Tao Te Ching, Ch 74

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna, Chor-kok Lam

Chapter 74

When people are not afraid of death, 

how can they be threatened with death?

Were the people always afraid of death,

and were I able to arrest and put to death those who commit evils,

who would dare to commit evils?

There is a regular executioner whose charge is to kill.

To kill on behalf of the executioner is what is described as

chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter.

To chop wood on behalf of the master carpenter,

there are none who can escape hurting their own hands instead.

Review

    Some contemporary scholars comment that the Tao Te Ching was written for the rulers of the Chau Dynasty about 3000 years ago to rule the country in accordance with the Truth. We can see there are many Chapters telling the rulers how to rule the country well for the people to live with good sustenance and simplicity, without many desires and clever tricks among people. Here in this Chapter, Lao Tzu also tells the rulers again how to rule the country well by making people enjoy living well rather than willing to die at any moment:

“When people are not afraid of death,

how can they be threatened with death?”

    If people are fond of living which means they have  good life with good sustenance, they dare not do anything wrong which will end up with death penalty. In this sense, the punishment by the government will be effective to warn people to observe the law. However, if the government rules the country with crimes, corruptions and oppressions, people suffer so much in life that they dare do any crimes though they may turn to die at any moment. They may think to die is better than to live. They will do whatever they like to turn down the society, therefore, Lao Tzu says, “how can they be threatened with death?” In this way, when the ruler governs the country to the worst extent, all the oppressions and severe penalties will have no deterrent effect to people. Then, what will happen? Lao Tzu tells us in the following verse in Chapter 72:

“When people no longer fear oppression, 

the great disaster will come.”

(Chapter 72)

    The country will collapse at any moment when people are not afraid of any oppression, therefore, Lao Tzu tells the rulers to follow the sages to rule the country with the Truth, making people cherish their good living in society rather than destroying the society heedlessly. Lao Tzu tells us the best way to uphold the law and order of the society by making people fear of death. They do not want to commit crimes to destroy their good life, thus Lao Tzu says:

“Were the people always afraid of death,

and were I able to arrest and put to death those who commit evils,

who would dare to commit evils?”

    Actually, we can see this Truth in our empirical world. There are a lot of crimes, corruptions in the poor and backward countries even within the government where people dare commit crimes to rob and steal and kill at any cost. In the western countries where law and order are stressed, corruption within the government is eliminated by giving high salary and welfare to the officials and also people of the grassroots. They are the affluent countries where the values of humanity are well concerned which exactly what Lao Tzu wants to tell us.

    Then Lao Tzu tells us another issue about the execution of penalty and punishment. First, the ruler should make people law-abiding by giving them good and stable life, so that there is no need for them to do corruption and crime to threaten their good life which we can see how the affluent countries do to rule their people. Then, Lao Tzu tells all of us how to deal with injustice among people. Lao Tzu tells us not to take revenge because it is not our task to do so. There should be some specialists doing this task of retaliation to punish the wrong doers. In our society, we have the judicial system to deal with the criminals which people cannot do by themselves as Lao Tzu tells us the reason with the parable of chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter:

“There is a regular executioner whose charge is to kill.

To kill on behalf of the executioner is what is described

as chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter.”

    In our society with law and order, there is the judiciary to uphold law and order to punish the criminals with justice without corruption. Furthermore, the Heavenly Tao, the Truth, is also the greatest judge and executioner to recompense all our deeds. This is what we believe in Chinese culture that the Heavenly Tao will recompense all our deeds whether good or bad. Buddhism is also telling us the same, so do other religious faiths in our world.

    This Heavenly Tao is Allah in Islam. There are some names of Allah in the Quran which mean the Absolute Ruler (Al-Malik), the Judge (Al-Hakam), the Accounter (Al-Hasib) who takes the account of deeds of every one, the Retaliator (Al-Muntaqim), the Just One (Al-Muqsit), the Preventer of harm (Al-Mani), the Creator of the harmful (Al-Darr) and the Giver of benefit (An-Nafi). In the first Chapter of the Quran, Allah says He is the “sovereign of the Day of Recompense”(1:4).

    Here Lao Tzu tells us why we should not do the retaliation by ourselves:

“To chop wood on behalf of the master carpenter,

there are none who can escape hurting their own hands instead.”

    We should hand over this task to the judiciary and also the Heavenly Tao if even the judiciary does not work to uphold the justice. To do harm to other people will also harm ourselves as Lao Tzu tells us because we are not the regular executioner. We should trust our Lord, the Creator, the Sovereign of the Day of Recompense to uphold the justice among us. Here what we need is the faith in Allah, the One God. As we human cannot know everything, how can people judge everything rightly? Therefore, the real executioner, ultimately, is Allah only, as Lao Tzu explains in the previous Chapter:

“The net of Heaven is cast wide.

Though it is loose, yet nothing ever slips through.”

(Chapter 73)