Chapter Eight: The Daoist Perspective — Major Snow and Attaining Emptiness, Guarding Stillness, Bearing Yin and Embracing Yang

I. "Attain the Utmost Emptiness; Guard the Deepest Stillness": Major Snow's Way of Quiescent Stability

In Daoist philosophy, the "supreme yin," "sealed storage," and "quiescent stability" that Major Snow represents are in perfect accord with Daoism's most essential cultivation practices. Though the Most High (Laozi) did not discuss the solar terms directly, his discourse on "emptiness" and "stillness" resonates throughout with the spirit of Major Snow.

The Dao De Jing, Chapter 16, says: "Attain the utmost emptiness; guard the deepest stillness. The ten thousand things arise together; I thereby observe their return. Things flourish in profusion, and each returns to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to one's destiny. Returning to one's destiny is called the constant; knowing the constant is called illumination. Not knowing the constant, one acts recklessly and courts misfortune."

This passage reads almost as if it were written as a philosophical gloss on Major Snow. "Attain the utmost emptiness; guard the deepest stillness" — bring the emptiness of the inner heart to its extreme; hold the stillness of the inner heart to its most resolute. This is precisely what Major Snow's virtue of sealed storage demands of cultivation.

"The ten thousand things arise together; I thereby observe their return" — note the word "return" (fu): it is the same character as the "Return" of the Return hexagram! The Most High, in the arising and returning of the ten thousand things, perceives precisely that "Return" — the fundamental law of cycling back and returning to the root.

"Each returns to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to one's destiny" — all things return to their root, return to storage, return to stillness — this is the process of "returning to one's destiny." Surface desolation is in truth the quiescent stability of returning to life's source; surface storage is in truth the nourishment of renewal through "returning to one's destiny."

"Returning to one's destiny is called the constant; knowing the constant is called illumination" — what Major Snow demonstrates is precisely this "constant." To perceive this "constant" within Major Snow's sealed storage is "illumination" — genuine wisdom. Conversely, "not knowing the constant, one acts recklessly and courts misfortune" — acting out of turn during a season that demands stillness and storage is the "reckless action" born of "not knowing the constant."

II. "Bearing Yin and Embracing Yang; the Blending Qi Achieves Harmony": Major Snow's Way of Yin and Yang

The Dao De Jing, Chapter 42, says: "The ten thousand things bear yin on their backs and embrace yang in their arms; the blending qi achieves harmony."

This statement is the perfect key to understanding Major Snow's "yang sprouting within supreme yin." "Bearing yin and embracing yang" — the existence of all things is never purely yin or purely yang but always yin containing yang, yang containing yin. During Major Snow, what Heaven and Earth "bear" is the fullest yin (flourishing snow, extreme cold, sealed storage); but what they "embrace" within this supreme yin is precisely that thread of newly sprouting yang (the single yang's return).

"The blending qi achieves harmony" — the clash and blending of yin and yang qi achieve he — "harmony." The transition from Major Snow to the winter solstice is the very moment when yin and yang "clash" most intensely (what the Monthly Ordinances call "yin and yang contend"). But this "clashing" is not purposeless conflict; it aims at a higher "harmony" — yin reaches its extreme and yang is born, the old cycle concludes and a new one begins. The "harmony" that Daoism pursues has never been static balance but precisely this dynamic harmony of yin and yang in ceaseless creative tension.

III. "Know the Male, Hold to the Female": Major Snow's Virtue of Feminine Guarding

The Dao De Jing, Chapter 28, says: "Know the male, hold to the female — be the valley of all under Heaven. Being the valley of all under Heaven, the constant virtue does not depart, and one returns to the state of the infant."

"Holding to the female" (shou ci) is one of Daoism's most profound insights. The male is forceful, outward, and advancing; the female is yielding, inward, and retiring. During Major Snow, Heaven and Earth operate precisely in the mode of "holding to the female" — no display, no advance, no outward show, but retreat, inwardness, deep storage. This "holding to the female," though it appears weak, harbors the deepest power.

Why does "holding to the female" enable one to "return to the state of the infant"$2 The infant is life at its most initial, most pure, most potent state. The single yang's return is precisely Heaven and Earth's "infant" — the first, purest, most potent seedling of a new cycle. Major Snow's virtue of "holding to the female" through deep storage and protection is precisely for the sake of guarding and nurturing this "infant" of Heaven and Earth — that newly sprouted thread of yang qi.

IV. "The Highest Good Is Like Water": A Daoist Reading of Major Snow's Water Virtue

Major Snow belongs to water virtue, and water is precisely the image most revered in Daoist thought. The Dao De Jing, Chapter 8, says: "The highest good is like water. Water excels at benefiting the ten thousand things without contending; it dwells in places that the multitude disdain. Therefore it approaches the Way."

Major Snow's snow is a form of water — "congealed rain." Snow's "pleasing to things" and nourishing of the hundred grains embodies "water excels at benefiting the ten thousand things"; snow's silent blanketing of the earth, insulating crops and melting into sustaining water — never boasting, never seeking credit — embodies "without contending." And snow falling in the supremely yin, supremely cold depths of winter, in the season people flee — this embodies "dwelling in places that the multitude disdain."

At a deeper level, water's virtues of "moistening downward," "excelling in lowliness," and "dwelling below" correspond to Major Snow's virtues of "sealed storage," "retreat and guarding," and "sinking deep." Water always flows downward, occupying the lowest place; the yang qi of Major Snow likewise lies stored at the very bottom, the most hidden place (the Return hexagram's single yang at the lowest line). This wisdom of "dwelling below" is Daoism's profound gift: true power and vitality are often concealed in the lowest, the stillest, the least conspicuous place.

V. "Things Flourish in Profusion, and Each Returns to Its Root": Major Snow's Realm of Returning to the Root

Let us return once more to the Most High's words: "Things flourish in profusion, and each returns to its root."

Major Snow is the season when all things in Heaven and Earth "return to their root." The ten thousand things that grew and flourished over the year (yun yun), by Major Snow, all "return to their root" — leaves fall and return to the root, qi contracts and returns to the root, vitality withdraws and stores itself in the root. This "returning to the root," in the Daoist view, is the most profound homecoming — a return to the source of life, a return to the substance of the Way.

The Daoist insight drawn from Major Snow's returning to the root is a profound life-wisdom: humanity too should know how to "return to the root." In certain seasons of life, when the external world is frozen and affairs are simplified, one should emulate all things returning to their root — contract outward seeking, return to the interior, come home to the source of life, and in quiescent stability nourish the spirit and replenish the vital qi. This "returning to the root" through quiet nourishment is not passive stagnation but the most fundamental storing for a more far-reaching flourishing. Major Snow is the great lesson in "returning to the root" that Heaven and Earth bestow upon us.