Indeed, the great early 20th-century thinker Yan Fu, who was well versed in the learning of both East and West, wrote in admiration that the central idea of Laozi was "to understand men, and uphold women."
研究道家二十年的陳老師可非隨口說說，連學貫中西的民初思想家嚴復先生說不定都舉雙手贊成，嚴復先生就認為，「知雄守雌」是老子書的重要命脈。