溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
If Endeavour and Destiny Quarrel, Which Reaches Further?
Is a person's success or failure made by their endeavour, or set by a destiny that flows even beyond endeavour?
Endeavour said to Destiny, "How can your merit match mine?" Destiny replied, "You do but follow the current."
This question split ancient China sharply over the weight of endeavour and destiny. Liezi's "Endeavour and Destiny" leaned toward a fatalism that calmly grants destiny's primacy — human effort only follows the current, it cannot set its direction. This collided head-on with Mozi's anti-fatalism, which held effort could change the world, and parted from Xunzi, who bade one master and use Heaven's mandate. Yet the Confucian mainstream mostly chose the middle: "do all that is human and await the mandate of Heaven." Which comes first, endeavour or destiny — this weighing has tuned the life-attitude of East Asians for two thousand years.
Between the encouragement that effort achieves all and the wall no striving can cross, Liezi's ancient dialogue — what is my portion and what the current's — continues quietly even now.
Liezi seated Endeavour and Destiny face to face like two characters and set them arguing.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Liezi seated Endeavour and Destiny face to face like two characters and set them arguing. Endeavour boasts of making every merit, but Destiny answers calmly — can your effort explain why the good die young and the wicked live long? This fable coolly quiets human pride. I sense this question makes regret humble — if I trace every outcome to my own effort alone, the regret of failure becomes an unbearable weight. I stand before it too, often forgetting the portion of the current, whether boasting of my achievement or blaming myself for my failure.
✍️Your Answer
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