# Softness

- Id: `softness`
- Canonical url: `https://prokopton42.com/en/concepts/softness/`
- Language: `en`
- Editorial status: `substantive_editorial_draft`
- Content checksum: `b40f838fd969468ea5f340549a2360af459316b376145378e3936ed147f8672d`

## Summary

In the received Daodejing, soft water overcomes what is hard; the text says the weak can prevail over the strong.

## Overview

In the current corpus, this annotation connects 371 passages across 91 works, including Abraham Lincoln Papers: Lincoln-Authored Documents, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Incoming and Contextual Documents, Metaphysics. These links provide inspectable points of comparison; they do not assume that every author uses the concept in the same sense.

## Definition evidence passages

```json
[
    "passage:laozi.daodejing:78"
]
```

## Aliases

```json
[
    "柔",
    "souplesse",
    "softness",
    "yielding"
]
```

## Statistics

```json
{
    "works": 91,
    "passages": 371,
    "thinkers": 29,
    "traditions": 11
}
```

## Related traditions

```json
[
    {
        "id": "political-thought",
        "name": "Political thought and democracy",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/political-thought-and-democracy/"
    },
    {
        "id": "greek-roman-traditions",
        "name": "Greek and Roman traditions",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/greek-and-roman-traditions/"
    },
    {
        "id": "buddhism",
        "name": "Buddhism",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/buddhism/"
    },
    {
        "id": "skepticism",
        "name": "Skepticism",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/skepticism/"
    },
    {
        "id": "chinese-thought",
        "name": "Early Chinese thought",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/early-chinese-thought/"
    },
    {
        "id": "stoicism",
        "name": "Stoicism",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/stoicism/"
    },
    {
        "id": "modern-philosophy",
        "name": "Modern and contemporary philosophy",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/modern-and-contemporary-philosophy/"
    },
    {
        "id": "psychology",
        "name": "Psychology and psychoanalysis",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/psychology-and-psychoanalysis/"
    },
    {
        "id": "judaism",
        "name": "Judaism",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/judaism/"
    },
    {
        "id": "platonism",
        "name": "Socratic and Platonic thought",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/socratic-and-platonic-thought/"
    },
    {
        "id": "christianity",
        "name": "Christianity",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/intellectual-traditions/christianity/"
    }
]
```

## Related works

```json
[
    {
        "id": "abraham_lincoln.papers_authored",
        "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers: Lincoln-Authored Documents",
        "author": "Abraham Lincoln",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/abraham-lincoln/lincoln-authored-papers/"
    },
    {
        "id": "abraham_lincoln.papers_context",
        "title": "Abraham Lincoln Papers: Incoming and Contextual Documents",
        "author": "Correspondents and archival record",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/abraham-lincoln-archive-correspondents/incoming-mail-and-context/"
    },
    {
        "id": "aristotle.metaphysics",
        "title": "Metaphysics",
        "author": "Aristotle",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/aristotle/metaphysics/"
    },
    {
        "id": "aristotle.nicomachean_ethics",
        "title": "Nicomachean Ethics",
        "author": "Aristotle",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/"
    },
    {
        "id": "aristotle.politics",
        "title": "Politics",
        "author": "Aristotle",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/aristotle/politics/"
    },
    {
        "id": "buddha.anguttara_nikaya",
        "title": "Aṅguttara Nikāya: Numerical Discourses",
        "author": "Siddhartha Gautama / Buddha",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/buddha/anguttara-nikaya/"
    },
    {
        "id": "buddha.samyutta_nikaya",
        "title": "Saṃyutta Nikāya: Connected Discourses",
        "author": "Siddhartha Gautama / Buddha",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/buddha/samyutta-nikaya/"
    },
    {
        "id": "carneades.ancient_testimonia",
        "title": "Ancient testimonia on Carneades",
        "author": "Carneades",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/carneades/ancient-testimonia/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.academica",
        "title": "Academica",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/academica/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.brutus",
        "title": "Brutus, or On Eminent Orators",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/brutus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.letters_to_atticus",
        "title": "Letters to Atticus",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/letters-to-atticus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.letters_to_friends",
        "title": "Letters to Friends",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/letters-to-friends/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.de_officiis",
        "title": "On Duties",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/de-officiis/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.de_amicitia",
        "title": "On Friendship",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/de-amicitia/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.philippics",
        "title": "Philippics",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/philippics/"
    },
    {
        "id": "cicero.tusculan_disputations",
        "title": "Tusculan Disputations",
        "author": "Cicero",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/cicero/tusculan-disputations/"
    },
    {
        "id": "confucius.analects",
        "title": "The Analects of Confucius (Lúnyǔ)",
        "author": "Confucius",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/confucius/analects/"
    },
    {
        "id": "diogenes.dio_orations",
        "title": "Dio Chrysostom’s Diogenic Orations",
        "author": "Dio Chrysostom",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/dio-chrysostom/dio-orations/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.talbot_letters",
        "title": "Letters from Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot",
        "author": "Elizabeth Carter",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/elizabeth-carter/talbot-letters/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.montagu_letters",
        "title": "Letters from Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Montagu",
        "author": "Elizabeth Carter",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/elizabeth-carter/montagu-letters/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.vesey_letters",
        "title": "Letters from Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey",
        "author": "Elizabeth Carter",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/elizabeth-carter/vesey-letters/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.miscellaneous_prose",
        "title": "Miscellaneous Prose by Elizabeth Carter",
        "author": "Elizabeth Carter",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/elizabeth-carter/miscellaneous-prose/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.poems",
        "title": "Poems on Several Occasions, by Elizabeth Carter",
        "author": "Elizabeth Carter",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/elizabeth-carter/poems/"
    },
    {
        "id": "epictetus.discourses",
        "title": "Discourses of Epictetus, Recorded by Arrian",
        "author": "Epictetus",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/epictetus/discourses/"
    },
    {
        "id": "locke.essay_human_understanding",
        "title": "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding",
        "author": "John Locke",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/john-locke/essay-human-understanding/"
    },
    {
        "id": "locke.second_treatise",
        "title": "Second Treatise of Government",
        "author": "John Locke",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/john-locke/second-treatise/"
    },
    {
        "id": "jung.collected_papers_analytical_psychology",
        "title": "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology",
        "author": "Carl Gustav Jung",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/jung/collected-papers-analytical-psychology/"
    },
    {
        "id": "jung.psychology_of_the_unconscious",
        "title": "Psychology of the Unconscious: Transformations and Symbols of the Libido",
        "author": "Carl Gustav Jung",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/jung/psychology-of-the-unconscious/"
    },
    {
        "id": "laozi.daodejing",
        "title": "Daodejing, Book of the Way and Virtue",
        "author": "Laozi",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/laozi/daodejing/"
    },
    {
        "id": "marcus_aurelius.meditations",
        "title": "Meditations",
        "author": "Marcus Aurelius",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/marcus-aurelius/meditations/"
    },
    {
        "id": "montaigne.essais",
        "title": "The Essays",
        "author": "Michel de Montaigne",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/montaigne/essais/"
    },
    {
        "id": "moses.genesis",
        "title": "Genesis",
        "author": "Moses",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/moses/genesis/"
    },
    {
        "id": "musonius_rufus.discourses",
        "title": "Discourses of Musonius Rufus Reported by Lucius",
        "author": "Musonius Rufus",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/musonius-rufus/discourses/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.cratylus",
        "title": "Cratylus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/cratylus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.crito",
        "title": "Crito",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/crito/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.gorgias",
        "title": "Gorgias",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/gorgias/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.ion",
        "title": "Ion",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/ion/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.laws",
        "title": "Laws",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/laws/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.phaedrus",
        "title": "Phaedrus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/phaedrus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.protagoras",
        "title": "Protagoras",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/protagoras/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.republic",
        "title": "Republic",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/republic/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.statesman",
        "title": "Statesman",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/statesman/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.symposium",
        "title": "Symposium",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/symposium/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.theaetetus",
        "title": "Theaetetus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/theaetetus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plato.timaeus",
        "title": "Timaeus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/timaeus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.alexander",
        "title": "Alexander",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/alexander/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.cato_younger",
        "title": "Cato the Younger",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/cato-younger/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.progress_in_virtue",
        "title": "How One May Know One’s Progress in Virtue",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/progress-in-virtue/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.how_young_man_should_study_poetry",
        "title": "How a Young Man Should Study Poetry",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/how-young-man-should-study-poetry/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.profit_from_enemies",
        "title": "How to Profit by One’s Enemies",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/profit-from-enemies/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.moral_virtue",
        "title": "On Moral Virtue",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/moral-virtue/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.stoic_self_contradictions",
        "title": "On Stoic Self-Contradictions",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/stoic-self-contradictions/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.tranquillity_of_mind",
        "title": "On Tranquillity of Mind, Plutarch",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/tranquillity-of-mind/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.face_in_moon",
        "title": "On the Face in the Moon",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/face-in-moon/"
    },
    {
        "id": "plutarch.table_talk",
        "title": "Table Talk",
        "author": "Plutarch",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/table-talk/"
    },
    {
        "id": "raphael_enthoven.actu_philosophia_2011",
        "title": "Interview on The Philosopher on Call",
        "author": "Raphaël Enthoven",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/raphael-enthoven/actu-philosophia-2011/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.consolatio_ad_helviam",
        "title": "Consolation to Helvia, His Mother",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/consolatio-ad-helviam/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.de_beneficiis",
        "title": "On Benefits",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-beneficiis/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.de_constantia_sapientis",
        "title": "On the Firmness of the Wise Person",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-constantia-sapientis/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.de_ira",
        "title": "On Anger",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-ira/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.de_providentia",
        "title": "On Providence",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-providentia/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.de_vita_beata",
        "title": "On the Happy Life",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-vita-beata/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.epistulae_morales",
        "title": "Moral Letters to Lucilius",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/moral-letters-to-lucilius/"
    },
    {
        "id": "seneca.naturales_quaestiones",
        "title": "Natural Questions",
        "author": "Seneca",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/naturales-quaestiones/"
    },
    {
        "id": "sextus_empiricus.outlines",
        "title": "Outlines of Pyrrhonism",
        "author": "Sextus Empiricus",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/sextus-empiricus/outlines/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_crito",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Crito",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-crito/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_gorgias",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Gorgias",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-gorgias/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_phaedrus",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-phaedrus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_protagoras",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Protagoras",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-protagoras/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_republic",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Republic",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-republic/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_symposium",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Symposium",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-symposium/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.plato_theaetetus",
        "title": "Socrates in Plato’s Theaetetus",
        "author": "Plato",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plato/plato-theaetetus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.xenophon_memorabilia",
        "title": "Socrates in Xenophon’s Memorabilia",
        "author": "Xenophon",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/xenophon/xenophon-memorabilia/"
    },
    {
        "id": "socrates.xenophon_oeconomicus",
        "title": "Socrates in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus",
        "author": "Xenophon",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/xenophon/xenophon-oeconomicus/"
    },
    {
        "id": "spinoza.ethics_en",
        "title": "Ethics, English Manifestation",
        "author": "Baruch Spinoza",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/spinoza/ethics-en/"
    },
    {
        "id": "spinoza.theologico_political_treatise_en",
        "title": "Theologico-Political Treatise, English Manifestation",
        "author": "Baruch Spinoza",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/spinoza/theologico-political-treatise-en/"
    },
    {
        "id": "sunzi.sunzi_bingfa",
        "title": "Sunzi Bingfa, The Art of War",
        "author": "Sun Tzu",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/sunzi/art-of-war/"
    },
    {
        "id": "thomas_aquinas.summa_theologiae",
        "title": "Summa Theologiae",
        "author": "Thomas Aquinas",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologiae/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.edited_talbot",
        "title": "The Works of the Late Miss Catharine Talbot, an Editorial Volume Associated with Elizabeth Carter",
        "author": "Catharine Talbot",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/catharine-talbot/edited-talbot/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.epictetus_translation",
        "title": "The Works of Epictetus, Translated into English by Elizabeth Carter",
        "author": "Epictetus",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/epictetus/epictetus-translation/"
    },
    {
        "id": "elizabeth_carter.translated_algarotti",
        "title": "Algarotti’s Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy Explained for the Use of the Ladies, Translated by Elizabeth Carter",
        "author": "Francesco Algarotti",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/francesco-algarotti/translated-algarotti/"
    },
    {
        "id": "bible.old_testament",
        "title": "The Bible: Old Testament",
        "author": "Biblical traditions",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/biblical-traditions/the-bible-old-testament/"
    },
    {
        "id": "bible.new_testament",
        "title": "The Bible: New Testament",
        "author": "Biblical traditions",
        "url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/biblical-traditions/the-bible-new-testament/"
    }
]
```