# Softness ## Softness in Chinese legend, culture & idioms - [[2024-0816. One Chinese proverb says, 'Warmth and softness have always been better than strength and hardness.']][^1] - Eberhard could be referencing: - [[2024-0816. 'Use softness to conquer toughness' (以柔克剛)]] - [[2024-0816. The soft can subdue the hard (柔能克剛)]] --- > “From the life-cycle of the human being – soft and weak at birth, hard and stiff at death – Lao-zi deduced that the weak and soft are related to life, in a different way from the way the hard and strong are.”[^???] [^1]: Wolfram Eberhard, ‘Softness’, in *[[Eberhard. 'A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols', 1986.|A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought]]* (London: Routledge, 1986), p. 270.