The People Starve
The Text
民之饥，以其上食税之多，是以饥。民之难治，以其上之有为，是以难治。民之轻死，以其上求生之厚，是以轻死。夫唯无以生为者，是贤于贵生。
The people starve because their rulers consume too much in taxes — that is why they starve. The people are hard to govern because their rulers meddle — that is why they are hard to govern. The people take death lightly because their rulers seek life too richly — that is why they take death lightly. Those who do not cling to life are wiser than those who value life too dearly.
Reading it
Three social symptoms, one diagnosis each, and every diagnosis lands on the ruler’s consumption — fiscal, administrative, and existential. The last line is the book’s darkest inversion: people stop valuing their lives exactly when their rulers value their own too much.
三个社会症状，各配一条诊断，而每条诊断都落在治理者的消耗上——财政的、行政的、生存的。末句是全书最黑暗的倒置：当上层过分看重自己的生命时，下层就不再看重自己的。
Locate one problem you keep attributing to others. Check what your own consumption — of money, control, comfort — is taxing the people around you.
找一个你一直归咎于他人的问题。核对一下：你自己的消耗——金钱、控制、安逸——正在向周围的人征多少税。