, and humans begin to counteract Tao. The predominant attitude of human actions is no longer the law and measure of the cosmic rhythm of Tao, but egocentric preferences, which change spontaneous natural life into purposeful activities based only on bare subjectivity. Taoism sees egocentricity as the cause of all human sufferings, pains, frustrations-from mortality to social collisions.
The only means, not only to become liberated from sufferings but to obtain the highest happiness, is to restore original unity with Tao, to broaden consciousness and to put an end to the egocentric attitude, that is, to return to the state of the nonborn child who does not know a distinct difference between his or her own body and the maternal body, who breathes the maternal breath and eats maternal food. This coming back to the womb of the Mother-Tao is connected with the broadening of the personality to the cosmic scale, when "eternal integrity never deserts you, You will return to the state of infancy" (§28) and "a man is sparing of his body in caring for all under heaven" (§13). This state of the nonborn child is the state of immortality, peace, and unity with all beings and with one's own nature: The return to the root is called "stillness," stillness is called returning to the "fate-vitality," the return to the fate-vitality is called "constancy." One who knows constancy is called "enlightened"
(§16).'
Tao explicates itself on all levels of micro- and macrocosm, and because of this, the Taoist texts distinctively describe an isomorphism between cosmogonic process, development of the foetus and birth, and in the reverse sequence, the steps of the Taoist cultivation. So, for the Taoist, the returning to the womb of the Mother-Tao is not simply a metaphor, but a kind of expression of some profound essence of the isomorphous structure of the universe. It is also the reason why practicing Taoists try to imitate the prenatal states in their self-cultivation. One example is the famous technique of "embryonic breathing" (t'ai hsi), first depicted in Ko Hung's Paop 'u-tzu (4 A.D.). It is very still and quiet breathing, minimizing inhalation and exhalation. This kind of breathing control gives the impression that the practitioner does not breathe at all, like a foetus in the maternal womb, obtaining vital energy (ch 'i) from the blood of the mother.
Prenatal symbolism permeates the whole text of the Tao Te ching. The comparison of Tao with water and the important role played by the symbolism of water in this text in general is well known: For example: "The highest good is like water; Water is good at benefiting the myriad creatures but also struggles to occupy the place loathed by the masses. Therefore, it is near to the Way" (§8). The reason for the importance of the water symbolism lies not only in that, archetypically, water has female nature; it can be proposed, following Lao-tzu, that water is of the same nature as the nature of the waters of that embryonic ocean in which the baby-sage washes and wavers (§20 of The Canon of the Way and its Power).
In this regard, it is rather important to evaluate the name-pseudonym of the sage, who according to a tradition more than two thousand years old, is considered to be the author of the Tao Te ching, that is, Lao-tzu, Old Sage, and also Old Infant. Let us once again reflect upon this infant with the grey beard.