Jin Xin I · Passage 02 / 46 · 孟子 7A.2
Mencius 7A.2: everything has its appointment, but do
Mencius on fate is not passive fatalism. He distinguishes proper appointment from preventable ruin: death after fulfilling one's way is one thing.
孟子曰：「莫非命也，順受其正。是故知命者，不立乎巖墻之下。盡其道而死者，正命也。桎梏死者，非正命也。」
Mencius said, 'There is an appointment for everything. A man should receive submissively what may be correctly ascribed thereto. Therefore, he who has the true idea of what is Heaven's appointment will not stand beneath a precipitous wall. Death sustained in the discharge of one's duties may correctly be ascribed to the appointment of Heaven. Death under handcuffs and fetters cannot correctly be so ascribed.'
Priority note
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Central question
Why does Mencius say that everything has its appointment and yet that one who knows fate does not stand under a crumbling wall?
Direct answer
Because he rejects the lazy habit of blaming every outcome on fate. One must first do what duty and prudence require; only what remains after that can rightly be received as appointment.
First principle
To acknowledge fate is not to erase responsibility. It is to discharge what can be borne and avoided by oneself before accepting what cannot be controlled.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around fate, responsibility, and what Mencius means by proper acceptance rather than passive resignation.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 2 of 46 in Jin Xin I. The cleanest entry point is "There is an appointment for everything". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about exhausting the heart, sincerity, and preserving the original heart and can be read alongside Human nature.
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Jin Xin I centers on exhausting the heart, sincerity, and preserving the capacities already given in the human heart.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not read the passage as fatalism. Its center lies in the line that death after exhausting one's way is proper appointment, which means accountability comes before appeal to fate.