VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 11

VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 11

In the Saving There Is an Iron Line, Barred for Life, and Choosing Officials Rests Not on Testing the Letter but on That Heart

The last section made clear that to save him is to swap him down off that harming position, to be reforged, his thought turned back. But that breath of yours has a last half un-eased, reforged, turned back, then what he harmed people with in the past, is it simply let go? Turned back, can he come back and hold that ruler again? This section eases this half to the bottom. First it sets up the iron, that the one who harmed people by the dead letter has that door of holding the law shut on him, forever. Then it tells what, going forward, choosing the one who holds the law rests on, not on testing the letter, but on that heart.

Let me set up the iron, hard, with not half a room for bargaining. The one who held the law and harmed people by the dead letter, ground them, crushed them, robbed them, hounded them, has that door of holding the law shut on him, forever. Barred for life. Let me break down where the iron is.

The same as the fourth chapter, tell two things apart. Saving him, the person, and whether to let him hold the law again, are two things. Saving him, the person, pulling him off the chain, reforging that thought, turning it back to the intent, letting him be a person who reads the intent anew, live on well, this may be done, this is benevolence, use the pen and not the knife, not grinding him to death, giving him a road to become a person anew. But whether to let him go back to that position of holding the law, holding that ruler that decides a person's life and death again, that is another thing. This thing, one word, no. Forever no.

Why must this door be welded shut? Think, if it were not. An illiterate-in-the-law harmed people by the dead letter, is swapped down, reforged a few days, and put back to go on holding the law. Then the reforging becomes a going-through-the-motions, and everyone sees, harm people by the dead letter, no matter, at worst reforged a while and back on the bench, ruler in hand again. Then who fears? That barrier of harm-people-and-you-lose-the-power-to-hold-the-law-for-good is gone, and everyone dares hold the dead letter and harm people. So this door, not a crack may be left. Harm people by the dead letter, and to be reforged and become a person is fine, but that door of holding the law, this life, do not think of entering it again. Only welding this door shut makes that line hold. Because in this hand is pinched a person's life and death, and a hand that once, holding the dead letter, drove people to ruin, this hand, however it is reforged, may never again be trusted with the ruler over a person's life and death. This is not cruelty to him, it is the weight of the thing in the hand. A hand that decides life and death, once it has harmed people by the dead letter, must never hold that thing again.

And this iron, the same as the fourth chapter, one layer harder, those who took the benefit, who went along the chain and shared in it, the same, that door of holding the law is shut on them. The clerk who knew the ruling harmed a person and stamped it along, the one who saw the intent lost and the dead letter held and went along to close the case, who kept one eye open and one shut, who for his own smooth road did not wake up, the door of holding the law is shut on him too. Who told you not to wake up, when in your hand too was pinched a stretch of that person's life and death, and you chose to hold the dead letter and go along.

You see how this iron is set, how hard, and how clean. It does not grind people to death, the ones who harmed people, the ones who went along, may all be reforged, become people anew, live on well, this is benevolence. And it does not muddy the water in the least, the ones who harmed people by the dead letter, the ones who went along, the door of holding the law is shut on them forever, this is iron. Benevolence keeps the root of use the pen and not the knife. Iron keeps this saving from sliding into holding a hand high, into cover and indulgence. Saving you, the person, is benevolence. Not letting you hold the law again is iron. The two together, and this saving stands, it has neither ground a person to death nor let the harming of people off in the least.

That breath in your heart, now, should be eased to the bottom. So it turns out saving him is not letting him off. Saving him, the person, reforged, become a person anew, is benevolence. But what he harmed people with has its consequence to bear, and that door of holding the law is shut on him forever, barred for life, and those who went along the same. Those who occupy positions and harm people by the dead letter, by this, one by one, are swapped down, reforged and becoming people is fine, but this life, do not think of holding that ruler over a person's life and death again.

Then you have a last solid worry, invite all these illiterate-in-the-law out of the door of holding the law, and those positions, who holds the ruler? This, the next section tells, there are plenty of good people. This section, let me go on, then going forward, what kind of person is chosen to hold the law? And resting on what, is he kept from walking the old road of the dead letter again?

Let me first break the way it is chosen now. How is the one who holds the law chosen now? By testing the letter. Test him on the clauses, the procedures, the cases, and whoever recites the letter best, answers the letter fastest, is counted the ablest, and is chosen in, promoted up. And this is exactly the source of the illiterate-in-the-law. The third section said it, this kind is raised by an education that tests only the letter. Choose the one who holds the law by testing the letter, and what you choose in is exactly the ones who read the letter best and have lost the intent most thoroughly, the illiterate-in-the-law. You test the letter to choose the one who holds the law, and you are, with your own hands, choosing in the very kind that will hold the dead letter and harm people.

So to choose the one who holds the law rests not on testing the letter, it rests on that heart. On whether, in his heart, there is that intent of the law, protecting people, whether he reads the intent and not the letter, whether, setting a case before him, his eyes go first to the living person at the end of it, and not to the dead clause. The letter, he of course has to know, a physician has to know the pharmacopoeia. But the letter is the floor, not the gate. The gate is that heart, that intent, whether it is there, whether it is enough. This heart, where from? Not from testing the letter, and not bought with money, it is raised, by character education, that leg of the second chapter. So the root of choosing the one who holds the law comes back again to the root of the whole book, character. A person with that heart, who reads the intent and holds the protecting of people, is fit to hold that ruler over a person's life and death.

Then guarding one gate at the choosing, is it enough? It is not. The human heart can change, can be ground numb. A person chosen in with that heart, sitting long in that position, pressed by the machine to close cases by the dead letter, ground day by day by that chain, may have that heart slowly ground numb again, slowly turned back into one who reads the dead letter. So there has to be a set of ways to keep that heart, all along, watched, warmed, not let go numb. The same three as the fourth chapter, brought here.

The first, hold a license. The one who holds the law, who holds that ruler over a person's life and death, must have a license first, the same as the student holds a student ID, each trade holds its license, the real person using AI holds a license and bears the responsibility. To hold this ruler over life and death is the weightiest thing of all, and of course it must have a license, and this license acknowledges not only his knowing of the letter, but more, that heart for the people, that intent, in him.

The second, yearly review. This license is not good for a lifetime once got. It is reviewed yearly, whether that heart is still there, still warm, whether his year of holding the law has gone numb, been ground by that chain back toward the dead letter. Reviewed and passed, renewed, and he goes on. Reviewed and that heart found gone numb, turned back to the dead letter, and the license is stopped. This joins that line of yearly renewal through the whole book.

The third, going back to be reforged. In the yearly review, if that heart is seen to have gone a bit numb, a bit ground toward the dead letter, there is no need to wait until he has truly harmed people, ask him back to that courtyard to be reforged, to have that heart warmed anew, that thought wiped bright toward the intent anew. Go back regularly, as an implement used long grows dull and has to be ground bright. That heart for the people, that reading of the intent, used long in that position pressed by the chain, also grows dull, and has to go back regularly to be reforged, kept bright. Hold a license, be reviewed yearly, be reforged, these three are that line of the whole book, come down onto the choosing and keeping of the one who holds the law. In this world, any important thing, any important power, and none is weightier than this ruler over a person's life and death, has to have a license, be reviewed yearly, be regularly reforged and kept up. The next section tells that last solid worry, invite the illiterate-in-the-law all out, choose so strictly besides, and those positions, who holds the ruler, there are plenty of good people, and it tells too how the law itself ought to be laid down, not piled high.

Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.