Lynn's - Daode jing of Laozi

While alive, humans are soft and pliable, but, when dead, they are hard and stiff. While alive, plants, trees, and all the other myriad things are also soft and fragile, but, when dead, they are dried up and withered. thus it is that the hard and stiff are adherents of death, and the soft and pliable are adherents of life. (1) This is why, if military power is stiff, it will not be victorious.

If one inflicts violence on all under Heaven though the use of stiff [ie strong] (2) military power, he will be despised by the people. Thus he surely will fail to enjoy victory. (3)

If a tree is stiff, it will be attacked.

It will be imposed on by creatures. (4)

The stiff [strong] and great occupy a position below.

This refers to the trunk of the tree. (5)

The soft and pliant occupy a position above.

This refers to the branches. (6)


Text, in Italics above, is Wang Bi's commentary.

The notes below, are from the translator, Richard John Lynn -

(deb's note - "section" is used for verse in these notes.)

(1)  Cf. section 50, second passage.

(2)  “Stiff” translates qiang, whose original meaning is “stiff bow”.  A “stiff” bow, of course, is a “strong” bow.

(3)  Yi Shunding notes that for this passage the Liezi quotes the text of the Laozi and Zhang Zhan quotes Wang’s commentary as follows:  “ ‘If military power is stiff, one [the ruler] will persish’.  Wang Bi says of this: ‘This is detested by the people.  Thus such a one surely will not get to die a natural death.’ “ (Liezi, 3:202A).  See Yi, Du Lao zhaji, B:16b.  Hatano Taro cites Hattori Nankaku’s (1683-1759) note on this, made long before Yi Shunding’s work, but does not come to a conclusion as which text is better.  See Roshi Datokukyo kenkyu, 430.  Lou Yulie merely  cites Yi Shunding but concludes, in the light of the Mawangdui texts , both of which have “will not be victorious”, that the Liezi reading of the Laozi and Zhang Zhan’s quotation of Wang Bi can be disregarded.  See Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 186 n. I.

(4)  “Attacked” translates bing, literally, “strike with a weapon”, which seems the most likely interpretation, given Wang’s comment.  “Creatures” translates wu, which could include everything from termites, which bore into stiff (dried up, dead) trees as a source of food and lodging, to humans, who cut them down for firewood.  Bing occurs in the base text; for a survey of other textual variants, see Hatano, Roshi Datokukyo kenkyu, 430-31; for the Mawangdui texts, see Henricks, Lao-Tzu Te-Tao Ching, 178.

(5) “Trunk” seems more appropriate here for ben, which, as we have often seen, usually means “root” or “roots”.

(6)  For this and the previous passage, cf. section 57, first passage; and section 59, penultimate passage.  The “trunk of the tree” refers to the ruler, and the “branches” are his people. In these last two passages, the ruler, as tree trunk, stays free of the negative consequences of being “stiff” and “strong” by “occupying a position below”, ie by humbling himself before the people.

From Stephen Mitchell - tao te ching - A New English Version

Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

From Byron Katie - A Thousand Names for Joy - Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are

The soft and supple will prevail.

All things change, because perception is constantly changing. When your mind is enlightened to itself and you notice that the world is a reflection of your own thinking, you're never surprised at these changes. You become supple, you discover that you can delight in change, you see the goodness of creation and how it can only keep surpassing itself. Why would the mind hold on to what was, when it recognizes that what is is always better ?

I have a new inner cornea, thanks to my wonderful trailblazer genius surgeon, Dr Mark Terry. The transplant surgery in Portland was an extraordinary success: thirty-nine hours afterward, my right eye had 20/30 vision (the surgery is considered successful if the patient has 20/100 vision after a week). Now, a month later, it's 20/20. I can read very small print, and what I see is sharp, clear, colorful - a world I haven't known in a very long time. No more pain, no more blindness and near-blindness in the right eye. The transplant surgery for the left eye is scheduled for two months from now.

What a thrill to walk around with someone else's (is it true ?) cornea ! I can't describe the miracle of being given unnecessary sight, and the joy of loving the always-more-than-I-need abundance of reality. Without my husband, the surgery probably wouldn't have happened, since I was perfectly happy with two corneas like smogged-up windowpanes. I see everything I need to see, with or without eyesight. It's a world in which, like everyone else, I always look beautiful and perfect. If I have eye makeup on my chin and breakfast on my sweater, how would I know ? And where is the problem, other than in someone else's mind ? Stephen did all the research and totally was the desire for my vision, and I am so grateful of his mind's creation, this clear, crisp world that doesn't cloud over, this absence of pain. And I am so grateful to the donor and the donor's family.

Believing that what you want equals what's best for you is a dead end. It makes the mind stiff, inflexible, caught in a picture of reality, rather than open to the wisdom of the way of it. What is is immovable, and it's constantly changing, it flows like water, it has as many supple, beautiful forms as the mind can create - an infinity of forms - and inside them all, behind them all, it just waits. The heart doesn't move, it just waits. You don't have to listen to it, but until you do, you're going to hurt. And the heart says only one thing: “What is is”. As you do The Work, you return to the place you never actually moved from, the heart, the sweet center of the universe. Heart is just another name for the open mind. There is nothing sweeter.

Dr Dyer's Essay for Verse 76 -

The thing I love most about studying the Tao Te Ching is its impeccable adherence to finding the Great Way by closely studying nature. In this passage, Lao-tzu asks us to change the way we look at the concept of strength by noticing how the most solid and durable things in the natural world tend to be soft, gentle, and even weak. If we see strength as being hard, inflexible, and unyielding, he invites us to change that perception. Life, according to Lao-tzu, is defined as soft and pliable.

Some of my fondest memories of my eight children came from watching their flexible newly born bodies in awe. I could lay them on my lap and easily place their feet in their mouths or even behind their necks ! They were perfect yoga masters at the tender age of only a few months or even days. When they were toddlers, I watched in amazement, often holding my breath as they bumped their heads, ran into walls without looking, and took what appeared to be nasty falls. Yet lo and behold, they'd shake it right off. What would have surely resulted in a broken hip or arm for an older person was hardly noticed by these limber youngsters.

By the same token, an older tree that's getting close to death will become hard, brittle, and susceptible to fire and harsh winds. Since the tree can't bend, a strong gust can blow it right over. As it ages, the wood becomes weaker simply because its inflexible. Its rigidity, which some think of as strength, has actually turned it into a weak organism. Similarly, at the moment of death all creatures go into rigor mortis, which is complete stiffness and, of course, a total absence of strength.

Being pliable and able to bend goes beyond the aging process that all bodies are destined to experience. Thus, Lao-tzu encourages you to apply this principle to your thought processes and behaviors. You're reminded that rigidity and hardness accompany death, while pliability and even weakness are the companions of life. You may have been taught that strength is measured by how “hard” you are in your thinking or how inflexible you are in your opinions, and that weakness is associated with those who bend. But when confronted with any stressful situation, keep in mind that being stiff won't get you very far, whereas being flexible will carry you through.

Change the way you think about strength, not just as it relates to those in positions of power, but for yourself as well. There's a lot to be said for what we're conditioned to think of as weak: Begin to see that strength is weakness, and weakness is strength … just another of the Tao Te Ching's fascinating paradoxes.