sometimes cause harm. [maybe,perhaps] [maybe,perhaps] ♦That which heaven [it] detestsA – who knows its reasons? Thus2 the sage2 plans for things to be difficult.B [them] [schemes] ♦The Way of heaven : ♦Does not strive, yet skillfully achieves its goals. [victory,beat] ♦Does not speak, yet skillfully responds. ♦Does not summon, yet everything naturally comes to it. Is certainly unhurried, yet skillfully prepares.C [slow,patient,calm] [plans] ♦Heaven’s net is extremely vast 2D; ♦It is wide meshed, yet does not fail. [sparce] Notes There are two themes in this chapter which do not seem to fit in with typical Daoist concepts – that of heaven conquering (literally “victory” or “beat”, interpreted as “achieving its goals”) which sounds more like striving than non-action, and planning (interpreted as “prepares”) which seems contradictory to being “naturally so” (although the sage also “plans” here and in #63) A : in early societies, whatever endeavors failed were by definition what heaven (or the gods) “detested” B : this sentence only appears in the later sources, and seems to be a parenthetical comment; although it technically is in the majority, it seems so out-of-place that it is left out of the final translation above C : this sentence is nearly impossible to translate; while the first symbol in WB and HSG are the same, making them the default “majority”, it is different in every other source, and none of their modern translations make sense; some translators use a symbol slightly different than that in WB and HSG but pronounced the same way; finally, “slow, patient, calm” is only the most likely translation that could be found for the first symbol D : “extremely” is implied by the repeated symbol Cross-references the sage plans for difficulties : #63 Way of heaven : #9, #47, #77, #79, #81 no striving : #3, #8, #22, #66, #68, #81 Chapter Seventy Four 民 不 畏 死 奈 何 以 死 懼 之 • 若 使 民 常 畏 死 而 為 奇 者 吾 得 執 而 殺 之 • 孰 敢 • 常 有 司 殺 者 __ (•)夫 代 司 殺 者 殺 • 是 謂 代 大 匠 斲 • (•)夫 代 大 匠 斲 者 希 __ 不 傷 其 手 矣(•) If the citizens do not fear death, How can you use death to frighten them? Assuming you could ensure that the citizens always fear death, And I get hold of those who act strange and unusual and kill them, Then who would be daring? There will always exist an executioner. Now : to take the place of the executioner to do the killing,