Han Feizi's original saying was "If the punishment is heavy, you don't dare to use the noble to change the lowly" means that the punishment is heavy, and the officials do not dare to despise the lowly with the powerful! If in real society, the elite do not pay attention to the poor, it is because the punishment is not heavy enough, even if it is a crime, they have enough capital to cope with the less severe punishment.
In layman's terms, ordinary people have 10 yuan in their pockets, and the magnates have 10,000 yuan in their hands, and the cost of breaking the law each time is 100 yuan, so ordinary people only have 10 yuan, and they certainly dare not easily commit 100 yuan, and the magnates are different, committing a fine of 100 yuan, he can also commit 99 times, which is obvious, of course, the magnates will flout the law and despise the commoners.
Corresponding to the fairness of punishment, the author believes that we should formulate relatively fair punishment provisions, such as the same crime, the people 10 yuan of assets penalty 10 times 100 yuan, then the magnates need 10,000 yuan of assets to punish 100,000 yuan to highlight the fairness of the law; for example, the greed of officials 100 yuan and ordinary employees greed of 100 yuan, in the legislative point of view is to consider the feeling of fairness, rather than paper fairness, so that after the heavy punishment, the magnates can really fear the law. Otherwise, the law is the law in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of the powerful, it is only 1% of the feelings, can we not despise ordinary people?
![Li Si could have been better than the Duke of Zhou, but because he violated the bottom line three times, it was regrettable that he finally abandoned the world[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)