WORDS & IDEAS
Shui 水
Water. Water benefits things, occupies the low places, and yields. It offers one of the book’s most concrete images of strength without contention.
Like water
上善若水。
The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to…
Read chapterThe unnamed way
道常无名，朴虽小，天下莫能臣也。
The Tao, considered as unchanging, has no name. Though in its primordial simplicity it may be small, the whole world dares not deal with (one embodying)…
Read chapterThe lower position
大国者下流，天下之交。
What makes a great state is its being (like) a low-lying, down-flowing (stream);--it becomes the centre to which tend (all the small states) under heaven.…
Read chapterThe rivers and the sea
江海所以能为百谷王者，以其善下之，故能为百谷王。
That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive the homage and tribute of all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower than they;--it is…
Read chapterNothing is softer than water
天下莫柔弱于水，而攻坚强者，莫之能胜，其无以易之。
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…
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