Translation
Of people, existence weak and delicate,
Their death hard and unyielding.
Of plants, existence 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.
1) human (man; people) of give birth to (grow; existence; life) also (either) weak (delicate), 人之生也柔弱，(rén zhī shēng yĕ róu ruò,)
2) his (her; its; that; such) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) also (too) hard (firm; strong; firmly; resolutely) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding). 其死也坚强。(qí sĭ yĕ jiān qiáng.)
3) grass (careless; hasty) tree (timber; wooden; coffin) of give birth to (grow; existence; life) also (too) soft (supple; yielding) fragile (brittle; crisp; clear > neat), 草木之生也柔脆，(căo mù zhī shēng yĕ róu cuì,)
4) his (her; its; that; such) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) withered (haggard). 其死也枯槁。(qí sĭ yĕ kū găo.)
5) reason (cause; on purpose; hence) hard (firm; strong; firmly; resolutely) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding) (者) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) of on foot (only; follower; believer; person), 故坚强者死之徒，(gù jiān qiáng zhĕ sĭ zhī tú,)
6) weak (delicate) (者) give birth to (grow; existence; life) of on foot (only; follower; believer; person). 柔弱者生之徒。(róu ruò zhĕ shēng zhī tú.)
7) <grm> is (yes <frml> this; that) use (<v> take <p> according to; because of <adj> so as to <conj> and) weapons (private; army) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) extinguish (submerge; destroy), 是以兵强则灭，(shì yĭ bīng jiàng zé miè,)
8) tree (timber; wooden; coffin) strive (strong; powerful; better_unyielding) standard (norm; rule > imitate; follow) break (lose; bend; turn back_ turn over). 木强则折。(mù jiàng zé shé.)
9) big and powerful (formidable) get along (with sb., manage <frml > dwell; live_place) below (down; under; underneath; lower; inferior), 强大处下，(qiáng dà chŭ xià,)
10) weak (delicate) get along (with sb., manage <frml > dwell; live_place) upper (higher; superior). 柔弱处上。(róu ruò chŭ shàng.)
Third Pass: Chapter of the Month
Corrections?
None per se…
Reflections:
As with most of the Tao Te Ching, I see this as more of a testament to how Nature works—its process. Granted, I must read between the lines somewhat, but doing that I see there is nothing I can ‘do’ with it. However, matching my expectations to Nature’s process sure helps avoid ‘banging my head against the wall’, so to speak. Knowing better how Nature works puts a little more distance between my head and the wall.
Okay, on the life’s side of nature’s equation we have weak and delicate, soft and yielding, weak and fragile… all dwelling precariously above. If you accept the fact that balance is nature’s prime directive (1), then you may see the inevitable tension that will arise in all living things, from viruses to humans.
Counter-balancing the Yin
The delicate and weak core of life drives the myriad outward ways life counter-balances that soft and yielding side of ourselves. Again, by ‘ourselves’, I’m referring to all living things—the myriad creatures—although, we’re the one’s most needing to get a handle on this, right?
Our counter-balancing efforts become especially apparent when that ‘Yin’ side is overly yielding and produces a more intense sense of insecurity—fear, to put it simple. From a Taoist perspective, we also acknowledge the plain, but subtle fact, that we always embody both sides, the Yin and the Yang, so why does the ‘Yin’ side bring on such insecurity?
Imagination Knows No Bounds
Insecurity arises when survival is threatened. Death, an ultimate Yin, taps the visceral core of all life. We’re no different, but our imagination amplifies and adds to this insecurity. Not only death, but all of deaths surrogates (correlations) that we also tend to fret over, whether anticipated or actual: Loss, failure, weakness, shame, soft, dark, depression, silence, and so on. From a symptoms point of view, it is easy to see how life has no choice but to contend. From correlations, I see: Yang = act = contend = survive = live life.
Certainly, all living things must needs push back on the Yin side of Nature’s equation constantly. In other words, going forward is the only way life avoids being overtaken by entropy… even though entropy will win in the end. We augment and so complicate this natural survival struggle by way of –you guessed it – our unique disease: Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
The only way to deal with this is by making friends with the inevitable, at least enough to cease reacting rashly to the Yin side. Chapter 42 sets the stage nicely, All things suffer the negative and embrace the positive; (or as D.C. Lau translated this, The myriad creatures carry on their backs the yin and embrace in their arms the yang and are the blending of the generative forces of the two.)
It helps to direct the mind to watch out for profound sameness rather than ‘lay back’ and judge all the differences that emotion drives awareness to notice.
The more the mind notices profound sameness, the closer it comes to sense immortality. Not an immortality of the ‘illusion of self’ as Buddha calls the ego, but the timeless-whole of the way. Differences are illusionary in that they mirror the agenda of the observer. Profound sameness connects the observer to the whole, and the mortal self dissolves in a sea of unity. Well, it sounds nice anyway, doesn’t it? Seriously though, whatever profound sameness you can witness between apparent opposites helps counter-balance the ‘disease’.
Not Contending Counter-balances
Not to value worthy people, enables people to avoid contending. #3
Nature’s ruthlessness, who knows its cause.
Nature’s way never contending, yet adept in victory. #73
The holy person’s way acts, and yet doesn’t contend. #81
(1) These posts are among those that delve into Nature’s balance, Exquisite Balance, Tao As Emergent Property, Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink.
Second Pass: Work in Progress
Issues:
There are just a few small changes to make. For some reason I put the ‘of‘ behind people and plants instead of in font. The character here, zhī (之) is kind of a preposition-like or pronoun-like odd ball particle—for me anyway. It often connects a word and its modifier. Here that is people and life weak and delicate. I think it reads better this way: Of people, life weak and delicate. And for the plants: Of plants, life soft and yielding.
In addition, the word life doesn’t convey all it should. The character here, shēng (生), carries these meanings: give birth to; bear; grow; existence; life; livelihood; living; get; have; light; unripe; green; raw. Somehow, the English word ‘life‘ has a more one-dimensional feeling compared to shēng. This is due to nothing inherent in the English language, I reckon. Rather, I see this a result of being raised (programmed) with English. I’ve noticed the same ‘linguistic blindness’ in native Chinese speakers, for example. As with everything in life, we easily take our native tongue for granted, forgetting the ultimate mystery it symbolizes. Perhaps the word existence might capture the idea better… Of people, existence weak and delicate, and Of plants, existence soft and yielding.
The last two lines are a bit odd…
The big and powerful dwell below,
The weak and fragile dwell above.
These are odd because they can be view in contrasting ways. In part, this is because the important characters xià (下) and Shàng (上) , below and above respectively, convey how the complementary Taoist view of reality can differ from the linear ‘common sense’ view.
Written as it is, you might assume it is saying that the big and powerful are xià … below, inferior, lower. That is at odds with the ‘common sense’ view, which sees the big and powerful as being above, superior, higher (1).
This chapter is really advising us that the big and powerful should take the lower position—xià (下) dwell below. That interpretation is consistent with Tao Te Ching in general, and parallels chapter 61’s The larger fittingly serve the lower position. This is an example of how important it is to read each chapter in the context of the whole Tao Te Ching. Understanding them isolated from rest is misleading if not impossible.
Commentary:
The strong tree normally breaks points out the long-term advantage of being as flexible as possible in life. Bamboo is another great metaphor for the survival benefit of ‘going with the flow’. Of course, it is an easy ideal to preach, yet quite another to put into practice. ‘Talk is cheap’; ‘actions speak louder than words’; and of course… Our words are very easy to know, very easy to do. Under heaven none can know, none can do.
It seems easy for such homilies of deep truth to end up as clichés. ‘A stitch in time save nine’ and its Taoist counterpart, its peace easily manages, its presence easily plans, its fragility easily melts, its timeliness easily scatters, is another favorite of mine. Isn’t it interesting how the most profound Taoist wisdom parallels common folk sayings? I love it: An inscrutable ‘out of the box’ worldview corresponding to the most common folk clichés. I think that goes to show how everyone is a Taoist at heart. They (we) just don’t know it, i.e., The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way, and… nor can they put it into practice.
Suggested Revision:
Of people, existence weak and delicate,
Their death hard and unyielding.
Of plants, existence 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.
(1) xià (下) and Shàng (上) are very common characters. Here are their main meanings.
xià (下) below; down; under; underneath; lower; inferior; next; latter; second; downward; descend; alight; get off; (of rain, etc.) fall; issue; deliver; exit; leave; take away; dismantle; unload; (of animals) give birth to; finish (work, etc.); leave off.
Shàng (上) upper; up; upward; higher; superior; better; first (part); preceding; previous; go up; mount; board; go to; leave for; submit; send in; present; forge ahead; go ahead; fill; supply; serve; set; fix; apply; paint; put on record; wind; screw; tighten.
First Pass: Chapter of the Week
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.