Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 75 — Why the People Starve
Because those above eat too much in taxes
The people starve because those above eat too much in taxes — that is why they starve. The people are hard to govern because those above are too active — that is why they are hard to govern. The people make light of death because they grasp too greedily after life — that is why they make light of death. Only he who does not strive for life is wise about life.
Source context
- Theme
- over-taxation of the people through rulers' greed, and the consequent devaluation of life itself
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Daoist political philosophyChapter 75 teaches that heavy taxation and rulers' self-serving interference exhaust the people's vitality, making them 'light of death' — a structural parallel to the Daoist principle that wu-wei governance preserves the natural life-force of the social organism.
- Confucian governance ethicsThe Confucian tradition similarly warns that excessive extraction by rulers corrupts the social body, with Mencius holding that a ruler who impoverishes the people forfeits the Mandate of Heaven — a cross-tradition congruence with the Daoist critique of parasitic governance.
- Stoic natural lawStoic political thought holds that rulers who act against the natural order of justice and sufficiency destroy the commonwealth from within, exhibiting a cross-tradition congruence with the Tao Te Ching's diagnosis of rulers who 'feast on excess' while the people starve.
Chapter 75
The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors. It is through this that they suffer famine.
The people are difficult to govern because of the (excessive) agency of their superiors (in governing them). It is through this that they are difficult to govern.
The people make light of dying because of the greatness of their labours in seeking for the means of living. It is this which makes them think light of dying. Thus it is that to leave the subject of living altogether out of view is better than to set a high value on it.