Man is born gentle and supple. At death, his body is brittle and hard. Living plants are tender, and filled with life-giving sap, but at their death they are withered and dry. The stiff, the hard, and brittle are harbingers of death, and gentleness and yielding are the signs of that which lives. The warrior who is inflexible condemns himself to death; and the tree is easily broken which ever refuses to yield in the storm. Thus the hard and brittle will surely fall, and the soft and supple will overcome.