The people are not afraid of death.Here Lao Tzu indicates the harm we do to ourselves when we take it upon ourselves to kill others and threaten them with death. This applies not only to murder or vigilantism, but it also applies to the death penalty.
Why, then, threaten them with death?
Suppose the people are always afraid of death and we can seize those who are vicious and kill them,
Who would dare to do so?
There is always the master executioner (Heaven) who kills.
To undertake executions for the master executioner is like hewing wood for the master carpenter.
Whoever undertakes to hew wood for the master carpenter rarely escapes injuring his own hands.
The task is ultimately pointless (as it will be done eventually regardless of our actions, and we are diminished by it. How much better is it to practice wu-wei and simply allow that which was to happen to actually happen and save ourselves the pain of our own making?
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