Verse 71

It is well to know that you do not know.
To think you know when you do not is sickness.

When you are sick of sickness you will no longer be sick.
True Persons are not sick because they are sick of sickness;
this is the way to health.

Verse 72

When the people lack a sense of awe
disaster will descend upon them.

Do not constrict their living space.
Do not harass them in their work.

If you do not oppress them, they will not weary of you.
Therefore, True Persons know themselves

but make no show of themselves.
They know their value

but do not exalt themselves.
They prefer this within to that without.

Verse 73

A person whose courage lies in daring will meet death.
A person whose courage lies in not daring will encounter life.

Of the two courses, either may be beneficial or harmful.
Heaven dislikes what it dislikes.

Who knows the reason why?
Even the True Person has difficulty with such a question.

The Tao of Heaven
does not strive and yet it overcomes,
does not speak and yet it gets responses,
does not beckon and yet it attracts,
is at ease and yet it follows a plan.

The net of heaven is cast wide.
Though the mesh is coarse, nothing ever slips through.

Verse 74

When the people do not fear death,
of what use is it to threaten them with death?

If the people were always afraid of death
and if those who did wrong
would always be arrested and put to death,
who would do wrong?

There is always a Lord of Execution whose duty it is to kill.
If you try to fill that function it is like trying to hew wood
in place of a master carpenter.
You will probably injure your own hands.