Chapter 74 — Curbing delusion制惑

詭異亂群謂之奇也。

To deceive and set oneself apart so as to throw the crowd into disorder is what is called strange.

治國者刑罰酷深，民不聊生，故不畏死也。治身者嗜欲傷神，貪財殺身，民不知畏之也。

When one who governs a state uses punishments harshly and deeply, the people have no way left to live, and so they do not fear death. One who governs his own body wounds his spirit with what he craves and kills his body in his greed for goods, and the people do not know enough to fear it.

人君不寬刑罰，教民去情欲，奈何設刑法以死懼之？若使民常畏死，當除己之所殘剋，教民去利欲也。

If the ruler does not ease his punishments and teach the people to cast off their craving, how can he set up penal law and frighten them with death? If he would have the people always fear death, he ought to do away with his own harsh exactions and teach the people to cast off profit and desire.

以道教化而民不從，反為奇巧，乃應王法執而殺之，誰敢有犯者？老子傷時王不先道德化之，而先刑罰也。

If he teaches them with the Dao and still the people do not follow but instead do strange and crafty things, then he seizes and kills them by the law of the state, and who would dare to transgress? Laozi (老子) grieved that the rulers of his day did not first teach with the Dao and with virtue but used punishments first.

為逆順者之所惡忿也，不仁者人之所疾也。故曰，常有司殺也。

One who sets himself up to judge what goes against and what goes along draws hatred and anger, and one who is not benevolent is loathed by people. Hence it says: there is always one charged with killing.

司殺者謂天，居高臨下，司察人過。天網恢恢，疏而不失也。

The one charged with killing means heaven. It dwells on high and looks down below, examining the faults of men. Heaven's net is vast and wide, and though its mesh is coarse it lets nothing slip.

天道至明，司殺有常，猶春生夏長，秋收冬藏，斗杓運移，以節度行之。人君欲代殺之，是猶拙夫代大匠斲木，勞而無功也。

The way of heaven is utterly clear, and in its charge of killing there is a constancy: it gives birth in spring and rears in summer, gathers in autumn and stores in winter, and the handle of the Northern Dipper turns round and moves by measure. For a ruler to try to kill in its place is like an unskilled man hewing wood in place of the master carpenter, all toil and no merit.

人君行刑罰，猶拙夫代大匠斲，則方圓不得其理，還自傷。代天殺者，失紀綱，不得其紀綱還受其殃也。

For a ruler to carry out punishments is like an unskilled man hewing in place of the master carpenter: the square and the round do not come out by their own measure, and he turns and wounds himself. One who kills in heaven's place loses the guiding cord, and having failed to grasp it, he turns and takes that calamity upon himself.