Chapter 61 — The virtue of humility謙德

江海居大而處下，則百川流之，大國居大而處下，則天下流之，故曰，大國下流也。

Rivers and the sea are placed as great and yet dwell low, and so the hundred streams flow into them; a great state is placed as great and yet dwells low, and so all under heaven flows into it. That is why it says a great state flows downward.

治大國，當如居下流，不逆細微。

Governing a great state should be like dwelling where the water flows down: it does not go against even what is small and slight.

天下所歸會也。

It is where all under heaven returns and gathers.

大國，天下士民之所交會。

A great state is where the gentlemen and the common people of all under heaven meet and gather.

靜而不求，物自歸之也。

Still and seeking nothing, yet things return to it of themselves.

牝者，陰類也。柔謙和而不昌也。

The female (牝) belongs to the yin (陰) kind: soft, humble and harmonious, and it does not put itself forward.

以其靜故能為下也。牝，雌也。雄躁動貪欲，雌常以靜，故能勝雄也。以其靜復能為下，故物歸之也。

It is because of its stillness that it can be the lower. The female (牝) is the hen. The male is hasty in moving and greedy in wanting, while the female is always still, and so she can overcome the male. Because by her stillness she can again be the lower, things return to her.

陰道以安靜為謙下。

The way of yin takes ease and stillness as its humble lowering.

大國以下，猶云以大國下小國。

That a great state lowers itself is the same as saying that, being a great state, it lowers itself to a small state.

能謙下之，則常有之。

If it can humbly lower itself, it will always have it.

小國則附之。

The small state attaches itself to it.

大國納之也。

The great state takes it in.

此言國無大小，能持謙畜人，則無過失也。

This says that whether a state is great or small, if it holds to humility and can nurture others, it is without fault.

言唯修卑下，然後乃各得其所。

It means that only after cultivating humility and lowliness does each get its place.

下者謂大國以下小國，小國以下大國，更以義相取。

Lowering means that the great state lowers itself to the small state and the small state lowers itself to the great state, so that by turns, through what is right, they win each other.

小國修下自全而已，不能令天下歸之，大國修下則天下歸之。故曰，各得其所欲，則大者宜為下也。

A small state cultivates lowliness and only keeps itself whole; it cannot make all under heaven return to it. When a great state cultivates lowliness, all under heaven returns to it. That is why it says that for each to get what it wants, the greater one should take the lower place.

大國不失下，則兼併小國而牧畜之。

If the great state does not lose its lowliness, it gathers the small states in together and nurtures them.

使為臣僕。

It makes them subjects and servants.

大國小國各欲得其所，大國又宜為謙下。

The great state and the small state each want to get their place, so the great state too should humbly take the lower place.