Jin Xin II · Passage 21 / 38 · 孟子 7B.21
Mencius 7B.21: a footpath becomes a road
Mencius compares the mind to mountain footpaths: used repeatedly they become roads, left unused they fill with grass and close over.
孟子謂高子曰：「山徑之蹊間，介然用之而成路；為間不用，則茅塞之矣。今茅塞子之心矣。」
Mencius said to the disciple Gao, 'There are the footpaths along the hills; if suddenly they be used, they become roads; and if, as suddenly they are not used, the wild grass fills them up. Now, the wild grass fills up your mind.'
Priority note
A human-edited reading layer
Central question
Why does Mencius compare the mind to the small paths among the hills?
Direct answer
Because moral discernment is not self-preserving by mere possession. Use it regularly and the path clears; neglect it and the route closes again under overgrowth.
First principle
Capacity becomes available through repeated exercise. Having a moral potential does not mean that potential remains open without use.
Why it matters
This passage serves searches around blockage, habit, and moral attention, while tying together the site's practical line from the lost heart to disciplined cultivation.
Further reading
What this passage is doing
This is passage 21 of 38 in Jin Xin II. The cleanest entry point is "There are the footpaths along the hills". In context, it works as part of Mencius's argument about knowing words, knowing destiny, and the completion of cultivation and can be read alongside Flood-like qi, Human nature.
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Jin Xin II treats knowing words, knowing destiny, and the judgments proper to mature cultivation together.
Related principles
Citation note
Do not reduce the image to a sudden-insight idiom. Mencius is talking about habitual pathways of judgment: if you stop walking them, they really do close.