6 - Mysterious Femaleness

The valley-god [Dao] is undying;
This is called the mysterious-femaleness.
The opening of the mysterious-femaleness,
This is called the root of heaven and earth.
Unbroken and continuous, so it is existing,
Using it, it is not exhausted.

谷神不死，
是謂玄牝。
玄牝之門，
是謂天地根。
綿綿若存，
用之不勤。

(谷神 Gushen literally means "valley god" or "grain god," which can refer to the emptiness of a valley that appears like the Dao, or the nourishing characteristic of the Dao, or as gods of those qualities.) This chapter is obscure, but generally talks about the female (yin) force:

  • The force behind life and growth is undying
  • This is due to the obscure female (literally, "female" as in female animals) aspect of birth and life
  • Her opening from which life emerges is the root of heaven and earth
  • This aspect is obscure but ubiquitous and without limit
Basically, the male force and the female force are connected, but the female force is the root. In particular, the female (yin) force is important to notice as it is the soft, hard-to-perceive force. Daoism has long emphasized the obscure, yin aspects, while still maintaining the obvious, yang aspects.

For cultivation, it is a reminder to harness the yin forces and not only the yang, e.g. training both hard and soft, fast and slow, movement and stillness, fullness and emptiness, visible and invisible, etc.

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