When People Do Not Fear Death
The Text
民不畏死，奈何以死惧之？若使民常畏死，而为奇者，吾得执而杀之，孰敢？常有司杀者杀。夫代司杀者杀，是谓代大匠斫。夫代大匠斫者，希有不伤其手矣。
When people do not fear death, what use is threatening them with it? If people always feared death, and we could seize the perverse and execute them — who would dare? There is always the master executioner who kills. To kill for the master executioner is to carve for a master carpenter — those who carve in his place rarely escape cutting their own hands.
Reading it
A ferocious administrative argument: when punishment has lost its terror, adding terror is not policy but self-harm. The master executioner is consequence itself — the state that pre-empts its verdicts is the amateur carver, and the imagery does not soften on where the blade ends up.
一条凶悍的行政论证：当惩罚失去威慑，加码不是政策而是自伤。「司杀者」是后果本身——抢在它的判决之前动手的国家，就是那个代大匠斫的业余者，而意象没有手软于刀落何处。
Find where you are substituting threat for design. Remove the threat this week and fix the actual condition.
找出你在用威胁代替设计的地方。这周撤掉威胁，去修真正的条件。