VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 5, SECTION 4
The Ones Illiterate in the Law Are Everywhere, and What Is Pinched in Their Hands Is a Person's Road to Life or Road to Death
The last section lit that contrast through, the representatives of the law turn out to be illiterate in the law, and it sorted out who the illiterate in the law are. This section goes on lighting, to see how many shapes this whole nest of the illiterate in the law has grown into in the human world; and then it lights the deepest, coldest place of all, to see what, in the end, this nest of the illiterate in the law holds pinched in its hands. See it through and a chill will run down your spine. A nest of straw sacks who cannot read the intent holds pinched in its hands the road to life or road to death of millions upon millions of living people.
One. The Passive Illiterate in the Law, Diligently Grinding People Under the Procedure
One by one, let me show you. The first kind, the most everyday, the most common, the passive illiterate in the law. He is not a bad person. He never set out to harm anyone, never thought of seeking any private gain. He is just a steady professional who handles matters by the rules. Sitting in his judge's seat, in his law office, at the lawmaking table, every day he reads the clauses, walks the procedure, handles the cases, diligent and conscientious. But in his eyes there is only the letter, and not the living person underneath.
That old man who cannot pay his land tax, by the procedure, the house is to be auctioned, and he signs. Every step compliant with the procedure. He will not stop and think one line, this old man, without a home, where is he to go? With this home auctioned off, can he live? He does not think it. What he thinks is, the procedure is complete, sign. He signs, finishes the formalities, goes home, eats a peaceful dinner, sleeps a sound sleep. He does not feel he has done anything bad, he feels he is a good citizen, a good professional. But the thing he has done? Driven a person to a broken home and family dead, driven him onto the road to death. He is not a bad person, he is illiterate in the law. In his eyes only letters, no people, and having finished the compliant procedure, he never once lifts his head to look whether the living person underneath, run over by this procedure of his, is alive or dead. His kind of illiteracy in the law is the most common, and also the most hurtful, because he himself does not even know he is hurting people.
Two. The Active Illiterate in the Law, Clear-Headed, Drilling Through Loopholes with the Letter for Private Gain
The second kind, one layer fiercer, the active illiterate in the law. This kind not only has only the letter in his eyes, he also takes this set of letters, of his own accord, to drill through the gaps and seek his own private gain. On the clauses, on the loopholes, he is sharper than anyone, so sharp he can drill a road out of a comma, a word "or", the ambiguity of a single word, call the black white, clear the one who should bear the blame, let the one who should be punished slip away. Whoever can pay, he drills for him.
That factory owner who drained his sewage into the river and harmed a whole village can pay the lawyer's fee, and the lawyer drills him a loophole out of one word in the environmental law, and the case is won; and those old people and children in the village made sick by the sewage, no one speaks for them. That one who drove his car into a person and killed him, and should have borne the responsibility, can pay the lawyer's fee, and the lawyer drills him a gap out of one flaw in the procedure, and he walks free, not guilty; and the widowed mother in the dead man's home, with no money to hire a lawyer, watches the one who caused the death walk out of the court, smiling and shaking hands with his lawyer. The lawyer's side, above all, is the worst-hit zone of this kind of illiteracy in the law. Not all lawyers, but most of this sort are masters of exactly this work of drilling loopholes. They have read a bellyful of clauses, but those clauses in their hands are not for protecting people, they are tools for clearing the ones who can pay and running over the ones with no money to speak. This kind of illiteracy in the law is fiercer than the first. The first is muddled, he does not know he is hurting people; the second is clear-headed, he knows he is hurting people, and uses that set of letters on purpose to hurt them. Hurting people clear-headedly, professionally, lawfully, this kind of illiteracy in the law is the most sickening kind in this world.
Three. The Retired Illiterate in the Law, Who Cannot Even Read That He Is Now a Commoner
The third kind, the one that makes people shake their heads and sigh the most, the retired illiterate in the law. This kind has already retired. Robe off, out of the court, no longer holding the power to judge cases, he is a commoner, the same as you and me, one commoner. This is the simplest fact there is. But this kind of illiteracy in the law is so blind it cannot see even this most basic fact, that he is now a commoner.
He still takes himself for a judge. He flaunts it outside, I am Judge So-and-so, I am a retired judge, and with that long-expired old identity he goes out to drum up business, handle private affairs, put pressure on people, scoop up favors. People invite him to dinner, ask his counsel, ask him to put in a word, and he enjoys all this, all smiles; and what the people inviting him are after is exactly that signboard of his, former judge. He cannot even read what his own identity is now, and he says he understands the law? Using a long-expired old identity, he does what ought not to be done, for his own private gain, and this is the same road as those low-ranking officials who use shabby code that does not even reach civil law to grab money by criminal means, using a thing that ought not to be used, to do a thing that ought not to be done, for private gain. Blind to the root of the root.
Four. The Illiterate in the Law in Office, Setting Personal Will Above the Law
The fourth kind, the one that sickens people the most, the illiterate in the law in office, setting his personal will above the law, sitting on the people's heads and lording it over them. This kind is the highest form of the straw sack. Sitting in a judge's seat, what is he meant to do? To judge cases fairly by the intent of the law, to speak for the law. Sitting in that position, what he represents is the law, not his own person. But what does he do? He sets his own personal will, whom he likes, whom he loathes, whom he looks down on, whom he wants to press down, whom he wants to shield, above the law.
The intent of the law steps back, and that bit of his personal will, his prejudice, his likings, his private heart, steps forward. The ruling that comes out is in name the law, and in fact it is him; he borrows the law's mouth to speak his own words; he borrows the look of the robe to run wild in his own way. This is fiercer than the first kind, reading the letter and not the intent, for reading the letter, at least he is still reading the letter; this one, setting personal will above the law, no longer even reads the letter, he has put himself straight in the law's place. He is not illiterate in the law, he has squeezed the law out and made himself the law. This is the highest form of the straw sack, inside it not only is there no intent, there is not even the letter, what is stuffed in it is all himself. And for the people, with this kind of illiterate in the law sitting in that position, smashing his prejudice, his private heart, his likings, his revenge down onto the people's heads as rulings, that taste of being pressed down by one illiterate in the law and his personal will, unable to touch him, in the right with no way to speak it, is just like someone sitting on your head bullying you, trampling you, filthy, overbearing, and you cannot touch him.
Five. The Lawyer's Side, Harming People with the Law and Pleased with It
There is one more kind, let me add one stroke, the lawyer's side. Although the illiterate in the law on the lawyer's side fall mainly in among the active kind, the profession of lawyer itself is the deepest point of this contrast. In theory, by duty, he is the one who reads the law for people, who uses his understanding of the law, who helps ordinary people understand that ruler that protects people, helps ordinary people use that ruler to protect themselves. But in reality, most of this sort do not read the ruler for the common people, they drill the ruler's loopholes for whoever can pay; they do not help ordinary people protect themselves with the law, they help the strong run the weak over with the law. That signboard, representative of understanding the law, he has used backwards.
And more, that drive in the lawyer's profession, winning the case is winning, the reputation, the bonus, the flow of cases, has pressed winning above being right. He wins, and even if this win came by drilling a loophole and running over the one who should have been protected, he is smug and pleased. Winning and losing in his eyes, and protecting and harming in the law's intent, have become two different rulers. This is the deepest point of the illiterate in the law on the lawyer's side, he read the law his whole life, and in the end read away the law's intent, and built his sense of achievement on harming people with the law. This sort is, among the illiterate in the law, the kind that most chills the heart. Having lit up this nest, the passive, the active, the retired, the ones in office, the lawyer's side, they are everywhere, all over the ground. In this world's courts, law firms, lawmaking bodies, before the windows of law enforcement, point out anyone at random, and more often than not it is one of these few kinds above. The illiterate in the law are not isolated cases, not a few bad apples, they are this whole nest.
Six. The Core at the Very Heart of Power Is That One Thought of Life and Death
Having seen this nest, a line probably rises in your heart, then why is it that this nest of the illiterate in the law can make this world hurt so much? Because what they hold pinched in their hands is not a pen, not a microphone, not a suggestion, what they hold pinched in their hands is a person's road to life or road to death. Let me first ask you a simplest question, power, what in the end is it? You will probably answer, power is being able to manage people, lay down law, levy fines, stamp seals. These are all right. But these are all the skin of power, the hands it reaches out, its tools.
Then the core at the very heart of power, peeled down to the innermost, innermost kernel, what is it? Let me give you one line. Peeled to this core, the greatest nature of power is to let a person who should die have a road to live; and the other way round, also to make a person who should live go and die. Just in the space of one thought. Savor this one thought. In this one thought, what is held? A person's life. Not money, not face, not standing, life. A living, breathing person, from here on, alive, dead, or in a life worse than death, is decided in one thought of the person holding this power. This is the core at the very heart of power, the power of life and death, of giving and taking, that one thought. Think back, what was the emperor's greatest power? Not the dragon robe, not the jade seal, not the hundred officials kneeling. It was that with one tick of his vermilion brush, the person below died; with one stroke of his vermilion brush crossing it out, the person below who should have died lived. Just this one thought. The power of the emperors through the ages, peeled to the innermost, is just this one thought.
Seven. This One Thought Has, Today, Fallen into the Hands of the Illiterate in the Law
Then this one thought, today, where has it fallen? It has fallen onto this machine of the law. It has fallen into the lawmaker's hands, in the law he lays down is written what is a capital crime, what degree of crime earns what sentence, and with one move of his pen, it is decided which kind of person, which kind of act, should live, should die. This one thought is under his pen. It has fallen into the judge's hands, he sits in the court and brings down that gavel, this person guilty, not guilty, so many years, the death penalty, the home taken, the home kept, live, die. This one thought is under his gavel. It has fallen into the lawyer's hands, he defends the ones who can pay and not the ones with no money, from a loophole in one word he clears the one who did harm, lets the one who should bear the blame go free, and this one thought passes through his mouth. It has fallen into the law-enforcement officer's hands, with this one signature, this one taking away, this one auction, a home is gone, a person is set on the road to death. This one thought is under the pen he signs with.
Lawmakers, judges, lawyers, law-enforcement officers, these four kinds of people hold pinched in their hands exactly this same core, a person's road to life or road to death, in the space of their one thought, one ruling, one stroke of the pen, one strike of the gavel. This is what this nest of the illiterate in the law holds pinched in its hands. Look back at the weight of it, that one thought was the greatest power of the emperors through the ages; that one thought is pinched in the hands of this nest of people. And this nest of people, what kind of people are they? They are that nest of the illiterate in the law lit up for you just before. A nest of the illiterate in the law who cannot read the intent holds pinched in its hands the road to life or road to death of one living person after another.
Eight. A Nest of Straw Sacks Holding the Life and Death of Millions, Lawful Killing
Let me drive this thing one layer deeper into your heart, the illiterate in the law, holding life and death. Savor these words. This is the most terrifying thing under heaven. Why the most terrifying? Think, one person holding another person's life or death in his hand, this in itself is heavy enough. But if the one holding this power is a person of character, who can read the law's intent, who carries in his heart that heart of protecting people, then the weight of this power he can still bear; before he signs he will stop a moment, lift his head and look at the living person below, and ask, is this right, has he been protected? But this nest of the illiterate in the law? In his eyes only letters, no people. Before he signs, he does not stop. With that pen, that gavel, that mouth of his, he decides one living person's road to life or road to death after another, and in his heart there is no living person. This is taking the lives of millions upon millions of living people and staking them alongside an empty-bellied straw sack, betting on his one thought.
And the ones holding these lives are a nest of the illiterate in the law who cannot read the law's intent. A nest of straw sacks, holding the life and death of millions upon millions of living people. Under heaven, is there anything more terrifying than this? There is not. In times of war, blades meet, one blade comes down, who struck, why he struck, plain as day. But this nest of the illiterate in the law, they do not lift a blade, do not show blood. With the robe, the gavel, the clauses, the procedure, warmly, properly, they send one living person after another onto the road to death, lawfully, by the procedure, with reasons and grounds. Lawful killing. The killing of blades can be seen; this lawful killing cannot be seen, it is lukewarm, it is something no one can be blamed for. The judge who signed has an easy conscience, the lawyer who drilled the loophole collects his fee and goes home to sleep soundly, the lawmaker, off work, still chats and laughs with people. And the ones this one thought of theirs lawfully sent onto the road to death? No one speaks for them, no one sets down a line for them. Their homes are broken, their people gone, this world runs on as usual, and the next day that nest of the illiterate in the law sits back down in their courts, law firms, lawmaking bodies, and goes on pinching the next person's road to life or road to death. Lit to here, the light has reached the deepest, coldest place of all. Reading to here, that fire in your heart to bring down this pack of the illiterate in the law has probably burned to the top again, but for thousands of years people have been bringing them down and they have not come down. The next section lights up clearly how, in the human world, step by step, this nest of the illiterate in the law drives people onto the road to death.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.