Laozi
人之生也柔弱，其死也堅強。 萬物草木之生也柔脆，其死也枯槁。 故堅強者死之徒，柔弱者生之徒。 是以兵強則不勝，木強則共。 強大處下，柔弱處上。
James Legge
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.
Victor H. Mair
Human beings are soft and supple when alive, stiff and straight when dead. The myriad creatures, the grasses and trees are soft and fragile when alive, dry and withered when dead. Therefore, it is said: The rigid person is a disciple of death; The soft, supple, and delicate are lovers of life. An army that is inflexible will not conquer; A tree that is inflexible will snap. The unyielding and mighty shall be brought low; The soft, supple, and delicate will be set above.
C. Spurgeon Medhurst
At birth man is supple and weak, at death rigid and strong. So with inanimate nature—say the vegetable creation—in its early growth it is pliable and brittle, at death it is decayed and withered. It follows that rigidity and strength are the way to death; pliability and gentleness the way to life.
Hence a soldier who is arrogant cannot conquer; the tree which is strong is doomed. [^1]
The firm and the great occupy the lower place, the pliable and the meek [^2] the higher.
”Man has a thousand purposes. Death comes one morning and ten thousand wait.” “Man has a thousand, a myriad plans for himself; God has only one plan for him.” In these Chinese proverbs we find the aroma of the present chapter. Translated into the more prosaic language of the West we express the root idea of Lao-tzu’s aphorisms thus: Whatever makes for the increase of self leads to death; Life is found only when self yields to the Self. “Wherefore the Scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Be subject therefore unto God.” (James iv, 6-7.)
[^1] Having become fit to be used as timber it is in danger from the woodman’s axe. The word rendered “doomed” is literally “altogether.” Dr. Carus compares it to the German “alle,” “it is gone,” “finished,” or “doomed.” No literal rendering of the Chinese is possible. Cf. Taoist Texts by Balfour, p. 83.
[^2] The phrases “supple and weak,” “pliability and gentleness,” “pliable and meek” are represented in Chinese by the same hieroglyphs—an illustration of the difficulties and dangers which threaten the European who attempts to render Lao-tzu into intelligible and easy English.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Living people are soft and tender. Corpses are hard and stiff. The ten thousand things, the living grass, the trees, are soft, pliant. Dead, they’re dry and brittle.
So hardness and stiffness go with death; tenderness, softness, go with life.
And the hard sword fails, the stiff tree’s felled. The hard and great go under. The soft and weak stay up.
Note UKLG: In an age when hardness is supposed to be the essence of strength, and even the beauty of women is reduced nearly to the bone, I welcome this reminder that tanks and tombstones are not very adequate role models, and that to be alive is to be vulnerable.