What is the Valley Spirit in Taoism? 什么是谷神
Paul PengWhat is the Valley Spirit in Taoism?
The Valley Spirit refers to the spirit of nourishment and generation, as well as the original source of all things. It appears in Chapter 6 of the Dao De Jing, and is also known as the Valley Spirit among the gods of soil and grain.
Laozi regards the Valley Spirit as the primordial mother that generates all things in the universe, describing its eternal state through the saying:
“The Valley Spirit never dies; this is called the Mysterious Female.”
What is the Valley Spirit in Taoism?
The character “valley” describes a plain formed by flowing spring water, while the character “spirit” derives from the imagery of sacrifice.
Taoism holds that the Valley Spirit is a product of symbolic thinking, serving as a metaphor for the generative function of The Dao .
The Valley Spirit is the god of crops; together with the god of soil, it forms “Sheji,” the symbol of state authority .
In ancient times, there was a custom of establishing shrines for soil and grain and offering sacrifices to them, especially on the Spring Festival of Soil and Grain [6].
As a metaphor for the Dao, the Valley Spirit is endowed with the connotation of infinite duration .
Explanation
We first explain the meanings of the two characters: gu (valley) and shen (spirit).
The character gu (valley) functions descriptively, in the same way as the character xuan (mysterious).
From its oracle-bone form, it matches Shuowen Jiezi:
“A valley is where a spring flows out and opens into a river; the water partly emerges from its mouth.”
It refers to the process by which a spring carves out a plain as it flows.
The bronze inscription form of shen (spirit) is more easily recognizable:
a person kneeling before an altar, praying to heaven and earth — a typical sacrificial act.
Shuowen Jiezi defines it as:
“The heavenly spirit that brings forth all things.”
It also carries other meanings: long-lived, immortal, wondrous, intelligent, etc.
From this, we may interpret the phrase “The Valley Spirit never dies”:
the Dao, as the fundamental substance generating all things, nourishes everything endlessly like a mountain spring.
In producing all beings, the Dao likewise undergoes a tortuous, difficult course, overcoming many hardships and obstacles to reach its destined end.
In the Dao De Jing, the Valley Spirit is associated with the Mysterious Female.
The gate of the Mysterious Female is the root of heaven and earth;
“female” symbolizes the feminine generative organ, representing the mother, and emphasizes the emergence of life .
Meanwhile, as a metaphor for the Dao, the Valley Spirit is endowed with the connotation of infinite duration .
This chapter expounds the Dao in its ontological sense.
Laozi calls it the Valley Spirit, holding that it produces all things in the universe and is their original source,
endowed with the qualities of continuous, inexhaustible, and everlasting activity.
It also lays the ideological foundation for later Internal Alchemy practitioners to understand the source of life and the cultivation of Qi.
