If I Had the Least Knowledge
The Text
使我介然有知，行于大道，唯施是畏。大道甚夷，而人好径。朝甚除，田甚芜，仓甚虚；服文采，带利剑，厌饮食，财货有余。是谓盗夸。非道也哉！
If I had the least knowledge, I would walk the great way — fearing only bypaths. The great way is very smooth, yet people love the shortcuts. The courts are decadent; the fields are weedy; the granaries are empty — yet some wear fine clothes, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, possess wealth in surplus. This is called brigandage. Surely it is not the way.
Reading it
The bypath is chosen knowing the main road exists — that is the sting. The inventory of luxury against empty granaries is as close to political anger as this book gets, and its word is precise: not decadence but brigandage, wealth as theft with better tailoring.
刺人的地方在于：捷径是在明知大路存在的情况下选的。锦绣利剑对空仓的这份清单，是全书最接近政治愤怒的段落，用词精准：不叫堕落，叫「盗夸」——穿着更好看的劫掠。
Find one shortcut you are taking that you know is a bypath. Walk the long way once and compare the ledger.
找出一条你明知是斜径却仍在走的捷径。这周走一次大路，把两边的账都算一算。