溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is "It Was All Fated" the Excuse of the Idle?
Is the belief that all is fixed by fate a comfort, or a dangerous excuse that leads us to abandon effort?
Those who insist that fate is fixed — this is the gravest harm they do to the world.
This question split the terrain of ancient Chinese thought. Mozi denounced fatalism as the excuse of tyrants and the idle, and built a philosophy of agency: that effort and practice can change the world. This collided head-on with the Confucians, who bade one comply with Heaven's mandate, and the Daoists, who bade one rest in what cannot be helped as in destiny. The Confucian Xunzi, intriguingly, drew near Mozi, urging one not to resent Heaven but to master and use its mandate. Yet by the Han dynasty the Mohists declined and mandate-thought became mainstream, so the voice of active anti-fatalism was long buried. Is fate to be accepted or resisted — Mozi answered earliest and most firmly in East Asia: resist.
In an age where the resignation of "doomed to fail anyway" quietly spreads, Mozi's question — whether that saying is comfort or excuse — still raises a person back to their feet.
Mozi was a rare voice that attacked fatalism head-on.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Mozi was a rare voice that attacked fatalism head-on. To insist that fate is fixed, he said, is the gravest harm one does to the world — for if the result is set whether one is diligent or idle, who will strive? He rebuked the shielding of oneself with fate, holding that the rise and fall of states and the wealth and poverty of persons rest on effort. I sense this question lights the far side of regret — some regret in fact deepens when we flee into the resignation of "it was all fate." I stand before it too, honestly facing how much of what I called fate was really a place I put off effort.
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