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Chapter 76 — A warning against strength戒強

Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue) 道德經 · Laozi, with commentaries by Wang Bi and Heshang Gong · 4th–3rd century BC (Wang Bi's commentary, 3rd century AD) · 4 passages · 57 Chinese characters · reading time 0.2 min

Daodejing (The Classic of the Way and Virtue) Dejing (The Classic of Virtue) Eighty-one chapters, five thousand characters. The silk manuscripts that came out of the tombs differ in their characters from the recension in use today, so there are many places where the reading of one and the same passage divides. Wang Bi reads the book as philosophy; Heshang Gong reads it as governing and the nurture of life.

1The hard and strong belong to death

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，

A person alive is soft and weak. Dead, that person is hard and strong. The ten thousand things, the grasses and the trees, are soft and tender while alive. Dead, they are withered and dry. So the hard and strong belong to death, and the soft and weak belong to life. That is why an army that is strong does not win,

note 8
王弼

强兵以暴於天下者，物之所惡也，故必不得勝。

To use a strong army to bully all under heaven is what things hate, and so such a one is sure not to win.

河上公

人生含和氣，抱精神，故柔弱也。

While a person is alive he holds the harmonious breath within and embraces the spirit, and so he is soft and weak.

河上公

人死和氣竭，精神亡，故堅強也。

When a person dies the harmonious breath is spent and the spirit is gone, and so he is hard and strong.

河上公

和氣存也。

The harmonious breath is present.

河上公

和氣去也。

The harmonious breath has left.

河上公

以上二事觀之，知堅強者死，柔弱者生也。

Looking at these two cases above, one can know that the hard and strong die and the soft and weak live.

河上公

強大之兵輕戰樂殺，毒流怨結，眾弱為一強，故不勝。

A strong and great army makes light of battle and delights in killing, so that its poison spreads and resentment gathers, and the many weak bind into one and grow strong. That is why it does not win.

河上公

本強大則枝葉共生其上。

When the root is strong and great, the branches and leaves grow together above it.

2A tree that is strong is cut down

木強則兵。

and a tree that is strong is cut down.

note 1
王弼

物所加也。

This is what things add to.

3The strong and great take the low place

強大處下，

The strong and great take the low place,

note 2
王弼

木之本也。

This is the root of the tree.

河上公

興物造功，大木處下，小物處上。天道抑強扶弱，自然之效。

When things are raised up and merit is completed, the great tree takes the low place and the small takes the place above. The Dao of heaven presses down the strong and upholds the weak; this is the effect of what is so of itself.

4The soft and weak take the high place

柔弱處上。

and the soft and weak take the high place.

note 1
王弼

枝條是也。

The branches and twigs are what is meant.

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