Translation
When people don’t respect death, why use the fear of death.
If we could cause people to always respect death and be in wonder,
And we caught and killed them, who would dare?
Always have the killer manage the killing,
A man taking the place of the killer killing,
Is said to be taking the place of the great craftsman.
A man taking the place of the great craftsman rarely never hurts his own hands.
the people (civilian) no (not) fear (respect) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid), how (why, to no avail) use (take, because of, as well as) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid) fear (dread) of.
like (as if, seem> if; > you) send (tell sb. to do sth.; use; cause; enable) the people (civilian) ordinary (normal; constant; often) fear (respect) die (extremely; deadly; fixed; rigid), <conj.>and / but (not), yet (not) do (act; act as; serve as; be; mean; support) strange (rare; surprise).者(1),
I (we) need (must, get > satisfied > be ready > catch) <conj.> and / but (not) kill (weaken) of, who bold (dare; be certain).
ordinary (normal; constant; often; always) have (exist) take charge of (attend to; manage) kill (weaken)者 kill (weaken).
husband (man) era (generation>be in place of; acting) take charge of (attend to; manage) kill (weaken)者 kill (weaken),
<grm>is <formal> this; that) say (mean) era (generation>be in place of; acting) big (large; great; major) craftsman.
husband (man) era (generation>be in place of; acting) big (large; great; major) craftsman (artisan) 者, hope (rare) have (exist) no (not) wound (hurt; hinder) his (her; its; that; such) hand (have in one’s hand; hold; handy) already (indeed; really; how).
(1) 者(zhě) used after an adjective or verb as a substitute for a person or a thing.
Original
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□。
夫代大匠□者，
希有不伤其手矣。
Commentary, July 2011
First note the curious grammar in the last line, rarely never hurts his own hands (希 有 不 = rare exist not). This double negative is the round about way of saying he usually hurts his hand.
This chapter reminds me of how I used to want to ‘help’ others avoid making mistakes. Undoubtedly this is caused by ‘fairness & friendly minded’ mirror neurons which play a large role in many social mammal’s DNA (1). This instinct is always helpful in social animals other than humans, and even for human in our earliest time. Civilization has made many of our natural instincts more problematic, however. For example, the instinct to eat as much high energy food (fat, carbs, protein) when we came across it in the wild was a boon. We even store some of that away in fat cells for times of famine. Nowadays, that instinct leads to obesity and associated health problems. The drive to help others avoid making mistakes often turns out to be chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter (Nature being the master carpenter here). After all, stumbling is how we learn to walk and talk. Mistakes are the path to learning and successful life long accomplishment.
All my life I’ve noticed how other people would warn me of the dire consequences of doing this or that, or of going here or there. None of it ever turned out to be so. Their warnings were actually a projection of their own fears. Thankfully by the time I had children I had seen enough of this ‘projected’ fear to allow my kids to make the most of their stumbling. Not standing in the way of their stumbling and growth benefited them and, indirectly, the whole family. Allowing nature to take its course, letting mistakes happen is the path to great perfection. This avoids contention and favors contentment more than anything else I’ve known (and I need all the help I can get).
(1) I’m playing it safe by limiting it to “many social mammals”, although I suspect that some form of this ‘fairness & friendly’ instinct exists at the core of every animals DNA, right down to ants and bees.