Dao De Jing – Chapter 78

Laozi uses water as a metaphor for the Dao for their shared characteristics. Water has no fixed shape, conforming to its container. This mirrors the Dao’s formless nature.

There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it; – for there is nothing (so effectual) for which it can be changed.
Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.

Therefore a sage has said,
‘He who accepts his state’s reproach,
Is hailed therefore its altars’ lord;
To him who bears men’s direful woes
They all the name of King accord.’

Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.

Note

By avoiding direct confrontation when weak (e.g., flowing around obstacles), water remains unharmed even by the hardest materials. Water appears gentle yet holds immense force (e.g., eroding rock over time or generating tsunamis), embodying the paradox of “ultimate softness uniting with ultimate strength. The Dao is formless, yet governs all tangible beings in the world.

Laozi’s revelation that “the weak overcome the strong, the soft conquer the hard” embodies counterintuitive wisdom rooted in paradoxical natural laws. Ordinary minds fixate on superficial dominance, oblivious to the latent power within adaptability and endurance.

Human instinct drives direct confrontation in conflicts—resisting criticism, battling pressures head-on—rather than emulating water’s strategy of “dispersing force through alignment”. True strength mirrors Tai Chi mastery: redirecting force from solid to void, transforming external pressures into strategic advantages.

Similarly, rulers who hold supreme glory and power must simultaneously endure immense criticism and existential dangers.

“Those who bear the nation’s disgrace are called its masters; those who bear its calamities are called its kings.”

This reflects Lao Tzu’s teaching: Reversal is the movement of the Tao. All things inevitably transform into their opposites.

Further Reading

• Chapters 8, 43, and 78: These three chapters form a complete discourse on “the virtue of water.” Chapter 8 proposes that water “benefits all things without contending,” Chapter 43 expounds on how it “gallops through what is hardest in the world,” and Chapter 78 further concludes with the principle that “the soft overcomes the hard,” citing the sage’s words to explain that true strength lies in bearing the misfortunes of the state.
• Chapters 76, 77, and 78: These three chapters present a logically progressive argument. Chapter 76 demonstrates that “the soft and weak prevail,” Chapter 77 explores how “the Way of Heaven” reduces excess and supplements deficiency, and Chapter 78 elevates the theme on this basis, pointing out that a true ruler should possess the spirit of bearing “the disgrace of the state” and “the misfortunes of the state.”
• Chapter 70: These two chapters resonate with each other in lamenting the difficulty of practice despite easy understanding. Chapter 78 sighs that “under heaven none do not know it, yet none can practice it,” while Chapter 70 similarly sighs, “My words are very easy to understand, very easy to practice; yet under heaven none can understand them, none can practice them.” Both reveal the paradoxical difficulty of practicing the Great Way, despite its apparent simplicity.

天下莫柔弱於水，而攻堅強者莫之能勝，其無以易之。弱之勝強，柔之勝剛，天下莫不知，莫能行。是以聖人云：受國之垢，是謂社稷主；受國不祥，是謂天下王。正言若反。