{"collection":"Taoism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tao/sbe39/sbe39083.htm","path":"tao/sbe39/sbe39083.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tao/sbe39/sbe39083.htm","text":"76. 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.\n2. Thus it is that firmness and strength are the concomitants of death; softness and weakness, the concomitants of life.\n3. 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.)\n4. Therefore the place of what is firm and strong is below, and that of what is soft and weak is above.\n, 'A Warning against (trusting in) Strength.' To trust in one's force is contrary to the T\u00e2o, whose strength is more in weakness and humility.\nIn par. 1 the two characters which I have rendered by\n[paragraph continues] '(so it is with) all things' are found in the texts of both Ho-shang Kung and Wang P\u00ee, but W\u00fb Kh\u00e4ng and Zi\u00e2o Hung both reject them. I should also have neglected them, but they are also found in Li\u00fb Hsiang's Shwo W\u00e4n (X, 4 a), with all the rest of pars. 1 and 2, as from L\u00e2o-dze. They are an anakoluthon, such as is elsewhere found in our King; e.g. in ch. 21, par. 2.\nThe 'above' and 'below' in par. 4 seem to be merely a play on the words, as capable of meaning 'more and less honourable.'","title":"Texts of Taoism (SBE 39): Tao Teh King, Part II: Chapter 76","type":"page"}