People are born soft and supple; Dead, they are stiff and hard. Young plants are tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus the hard, rigid, stiff and inflexible are connected with death. That which is tender, pliant, soft, supple, and yielding is connected with life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and pliant will prevail. A mighty and unyielding army tends to fall by its own weight, and is destroyed. An unyielding tree will break. The unyielding and mighty takes its place below, the soft and yielding takes its place above. The rigid and unyielding are unable to adapt to the environment. The hard and rigid have the inferior place; the soft and elastic the superior. When the great and strong take the place below, there is no destruction.