Water

The Dao De Jing calls water the highest good (chapter 8): it benefits all things without contending, takes the low place as rivers and seas do (chapters 32, 61, 66), and though nothing is softer, nothing beats it against the hard (chapters 43, 78).

Chapter 8 gives the book's best-known image: “The highest good is like water.” 上善若水 Water “benefits all things without struggle”, “goes to places that everyone abhors”, and so “is almost like the Way”. The chapter ends on the quality that the whole theme turns on: “Precisely because it does not contend, it is beyond reproach.”

The low place is where water goes, and the book returns to it often. Chapter 32 says the Way in the world “is like streams and valleys flowing to rivers and seas”. Chapter 66 explains why: “Rivers and seas can be kings of the hundred valleys because they are good at being below them.” Chapter 61 asks a great state to be “like the lower course of a river, where the whole world meets” (下流), and chapter 28 asks the reader to “be as the world's stream” and “the world's valley”. In chapter 34 the great Way itself “flows everywhere”.

The second thread is softness. Chapter 43 does not name water, but describes what water does: “The softest thing in the world runs through the hardest thing in the world. What has no substance enters where there is no gap.” Chapter 78 names it: “Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water, yet for attacking the hard and strong, nothing surpasses it.” Chapter 36, which states the rule that “The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong”, adds at once that “Fish must not leave the deep water”.

Elsewhere water gives the book its smaller images. The ancient masters of chapter 15 are cautious as if they would “wade across a river in the winter”, “Like ice, ever melting away”, “Obscure, like muddy water”, and the chapter asks: “Who can be muddled, and use clarity to gradually become lucid?” The speaker of chapter 20 is “Tranquil like the ocean”, and in chapter 32 heaven and earth “let sweet dew fall” that the people share evenly with no one ordering them.

Water: the chapters at a glance
Chapter	What it says
Chapter 8 上善若水	The highest good is like water: it benefits all things, does not contend and goes to the low places others shun.
Chapter 15 古之善为	The ancient masters are drawn in water: wading a river in winter, ice melting, muddy water, and one who is muddled yet gradually becomes lucid.
Chapter 20 绝学无忧	The speaker, set apart from the crowd, is tranquil like the ocean.
Chapter 28 知其雄守	Keeping to the female and to disgrace, one becomes the world's stream and the world's valley, where things flow down.
Chapter 32 道常无名	Heaven and earth let sweet dew fall evenly, and the Way in the world is like streams and valleys flowing to rivers and seas.
Chapter 34 大道泛兮	The great Way flows everywhere, like a flood that goes left and right, and all things live by it.
Chapter 36 将欲歙之	Fish must not leave the deep water, just after the line that the soft and weak overcome the hard and strong.
Chapter 43 天下之至	Without naming water, the softest thing in the world runs through the hardest and enters where there is no gap.
Chapter 61 大国者下	A great state should be like the lower course of a river, where the whole world meets.
Chapter 66 江海所以	Rivers and seas are kings of the hundred valleys because they are good at being below them.
Chapter 78 天下莫柔	Nothing is softer or weaker than water, yet nothing surpasses it for attacking the hard and strong.

Every line on the theme

Chapter 8

上善若水。

The highest good is like water.
水善利万物而不争，

Water benefits all things without struggle,
处众人之所恶，

it goes to places that everyone abhors,
故几于道。

thus is almost like the Way.
居善地，心善渊，

In dwelling, good at choosing the ground; in the mind, good at depth;
与善仁，言善信，

in giving, good at humaneness; in speech, good at trust;
正善治，事善能，

in governing, good at order; in work, good at ability;
动善时。夫唯不争，

in movement, good at timing. Precisely because it does not contend,
故无尤。

it is beyond reproach.

Chapter 8, line 1

Chapter 15

豫兮若冬涉川，

Apprehend it akin to wade across a river in the winter.

Chapter 15, line 3

涣兮若冰之将释，

Like ice, ever melting away before revealing itself.

Chapter 15, line 6

旷兮其若谷，混兮其若浊。

Open, like a valley. Obscure, like muddy water.
孰能浊以静之徐清？

Who can be muddled, and use clarity to gradually become lucid?

Chapter 15, line 8

Chapter 20

澹兮其若海，

Tranquil like the ocean,

Chapter 20, line 17

Chapter 28

知其雄，守其雌，为天下溪。

Know masculinity, abide by femininity, be as the world's stream.
为天下溪，常德不离，

Be as the world's stream, and the enduring virtue shall not fade,
复归于婴儿。

ever returning to the newborn.

Chapter 28, line 1

知其荣，守其辱，为天下谷。

Know glory, abide by disgrace, be as the world's valley.
为天下谷，常德乃足，

Be as the world's valley, and the enduring virtue shall be sufficient,
复归于朴。

ever returning to the uncarved block.

Chapter 28, line 7

Chapter 32

天地相合以降甘露，

Heaven and earth would join and let sweet dew fall,
民莫之令而自均。

and the people, with no one ordering them, would share it evenly.

Chapter 32, line 5

譬道之在天下，

The Way in the world
犹川谷之于江海。

is like streams and valleys flowing to rivers and seas.

Chapter 32, line 10

Chapter 34

大道泛兮，其可左右。

The great Way flows everywhere; it can go left or right.
万物恃之而生而不辞，

The myriad things rely on it for life, and it does not refuse them.

Chapter 34, line 1

Chapter 36

鱼不可脱于渊，

Fish must not leave the deep water;

Chapter 36, line 7

Chapter 43

天下之至柔，驰骋天下之至坚。

The softest thing in the world runs through the hardest thing in the world.
无有入无间，

What has no substance enters where there is no gap.
吾是以知无为之有益。

From this I know the benefit of non-action.

Chapter 43, line 1

Chapter 61

大国者下流，

A great state is like the lower course of a river,
天下之交。

where the whole world meets.
天下之牝，牝常以静胜牡，

It is the female of the world. The female always overcomes the male by stillness;
以静为下。

by stillness she takes the lower place.