The Robber's Boast
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使我介然有知，行於大道，唯施是畏。大道甚夷，而民好徑。朝甚除，田甚蕪，倉甚虛；服文綵，帶利劍，厭飲食，財貨有餘，是謂盜夸。非道哉！
If I had great knowledge, I would walk on the Great Way; the only thing I would fear is acting on purpose. The Great Way is very level and easy, yet people love the byways. The court is very well kept, the fields are very overgrown, the granaries are very empty. They wear patterned silks, carry sharp swords, gorge on food and drink, and have wealth and goods to spare. This is called a robber’s boast. It is not the Way, alas!
A plain-spoken attack on rulers who dress like thieves while the fields go to weeds.
Heshang Gong does not take 施, the one thing the speaker fears, as wandering off the path. He reads it as any deliberate scheme, even a well-meaning one like rewarding the good, because trying to engineer virtue tends to breed fakery.
His gloss on the closing particle 哉, “the word of pained reproach”, sets the chapter’s tone: real anger at rulers who live like thieves while the fields go to weeds.
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