第七十五章 Dao De Jing · Chapter 75
The people suffer because those above take too much and meddle too much.
Text
-
民之饥，以其上食税之多，
The people go hungry because those above eat up too much in taxes;
-
是以饥。
that is why they go hungry.
-
民之难治，以其上之有为，
The people are hard to govern because those above meddle;
-
是以难治。
that is why they are hard to govern.
-
民之轻死，
The people make light of death
-
以其上求生之厚，
because those above seek too much from life;
-
是以轻死。
that is why they make light of death.
-
夫唯无以生为者，
Only those who do not live for living
-
是贤于贵生。
are wiser than those who prize life.
Words in this chapter
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 民 | mín | the people |
| 之 | zhī | that (clause particle) |
| 饥 | jī | to go hungry |
| 以 | yǐ | because, by |
| 其 | qí | its, his, their |
| 上 | shàng | those above, rulers |
| 食 | shí | food, to feed on |
| 税 | shuì | taxes |
| 多 | duō | much, many |
| 是以 | shì yǐ | therefore, for this reason |
| 难 | nán | difficult |
| 治 | zhì | to govern; in order |
| 有 | yǒu | to have, to possess |
| 为 | wéi | to act, to do, to make |
| 轻 | qīng | light; to slight |
| 死 | sǐ | to die |
| 求 | qiú | to seek |
| 生 | shēng | to live |
| 厚 | hòu | thick, heavy, generous |
| 夫唯 | fú wéi | precisely because |
| 无 | wú | not have, without, no |
| 以 | yǐ | to take (as) |
| 者 | zhě | one who, that which |
| 是 | shì | this |
| 贤 | xián | to be wiser than |
| 于 | yú | to, at |
| 贵 | guì | to value, to prize |
Compare: James Legge (1891)
The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine.
The people are difficult to govern because of the (excessive) agency of their superiors (in governing them). It is through this that they are difficult to govern.
The people make light of dying because of the greatness of their labours in seeking for the means of living. It is this which makes them think light of dying. Thus it is that to leave the subject of living altogether out of view is better than to set a high value on it.
Public domain. Source: Wikisource.
Meaning of chapter 75
Chapter 75 gives three causes for the people's suffering, all in the same pattern. They go hungry because those above eat up too much in taxes; they are hard to govern because those above meddle; they make light of death because those above seek too much from life. Each time, the fault lies with the rulers, not with the people.
有为 ("acting, meddling") is the opposite of 无为 (non-action), and this chapter shows its cost plainly. The phrase 求生之厚 echoes chapter 50, where people move toward death by clinging too hard to life, and rulers who grow rich while the fields lie waste appear in chapter 53.
The last two lines are read in different ways. The house translation takes 无以生为 as "not living for living": those who do not make life itself their aim are wiser than those who prize life. In context, those who "prize life" are the rulers who seek too much from it, so the line turns the chapter's complaint into a principle. Legge read the lines in a similar way.