Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
物壮则老 (wù zhuàng zé lǎo)
Word for word from chapter 30
物壮则老 (wù zhuàng zé lǎo), “things with strength ultimately wither”, comes from chapters 30 and 55 of the Dao De Jing: whatever reaches its peak begins to decline.
Character by character
| 物 | wù | thing, beings |
|---|---|---|
| 壮 | zhuàng | vigorous, at the peak |
| 则 | zé | then |
| 老 | lǎo | to age, to wither |
| 物壮则老 | Whatever grows strong begins to age: at the peak of its power a thing turns toward decline. | |
Where it comes from
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物壮则老，
Things with strength ultimately wither,
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是谓不道，不道早已。
this is not the Way, and what is not the Way soon ends.
How the meaning moved
The four characters come twice in the Dao De Jing, word for word with what follows them. Chapter 30 is about war: “Where troops have camped, thorns and brambles grow.” Of the one who assists a ruler with the Way, the chapter says: “accomplish but don't use violence.” It ends: “Things with strength ultimately wither, this is not the Way, and what is not the Way soon ends.”
Chapter 55 repeats the same three clauses after the image of the newborn (“His bones are weak, his sinews soft, yet his grip is firm.”) and after a warning: “The mind driving the breath is called forcing.” In both chapters 壮 is strength that is pushed and shown, and the book counts it as a step away from the Way, which it describes elsewhere through the soft and the weak. This page plays chapter 30, where the saying first appears.
Today 物壮则老 is used as a plain statement of how things go: a person, a firm or a dynasty at the height of its power is already on the way down. It is close in sense to 物极必反, “things at their extreme turn into their opposite”, a saying that is not in the book.
Using it today
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物壮则老，公司规模最大的时候，更要提防危机。
wù zhuàng zé lǎo, gōng sī guī mó zuì dà de shí hou, gèng yào dī fáng wēi jī.
Things with strength ultimately wither: a company has to watch for trouble most when it is at its largest.
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花开到最盛就要谢了，这就是物壮则老的道理。
huā kāi dào zuì shèng jiù yào xiè le, zhè jiù shì wù zhuàng zé lǎo de dào lǐ.
A flower in full bloom is about to fade: that is what “things with strength ultimately wither” means.