Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
天時不如地利，地利不如人和
Favorable timing does not equal favorable terrain; favorable terrain does not equal human accord.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
55 Han characters · 30 distinct forms · 10 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
「天時不如地利，
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 7 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 不 × 5 之 × 4 而 × 4 天 × 3 時 × 3 如 × 3. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
Make this passage yours.
Use the reading guide above, build your interpretation, then test what you can recover. Your notes and schedule stay on this device.
1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
Select a source unit, then hide the passage and reconstruct it. This checks textual recall, not understanding.
3 · Explain, then revisit
How does the repetition of 地利 structure the claim?
Compare the editorial answer
It makes terrain the middle level in a three-part comparison.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 天時不如地利，地利不如人和
.
Rate your understanding yourself. These reminders use a simple schedule; they do not certify mastery.
Study controls are loading. Reading prompts and source links work without JavaScript.
Read this beside…
Each connection states its purpose. Comparisons are editorial learning aids; shared wording alone does not prove influence.
Argument contrastWhat makes collective action possible?Xunzi asks how differentiated roles permit people to form a group; Mencius ranks human accord above terrain. The comparison draws attention to social conditions while preserving their distinct questions and argumentative settings.
Argument contrastWhy military action requires more than terrainSunzi opens by defining military affairs through their stakes for a state. Mencius compares conditions of success and places human accord above terrain. These passages can orient a comparative reading without turning their different political arguments into one strategic rule.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
孟子 · 公孫丑下地利不如不堅利也，米粟非不多也；委而去之，是地利不如人和也。
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading巧言令色，鮮矣仁論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading父在，觀其志；父沒，觀其行論語 · Identify a comparison and its standard未若貧而樂道，富而好禮者也論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading道之以政，齊之以刑Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 孟子 · Mencius
- Attribution
- Traditionally associated with Meng Ke (Mencius) and his followers.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR1h0001 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR1h0001_004.txt, lines 14–23. MENG 2B01:01; tr. D. C. Lau 1.73
- Version
8decdf43d5a82b779f7950a7782b9a5e09659564- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: ec32ee486a6971462ae44542f0fdc2b0225d8054e0929cc8c68573d38306dc65. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.