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When people are born they are soft and weak when they perish they are hard and stiff when plants shoot forth they are supple and tender when they die they are withered and dry thus is it said the hard and stiff are followers of death the soft and weak are followers of life when an army becomes stiff it suffers defeat when a plant becomes stiff it snaps the hard and stiff dwell below the soft and weak dwell above

HO-SHANG KUNG says, “When people are born, they contain breath and spirit. This is why they are soft. When they die, their breath ceases and their spirit disappears. This is why they are hard.”

WU CH’ENG says, “Seeing that the living are soft and the dead are hard, we can infer that those whose virtue is hard and those whose actions are forceful die before their time, while those who are soft and weak are able to preserve their lives.”

LI HSI-CHAI says, “Although the soft and weak aren’t the same as the Tao, they approach its absence of effort. Hence, they aren’t far from the Tao. Although the hard and stiff aren’t outside the Tao, they involve effort. Hence, they lead people away from it.”

LIEH-TZU says, “The world has a path of perennial victory and a path of perennial defeat. The path of perennial victory is weakness. The path of perennial defeat is strength. These two are easy to recognize, but people remain oblivious to them” (Liehtzu: 2.17).

LAO-TZU says, “The weak conquer the strong” (Taoteching: 36).

WANG CHEN says, “It isn’t hard for an army to achieve victory. But it is hard to hold on to victory. There is no great army that has not brought on its own defeat through its victories.”

HSI T’UNG says, “When a plant becomes stiff, it loses its flexibility and becomes easy to break.”

WANG P’ANG says, “In terms of yin and yang, yin comes before and yang comes after. In terms of Heaven and Earth, Heaven is exalted and Earth is humble. In terms of Virtue, the soft and weak overcome the hard and stiff. But in terms of material things, the hard and stiff control the soft and weak. The people of this world only see things. They don’t understand Virtue.”

SU CH’E says, “As long as it contains empty breath, the body does not suffer from rigidity. As long as they reflect perfect reason, actions are not burdened by severity. According to the unchanging principle of things, the refined rises to the top, while the coarse sinks to the bottom. The refined is soft and weak, while the coarse is hard and stiff.”

LI JUNG says, “The living belong above. The dead belong below.”

How different this world would be if our leaders spent as much time in their gardens as they do in their war rooms. In line five, most editions include the phrase wan-wu (ten thousand creatures) before ts’ao-wu (plants). Chiang Hsi-ch’ang thinks, in light of the plant-specific adjectives of lines six and eight, this must be an interpolation, and I agree. It does not appear in the Yentsun or Fuyi editions. In line nine, I have relied on the Mawangtui texts for the addition of yueh (it is said). In line thirteen, I have turned to Liehtzu: 2.17, Huainantzu: 1, and Wentzu: 1 for che (snap). The Suotan and Fuyi editions have the puzzling kung (together), while the Wangpi edition has the equally strange ping (army), and the two Mawangtui texts offer no help with keng (end) and ching (compete), respectively. This verse is not present in the Kuotien texts.