第七十六章 Dao De Jing · Chapter 76
The living are soft and the dead are stiff; the soft and weak are companions of life.
Text
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人之生也柔弱，其死也坚强。
People are soft and weak when alive, hard and stiff when dead.
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万物草木之生也柔脆，
Grass and trees are soft and tender when alive,
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其死也枯槁。
dry and withered when dead.
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故坚强者死之徒，
So the hard and stiff are companions of death;
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柔弱者生之徒。
the soft and weak are companions of life.
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是以兵强则不胜，
So an army that is rigid will not win;
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木强则兵。
a tree that is rigid will be cut down.
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强大处下，柔弱处上。
The hard and great take the lower place; the soft and weak take the higher place.
Words in this chapter
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 人 | rén | people, others |
| 之 | zhī | that (clause particle) |
| 生 | shēng | to live |
| 也 | yě | final particle (assertion) |
| 柔 | róu | soft, supple |
| 弱 | ruò | weak, weakness |
| 其 | qí | its, his, their |
| 死 | sǐ | to die |
| 坚 | jiān | hard, solid |
| 强 | qiáng | strong |
| 万物 | wàn wù | the myriad things |
| 草 | cǎo | grass, plants |
| 木 | mù | tree |
| 脆 | cuì | brittle |
| 枯槁 | kū gǎo | dry and withered |
| 故 | gù | therefore |
| 者 | zhě | one who, that which |
| 之 | zhī | of, 's (linking particle) |
| 徒 | tú | followers, companions |
| 是以 | shì yǐ | therefore, for this reason |
| 兵 | bīng | arms, troops |
| 则 | zé | then |
| 不 | bù | not |
| 胜 | shèng | to overcome; victory |
| 兵 | bīng | to be cut down |
| 大 | dà | great, big |
| 处 | chǔ | to dwell in, abide by |
| 下 | xià | low, below |
| 上 | shàng | top, above |
Compare: James Legge (1891)
Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.
Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life.
Hence he who (relies on) the strength of his forces does not conquer; and a tree which is strong will fill the out-stretched arms, (and thereby invites the feller.)
Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.
Public domain. Source: Wikisource.
Meaning of chapter 76
Chapter 76 draws its lesson from the difference between the living and the dead. People are soft and weak when alive, hard and stiff when dead; grass and trees are soft and tender when alive, dry and withered when dead. So the hard and stiff are companions of death, and the soft and weak (柔弱) are companions of life.
The lesson is then applied to armies and trees: an army that is rigid will not win, and a tree that is rigid will be cut down. The chapter ends by reversing the usual order of things: the hard and great take the lower place, the soft and weak the higher.
Line 7, 木强则兵, is a known difficulty. Wang Bi's text has 兵, "weapon", read here as the tree being cut down; other editions have 折, "to break", or 共. The 强 of this chapter is rigidity, not the strength praised elsewhere. The theme of the soft and weak runs through chapters 36, 43, 55 and 78.