人之生也柔弱，其死也坚强。
A person is soft and supple at birth, hard and stiff at death.
草木之生也柔脆，其死也枯槁。
Plants are tender and pliant while alive, dry and brittle when dead.
故坚强者死之徒，柔弱者生之徒。
So the hard and stiff belong to death. The soft and pliant belong to life.
是以兵强则灭，木强则折。
An army that is too strong is destroyed. A tree that is too rigid is broken.
强大处下，柔弱处上。
The hard and strong end up beneath. The soft and yielding end up above.
Reading it
An observation from nature used as a test. The claim is not that softness is morally better — it is that softness is what living things look like. Rigidity is a symptom, and the chapter reads it as an early warning. Applied to a person: the opinions you cannot revise, the routines you cannot interrupt, the identity you cannot put down for an afternoon — those are the parts that have gone stiff.
Change one thing you do the same way every day. A different route, a different order, a different chair.