ABSTRACT
W alter B enjam in sees B rech t’s poem ‘Legend of the origin of the book T ao -T e-C h ing on L ao -T su ’s road into exile’ as an instance of ‘the special role which the quality of friendliness plays in the au th o r’s im ag ination .’ (UB, p. 72) T he exiled philosopher Lao-Tsu halts at a custom s post and at the custom s officer’s cheerful request sets down his accum ulated w isdom in the form of 38 m axim s. H is boy relates the sage’s discovery
‘T h a t yielding w ater in m otion G ets the bette r in the end of g ran ite and porphyry .You get me: the hard th ing gives w ay .’ (U B , p. 71)
B enjam in argues tha t none of this would have happened bu t for the friendliness of the partic ipan ts. These lines confirm B rech t’s ‘m in im um program m e of h u m an ity ’ he says, and concludes:
T he lesson or advice here is never to forget about the inconstancy and changeability of things, and to align oneself w ith those things which are inconspicuous and sober and inexhausible, like w ater. T he m aterialist dialectician will be rem inded of the cause of the oppressed. (It is an inconspicuous th ing for the rulers, a sober one for the oppressed and , in its consequences, the m ost inexhaustible of all.) Lastly, ap art from the promise and the theory, there is a m oral in the poem. W hoever w ants to m ake the hard th ing give way should miss no opportun ity for friendliness. (U B , p.74)
Stanley M itchell, in his in troduction to Understanding Brecht, sup ports B enjam in’s interpretation of this poem and of B recht’s politics.
