Tao Te Ching Verse 74: Disqualifying Ourselves from Managing

Send us a textTao Te Ching Verse 74translated by Frederic Henry BalfourIf people do not fear death why attempt to frighten them by capital punishment?Supposing the people are made constantly afraid of death, so that when they commit unlawful acts I arrest them and have them killed, who will dare [afterwards to misbehave]? For then there will always be yiu-sze, or civil magistrates, to execute them. Now the execution of men on behalf of the inflictor of the death-punishment [by those not legal...