Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
人性之善也，猶水之就下也
The goodness of human nature is like water's tendency to move downward.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
37 Han characters · 22 distinct forms · 7 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.
「水信無分於東西，
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 6 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 無 × 4 水 × 3 下 × 3 分 × 2 於 × 2 人 × 2. 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
What does 猶 tell us about the relation between the two clauses?
Compare the editorial answer
One is offered as an analogy for the other, not as a literal identity.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 人性之善也，猶水之就下也
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Read this beside…
Each connection states its purpose. Comparisons are editorial learning aids; shared wording alone does not prove influence.
Shared imageWater: tendency or exemplary conduct?The image selects different features: direction in one argument, benefit and non-contention in the other.
Argument contrastWhat counts as human nature?These passages state sharply different judgments about 性. Compare the role assigned to deliberate cultivation and the water analogy before deciding whether the same boundaries of nature are being assumed. This is a comparison of claims, not a complete resolution of their disagreement.
A question to take further
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
孟子 · 離婁上猶水之就「民之歸仁也，猶水之就下、獸之走壙也。故為淵敺魚者，獺也；為叢敺爵者，鸇也；為湯武敺民者，桀與紂也。
孟子 · 告子上無分於東則西流。人性之無分於善不善也，猶水之無分於東西也。」
孟子 · 梁惠王上水之就下誠如是也，民歸之，由水之就下，沛然誰能禦之？』」
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Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Identify a comparison and its standard未若貧而樂道，富而好禮者也論語 · Put a clause inside a larger sentence不患人之不己知老子 · Put a clause inside a larger sentence天下皆知美之為美老子 · Identify a comparison and its standard上善若水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_011.txt, lines 44–50. MENG 6A02:01; tr. D. C. Lau 2.223
- 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: 7e2b75d07588a11bc761e6f801764252cc70c13ba1726af1bca38bd78f8bf8f0. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.