The Power of Being Unnamed — Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu opens with a claim about what power looks like before anyone brands it. The Tao, considered as unchanging, has no name. In its purest state it resists the labels people use to control and limit what they fear or admire.

Then he turns to primordial simplicity. Though small in that original simplicity, the whole world dares not deal with one embodying it as a minister. If a feudal prince or the king could guard and hold it, all would spontaneously submit themselves to him. True alignment draws loyalty without force or display. Heaven and Earth under its guidance unite and send down the sweet dew, which reaches equally everywhere without the directions of men.

Lao Tzu adds a paradox about action and naming. As soon as the Tao proceeds to action, it has a name. When men know to rest in that name, they can be free from all risk of failure and error. Naming is not the enemy; clinging to performance without resting in the principle is. He closes with the image of the great rivers and seas receiving every stream from the valleys. Power gathers by lowering itself and receiving what flows toward it, not by shouting its title from the shore.