Tao Te Ching

Chapter 76
[Original text]

The hunger of the people is due to the fact that there are so many food taxes on it.

The people are difficult to govern because they are promising, so they are difficult to govern.

The people's despise of death[1] is due to their earnestness in seeking to survive, so they despise death.

Husbands who have nothing to do with life are virtuous[2] who are worthy of life[3].

【Note】

[1] Despise death: despise life and death, not afraid of death.

[2] Yin: surpass, exceed.

[3] Guisheng: Nourishing life and valuing life.

【Analysis】

The common people were hungry because the high-ranking people levied too many taxes, which caused a shortage of food.

It is difficult for the people to govern because the superiors have done too many things without authorization, causing the people to rebel.

The common people take life and death too lightly because the superiors value their own lives, leading the common people to think that the lives of the superiors are valuable while the lives of the common people are not, so they risk their lives to commit crimes.

Only those rulers who live peacefully and quietly are wiser than those who value life.

The people's thinking is often determined by the people's living conditions, and the people's living conditions are often determined by the ruler's governance policy.If the ruler is selfish, the government will be harsh, and if the government is harsh, the people's life will be difficult, and if the people's life is difficult, there will be hunger, riots, and fear of death.Lao Tzu advocated that the ruler should start with "inaction", and then affect the thinking and actions of all the people.

【Explanation by Famous Artists】

Mr. He Shang:
The reason why the people are hungry and cold is that the emperor taxed and fed too much, because the people turned the superiors into greed, betrayed morality and morality, so they were hungry.

If the people cannot be governed, it is because their ruler has many desires and wants to do something.Therefore, it is promising in popularization, and it is difficult to treat hypocrisy.

The reason why the people lightly offend the dead is that they are too generous in their pursuit of life, and they are greedy for profit in order to endanger themselves.Because it is too thick to survive, it is easy to enter death.

Husbands are the only ones who do not take life as their service, juelu does not interfere with their minds, wealth does not enter the body, the emperor cannot be a minister, and the princes cannot be entrusted, then the virtuous is worthy of your life.

(End of this chapter)