Chapter 61

What makes a state great is being like a low-lying river into which everything flows—it becomes the place toward which all the smaller states under heaven gravitate.

Consider the female: she always overcomes the male through stillness. Stillness can be seen as a kind of lowering oneself.

So a great state, by lowering itself before small states, wins them over; and small states, by lowering themselves before a great state, win it over. In one case, humility gains followers; in the other, it gains favor.

The great state only wants to bring people together and care for them; the small state only wants to be accepted and to serve. Each gets what it wants, but the great state must learn to lower itself.