When people stop fearing legal punishments
A far greater retribution is at hand.
Don’t constrict people’s homes.
Don’t burden people’s lives.
Truly 5
If you don’t burden them
They won’t be overburdened.
Therefore
Sages are self-aware, not self-absorbed
Self-loving, not self-serving. 10
They let go of all that
And embrace this.
***
NOTES
lines 11 and 12: These lines also conclude poems 12 and 38.
COMMENTARY
In the first two lines of poem 72, Laozi is kind enough to try to dissuade anyone who thinks they can play the legal system and evade justice – what awaits them will indeed be worse than any time they might have served had they let the system function properly. Not saying what the far greater retribution might be, he instead turns to people’s homes and their lives, urging that they not be constricted or burdened – and emphasizing the latter, which suggests to me Laozi must have observed a lot of people laboring hard for very little remuneration. That dynamic is unsustainable, and so retribution can take the form of vigilantism or even the mobs of revolution. Rather than flesh out the specter of violence, Laozi turns instead to the example of the Sage’s self-awareness and self-love – as distinct from self-interest, to use the words of poem 7 – and reminds us that these are achieved through letting go of all that and embracing this. Or to quote poem 1:
Constant and free of thought
Behold the wonder of its essence.
Constant and full of thought
Behold whatever it manifests.
Links To:
The Classic of Dao and De by Laozi: Contents
For more on Daoism, see:
Film Dreams: Frank Capra
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 