nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water,

yet nothing can better overcce the hard and strong,

for they can neither control nor do away with it.

the soft overcces the hard,

the yielding overcces the strong;

every person knows this,

but no one can practice it.

who attends to the people would control the land and grain;

who attends to the state would control the whole world;

truth is easily hidden by rhetoric.