Laozi · Complete work
Chapter 76
Chapter 76 of 81. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
Open the complete readerOriginal Classical Chinese
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。
Mouseia
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the original source for fidelity, modern clarity, beauty, symbolism, and structure.
At birth, a person is soft and weak; at death, hard and stiff.At birth, the myriad things, grasses, and trees are soft and tender; at death, withered and dry.Thus the hard and strong are companions of death; the soft and weak are companions of life.Therefore a strong army does not prevail; a rigid tree is brought down.The strong and great take the lower place; the soft and weak take the higher.
OpenTao
Complete CC BY 4.0 translation made directly from the received Chinese text; source line structure preserved.
Alive, the human body is soft and yielding; dead, it is stiff and hard.In life, all creatures, grasses, and trees are tender and fragile; in death, withered and dry.So hardness and strength keep company with death; softness and weakness with life.So an army grown strong will not prevail; a tree grown hard and stout is ringed by the woodcutter’s arms.The strong and great take their place below; the soft and weak, above.
James Legge (1891)
Complete public-domain translation made directly from the original source text.
1. 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.
2. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life.
3. 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.)
4. Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.