Translation

People, of life weak and delicate,
Their death hard and unyielding.
Plants, of life soft and yielding,
Their death withered and haggard.
Therefore the hard and unyielding, of death only,
The weak and fragile, of life only.
The use of powerful weapons, normally destroys,
The strong tree normally breaks.
The big and powerful dwell below,
The weak and fragile dwell above.

man (people; adult) of give birth to (grow; existence; life) also (either) weak (delicate),

his (her; its; that; such) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) also (too) hard (firm; strong; firmly; resolutely) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding).

grass (careless; hasty) tree (timber; wooden; coffin) of give birth to (grow; existence; life) also (too) soft (supple; yielding) fragile (brittle; crisp; clear > neat),

his (her; its; that; such) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) withered (haggard).

reason (cause; on purpose; hence) hard (firm; strong; firmly; resolutely) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding)?die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) of on foot (only; follower; believer; person),

weak (delicate).? give birth to (grow; existence; life) of on foot (only; follower; believer; person).

<grm>is <formal> this; that) use (take, because of, as well as) weapons (private; army) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) extinguish (submerge; destroy),

tree (timber; wooden; coffin) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) break (lose; bend; turn back_ turn over).

big and powerful (formidable) get along (with sb., manage;<frml > dwell; live_place) below (down; under; underneath; lower; inferior),

weak (delicate) get along (with sb., manage;<frml > dwell; live_place) upper (higher; superior) .

Original

人之生也柔弱，
其死也坚强。
草木之生也柔脆，
其死也枯槁。
故坚强者死之徒，
柔弱者生之徒。
是以兵强则灭，
木强则折。
强大处下，
柔弱处上。

Commentary, August 2011

This chapter can appear a little inconsistent with most other chapters. In this chapter we see, The supple and weak takes the higher position. However, in chapter 61 we see, The female always gets the better of the male by stillness. Being still, she takes the lower position. The former makes it sound like the ‘higher position’ is the way to go; the later sounds like the ‘lower position’ is. This is where correlations help. Placing a few core active (yang) and passive (yin) words in the correlation line-up give us this:

Active	Passive
male	female
strong	weak
higher	lower
life	death
stir	still
full	empty
order	entropy
difference	sameness
contention	cooperation
sound	silence
yang	yin

Of course, correlations accentuate the view from the “differences side of the coin”, not from the mysterious sameness side ⁽¹⁾. However, that is always the end result of resorting to names and words (language), and why chapter 56 begins with, One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know.

The Tao Te Ching is no different in this way. It uses language to point to the mysterious sameness beyond language. Inconsistency, though, doesn’t help get you there. The stark contradiction in this chapter, for me anyway, lies in the yin and yang of it all. That is to say, in the placement of lower, below and higher, above. Why is there this inconsistency? Did some scribe simply get the character below and above switched around, and it has been passed on that way ever since?

Living things do all they can to be strong, hard and unyielding. This is essential to counter the natural entropy that influences all matter, living or not. Of course, too much of a “good” thing can work against long-term survival. Balance is the way of long life and successful evolution. Contention must be balanced by cooperation, stirring by stillness, and so on. Still, a walk in nature soon reveals life’s ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ bottom line. In the final analysis, life’s bias is toward hanging tough and avoid death is biased towards holding on; death is giving up.

There is a distinct bias favoring the passive side of this process in all scriptures. I attribute this to the fact that the people set too much store by life [and] are too fond of action. We need all the encouragement we can get to have little thought of self and as few desires as possible. Truth be told, we allow ourselve to have desires in order to observe its manifestations, so much more than the ridding ourselves of desires side of the process.

Here is another instance of inconsistency. In other words, there would be no other way to put it: Highest good is like water. Because water excels in benefiting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it come close to the way. Water settles in the lower position, yet we say “highest good”. To say “lowest good” would simply not make sense, and yet, might be more accurate from a purely Taoist point of view. All of this goes to shows why Taoism regards words and names problematic. For example, chapter 23 says, to use words but rarely is to be natural, and chapter 32 notes that, as soon as there are names, one ought to know that it is time to stop.

⁽¹⁾ The Corrleations process can help some see mysterious sameness by ‘tunneling’ through the edge of difference, so to speak. The struggle to maintain consistency is essential to breaking through. By the way, here are some other general words that correlate with Yin and Yang:

Yin = below, slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, tranquil.
Yin is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, nighttime

Yang = above, fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, aggressive.
Yang is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.