Chas Freeman casually tosses out this Chinese expression at about the 50-minute mark here.

I am indebted to him for that.

The Westernized version of the phrase is rendered as “tang ping”.

I looked at a lot of sources to try and understand what it meant. I liked this discussion of it best.

But I already have my own translation for the concept, namely, ‘getting the hell out of the way’.

Coincidentally, I was wondering the other day: what exactly have we been jeeringly advised to get out of the Way Of?

All we can say for sure is that it is whatever the better people are choosing to Lead, or get behind. It might be a kind of army, or a moral crusade, or an economic project.

I think it means all three and then some. I think “the way” that is referred to in the original formulation of the proverb is essentially the unipolar hegemony, the ‘rules-based order’, and the whole bleeding capitalist Anglo-American or Atlanticist Imperium. “Our” way. The american-Way, as alluded to by the motto of Superman.

In some sources the idea of lying flat is connected to the idea of doing so while enduring a beating at the hands of this Way, and that resonates for me as well.

Having endured many kinds of beatings, both consensually and non-consensually, literal and metaphorical, I think lying flat is the next best thing to avoiding it by getting out of the Way of it (and in some cases, for reasons I will leave vague, actually a superior response for certain purposes).

I will close on the subject for the moment by quoting at length from the Wikipedia page.

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Those who choose to “lie flat” may lower their professional commitment and economic ambitions, simplify their goals, while still being fiscally productive for their own essential needs, and prioritize psychological health over economic materialism.

The phrase “quiet quitting”, meaning doing only what one’s job demands and nothing more, which became popular in the United States in 2022, was thought to be inspired by the tang ping movement. Another newer related phrase is bai lan (Chinese: 摆烂; pinyin: bǎi làn; lit. ‘let it rot‘), which means “to actively embrace a deteriorating situation, rather than trying to turn it around”. Basically, it refers to a voluntary retreat from pursuing certain goals because individuals realize they are simply too difficult to achieve.

Origin

The term first appeared around February 2020 (the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic) on the Chinese Internet. The movement began in April 2021 with a post by Luo Huazhong (username “Kind-Hearted Traveler”) on the internet forum Baidu Tieba, in which he discussed his reasons for living a low-key, minimalist lifestyle. In 2016, 26-year-old Luo quit his factory job because it made him feel empty. He then cycled 2,100 km (1,300 mi) from Sichuan to Tibet, and now back in his home town Jiande in eastern Zhejiang Province, spends his time reading philosophy, and gets by doing a few odd jobs and taking US$60 a month from his savings. He only eats two meals a day.

Luo’s post, entitled with “Lying Flat is Justice”, illustrates:

I can just sleep in my barrel enjoying a sunbath like Diogenes, or live in a cave like Heraclitus and think about ‘Logos’. Since there has never really been a trend of thought that exalts human subjectivity in this land, I can create it for myself. Lying flat is my wise movement, only by lying down can humans become the measure of all things.

Luo’s post and story quickly gained a following on social media, being discussed and soon becoming a buzzword on Sina Weibo and Douban. The idea was praised by many and inspired numerous memes, and has been described as a sort of spiritual movement.

***

I’m not quite willing yet to alter the phrase into something like “Lead, Follow, or Embrace Letting It Rot” … but this moment of dialectic experience, I concede, does have me considering it.

Please stay tuned for the latest exciting developments.