Chapter Six: The Daoist Perspective — Withdrawing Once Achievement Is Complete, Attaining Emptiness and Preserving Stillness, and Coolness Following Naturally from Stillness of Heart

I. Withdrawing Once Achievement Is Complete: A Concrete Manifestation of the Way of Heaven

If Confucian "knowing withdrawal" still carries a note of moral self-awareness and reluctant necessity, then the Daoist notion of "withdrawing once achievement is complete" represents a wisdom more thorough and more natural still.

Master Lao says: "To withdraw once achievement is complete is the Way of Heaven" (Daodejing, Chapter 9). This line was cited earlier; here we must ask further: why is "withdrawing once achievement is complete" the "Way of Heaven"$10

The Daoist answer is: because the Way of Heaven itself is a process of motion that never lingers and never clings. Master Lao says: "A whirlwind does not last a whole morning; a downpour does not last a whole day. Who brings these about$11 Heaven and earth. Even what heaven and earth bring about cannot long endure — how much less what humanity brings about$12" (Daodejing, Chapter 23). A raging wind cannot blow for an entire morning; a torrential rain cannot fall for an entire day. Who causes these phenomena$13 Heaven and earth. Even the violent phenomena that heaven and earth themselves bring about cannot persist for long — how much less those brought about by humanity$14

This passage carries great significance when applied to Minor Heat. The scorching heat of Minor Heat and Great Heat is precisely like that "whirlwind and downpour" — seemingly fierce, yet ultimately unable to last. If even heaven and earth cannot make the scorching heat linger forever (the Summer Solstice has already passed, yang energy has already begun to withdraw, and autumn's coolness will surely come), how much less can humanity$15 If a person clings to the heat of high summer (or to the height of some great achievement), vainly wishing to make it linger forever, this is to defy the Way of Heaven. But one who understands "withdrawing once achievement is complete," having seen through the truth that flourishing at its height must decline, can let go and exit calmly at the very peak of summer, at the very height of achievement — this is precisely the wisdom of union with the Way of Heaven.

The hexagram Dun's teaching, corresponding to Minor Heat, that "yang energy knows its season and withdraws," is at the deepest level entirely continuous with the Daoist idea of "withdrawing once achievement is complete." Yang energy, at the very height of summer's flourishing (achievement complete), actively conceals itself (withdraws) — is this not precisely a cosmological confirmation of "to withdraw once achievement is complete is the Way of Heaven"$16

II. Attaining Emptiness and Preserving Stillness: Returning to Tranquility Amid Tumult

Master Lao says: "Attain emptiness to its utmost; preserve stillness with sincerity. As the myriad things arise together, I thereby observe their return. Things flourish and multiply, yet each returns again to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to one's destiny" (Daodejing, Chapter 16). Bring emptiness to its utmost degree, hold fast to stillness with utter sincerity. As the myriad things grow and stir together, I thereby watch their cyclical return. The myriad things flourish in profusion, yet each ultimately returns to its own root. This return to the root is called "stillness," and stillness means returning to the very source of life.

The season of Minor Heat is precisely the moment when "the myriad things arise together," when the activity of life is at its most tumultuous — plants and trees grow wildly, insects and birds clamor noisily, the summer heat steams upward, everything releases outward and surges upward. In such a season, when "motion" has reached its extreme, Daoism instead teaches people to "attain emptiness and preserve stillness" — amid the tumult of the myriad things, to hold fast to inner emptiness and stillness, and to contemplate that cyclical Way of Heaven which will ultimately return to its root.

This is a cultivation of the highest order. It demands that a person, in the noisiest and most restless of environments, be able instead to grow calm, turn inward, and return to tranquility. This bears a striking correspondence to the phenology of Minor Heat — consider the cricket: at the very height of the summer swelter, it does not drift along with the crowd and venture out into activity, but instead "dwells by the wall" and "dwells beneath the eaves," hiding away beneath cool walls and eaves, quietly avoiding the heat. Is the cricket's "dwelling beneath the eaves" not a kind of instinctive, biological "attaining emptiness and preserving stillness"$17 The myriad things tend toward heat while the cricket tends toward shade; the myriad things release outward while the cricket draws inward — what wisdom this is! We shall explore this image further in the dedicated chapter on phenology.

Master Lao further says: "Stillness is the ruler of restlessness" (Daodejing, Chapter 26). Stillness governs restlessness. In the restless heat of Minor Heat, only "stillness" can govern and settle that restlessness. This is the power of "attaining emptiness and preserving stillness."

III. Coolness Following Naturally from Stillness of Heart: The Supreme State of Escaping the Heat

"When the heart is still, coolness comes naturally" — though the exact wording of this saying, handed down through the ages, took its fixed form only in later times, its spiritual core is deeply rooted in the thought of pre-Qin Daoism. It expresses the supreme state of escaping the summer heat: true coolness lies not in external things, but within the heart.

Why can "stillness of heart" bring "coolness naturally"$18 This touches on the Daoist fundamental understanding of the relationship between "heart" and "things." In the Daoist view, the reason a person feels unbearably hot and restless is, to a great extent, not the external temperature but the restlessness of the inner heart. When the heart grows restless, the qi and blood seethe and desires arise in profusion, making the heat feel all the more unbearable; when the heart grows still, the qi and blood grow calm and desires subside, so that coolness is felt naturally. Thus the fundamental remedy for the summer heat lies not in outwardly pursuing coolness (fanning oneself, drinking iced things, fleeing the heat), but in inwardly settling the spirit.

Master Zhuang, in the "In the Human World" (Renjianshi) chapter of the Zhuangzi, proposes the teaching of "the fasting of the heart" (xinzhai): "Unify your will. Do not listen with your ears, but listen with your heart; do not listen with your heart, but listen with your qi. ... Qi is that which is empty and awaits things. Only the Dao gathers in emptiness. This emptiness is the fasting of the heart." Unify your intention; do not listen with the ears but with the heart; do not listen with the heart but respond with the qi. Qi is empty and yet able to receive all things. Only the Dao can gather within emptiness. This state of emptiness is what is called "the fasting of the heart."

What "the fasting of the heart" attains is precisely an inner stillness and emptiness of the utmost degree. When a person reaches the state of "the fasting of the heart," the outward heat can no longer disturb his inner heart — for his heart has already become "empty and awaiting things," like a clear and limpid mirror: when a thing comes it reflects it, when the thing departs it returns to emptiness, untroubled by the heat, undragged by restlessness. This is the philosophical basis of "when the heart is still, coolness comes naturally." At Minor Heat, this season when the scorching heat is about to arrive, the remedy Daoism offers for escaping the heat is not a material means of avoiding it, but the spiritual practice of "the fasting of the heart" — what a profound wisdom this is!

IV. Master Zhuang's "Resting in the Moment and According with Its Flow" and Settling into the Summer Heat

Master Zhuang, in the "Essentials for Nurturing Life" (Yangsheng Zhu) chapter of the Zhuangzi, says: "When the Master came, it was his time; when the Master departed, it was his according with nature. Resting in one's time and according with its flow, sorrow and joy cannot enter in." What came at its proper moment came in accordance with timing; what departed at its proper moment departed in accordance with nature. To rest content in one's time and accord with change, and sorrow and joy can no longer intrude upon the heart.

"Resting in the moment and according with its flow" is the fundamental Daoist attitude toward every change in external circumstance, heat included. When the heat arrives, one calmly accepts its arrival ("resting in the moment"); when the heat is bound to pass, one lets it follow its natural course ("according with its flow"). Not resisting, not clinging, not growing anxious — this is "resting in the moment and according with its flow."

Why can "resting in the moment and according with its flow" prevent "sorrow and joy from entering in"$19 Because all sorrow and joy (including the vexation of suffering from the heat) arise from a person's resistance to and clinging toward external circumstance. The more you resist the heat, the more unbearable it feels; the more you cling to coolness, the more you suffer for its absence. But once one "rests in the moment and accords with its flow," accepting the heat as it is, vexation loses its foothold. This is the very same principle as "when the heart is still, coolness comes naturally" — coolness lies not in conquering the heat, but in making peace with it; settledness lies not in changing external circumstance, but in adjusting the inner heart.

The hexagram Dun, to which Minor Heat corresponds, teaches people to know withdrawal and concealment at the height of yang energy's flourishing; while the Daoist teaching of "resting in the moment and according with its flow" teaches people to accept calmly and follow nature's course at the height of the summer heat. Withdrawal and calm acceptance appear different, yet are in fact continuous with one another — both represent an according with "timeliness," both represent a recognition of, and a serene acceptance of, the Way of Heaven that "flourishing at its height must decline."

V. "Heaven and Earth Possess Great Beauty Yet Speak Not of It": The Wordless Beauty of High Summer

Master Zhuang, in the "Knowledge Wandered North" (Zhi Bei You) chapter of the Zhuangzi, says: "Heaven and earth possess great beauty yet speak not of it; the four seasons possess a clear law yet discuss it not; the myriad things possess a completed principle yet explain it not." Heaven and earth possess great beauty but do not speak of it; the four seasons possess a clear and definite law but do not discuss it; the myriad things possess a principle by which they come to completion but do not explain it. These three lines fully express the fundamental Daoist attitude toward heaven, earth, and the myriad things.

The high summer of the Minor Heat season is precisely an extreme manifestation of heaven and earth's "great beauty." Lush green trees and plants, canopies of shade, the ceaseless chirping of cicadas, lotus flowers standing gracefully, the summer heat steaming upward, magnificent thunderstorms — all of this is "great beauty," yet heaven and earth never boast of it or take pride in it. They simply unfold all this luxuriance and splendor in silence, and will later, in silence, gather it all back in (come autumn). The luxuriance of high summer is not a display put on by heaven and earth, but the natural, spontaneous expression of the Way of heaven and earth at this particular season.

The line "the four seasons possess a clear law yet discuss it not" fits the theme of Minor Heat with particular aptness. The succession of the four seasons — spring's birth, summer's growth, autumn's harvest, winter's storage; flourishing at its height giving way to decline, the extreme of yang giving birth to yin — follows the clearest of all laws (a "clear law"), yet heaven and earth never "discuss" this, never offer any explanation of it. The "turning at the height of flourishing" of Minor Heat is precisely a manifestation of this "clear law" — it is so unmistakably clear (the Summer Solstice has passed, yang energy must withdraw, yin energy must grow), and yet so utterly wordless (heaven and earth will never tell you, "I am about to begin withdrawing"). This requires a person to "observe" — just as Master Lao "observed the return" as "the myriad things arose together," quietly contemplating this wordless law. Master Zhuang's wisdom lies in this: he wants us, amid the "great beauty" of high summer, to apprehend that Way of heaven and earth which "speaks not," "discusses not," and "explains not" — the law of turning at the height of flourishing does not reside in the speech of heaven and earth, but in the silent workings of the myriad things, comprehensible only to the one who contemplates in stillness.

This apprehension of "wordless beauty" is one of Daoism's most profound contributions to Minor Heat. It teaches us that, amid the splendor and tumult of high summer, we should not be enchanted by the surface "great beauty" alone, but should be able to see through this wordless splendor to that deeper law by which flourishing at its height must decline and concealment and withdrawal have their season. This resonates, at the highest level, with the Confucian recognition that "what does Heaven ever say$20 Yet the four seasons proceed and the hundred things are born" (words of the Master, Confucius) — Heaven does not speak, but through the great beauty of high summer and the turning point of flourishing at its height, it wordlessly proclaims the most profound Way.