Daodejing Chapter 69: Take Your Enemy Seriously

Somewhere in Shanghai, somewhen in the 201Xs

Know your enemy, know yourself, never lose a battle, or something like that. That’s how it goes, doesn’t it? A philosophy, no wait, a formula, for endless expansion. Victory without end, growth without limits. What folly. My enemy was always looking straight at me, right until he stabbed me in the back. My own worst enemy, me. Making enemies where there didn’t have to be any, just so the world could look as expected. I chose fighting, always fighting. What I could have been doing was confronting the struggle within myself, realizing that the bait and trinkets, really the meagre table scraps that we were all fighting over, were never worth the effort. I didn’t just underestimate my enemy, I ignored his needs for far too long.

Some war strategist of the ancient times had this to say: “I dare not be the host of a war; I cannot but be the war’s guest to defend myself. I dare not advance an inch; I’d rather retreat a foot.” This is called marching with no ranks to march, rolling up sleeves with no arms to raise, facing enemy with no enemy to face, and holding up weapons with no weapons to hold. No disaster is bigger than underestimating your enemy. Underestimating your enemy will cost you the treasures. When two warring sides are close in strength, the side that wins the sympathy wins.

I enjoy this interpreter’s choice of phrase, “some war strategist”. Brings to mind our modern “unnamed expert” or the meme quotes assigning wise words to Lincoln and Buddha. We can come to believe anything, won’t we? How little we have changed in a few thousand years. No improvement in our nature at all in this blink of geologic time. Yes, that’s right, I say there’s been no change. Furthermore, I say this tendency to pick through the catalogues of the past to find and raise up just the bits that justify what we want everyone to believe about us and our views is fundamental to our nature. Underlying culture, impervious to the passing of time, we look until the search turns up what we always knew we’d find. This way lies disaster. We never fail to find it.

Because our enemy is our belief in ourselves without proof, without tests. We believe we can grow, and we do, right up until we collapse. I had to learn that not growing, even pulling back, is just what improvement looks like sometimes. I don’t need more wealth. I don’t have to go here or there. I don’t need more people to know me. I do want to be tested. To explore new ways to learn. To experience other cultures. To meet new, interesting, and kind people. So go outside your city. Host a war of discomfort.

Summer 2025, Lanesboro Wisconsin

[Author’s Note: For those interested, the translation used for this series is Dao De Jing, translated by Ju Yan’an. It was my first and has become my favourite translation. Find it here.]

[Author’s Note: Thank you for taking the time to visit. All pictures were taken by the author or family member, unless otherwise noted.]