Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
天行有常，不為堯存，不為桀亡
Heaven's course has its regularity: it does not exist for Yao or perish for Jie.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
77 Han characters · 45 distinct forms · 14 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.
天行有常，
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 8 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
故水旱不能使之飢（渴），Follow an explicit inference ↗故水旱不能使之飢（渴），Notice a change in argument structure ↗Watch recurrence: 不 × 9 能 × 6 之 × 5 則 × 5 天 × 4 而 × 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
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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 stays constant despite the contrast between the two rulers?
Compare the editorial answer
The regular course described by 天行有常.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 天行有常，不為堯存，不為桀亡
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Read this beside…
Each connection states its purpose. Comparisons are editorial learning aids; shared wording alone does not prove influence.
Different contextual sensesThe same 天 in different genresXunzi argues that Heaven’s course is not altered for good or bad rulers; a Shijing hymn praises the enduring mandate. The shared graph opens a question about local sense and genre, not proof that one statement directly answers the other.
Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
荀子 · 天論篇第十七則天不能本荒而用侈，則天不能使之富；養略而動罕，則天不能使之全；倍道而妄行，則天不能使之吉。故水旱未至而飢，寒暑
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Keep different negatives apart未之有也論語 · 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 · Distinguish doing, being, and acting for禮之用，和為貴Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 荀子 · Xunzi
- Attribution
- Traditionally associated with Xun Kuang; the received collection contains multiple textual layers.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR3a0002 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR3a0002_017.txt, lines 14–27. XUN 17:1:1, Beida p.268f; Knoblock 3:14
- Version
e18a27621ef434940a368defd29e00eee205dfd2- 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: 9707435dde056dcedf95529416fe8ed67aca57b22f5be48206106d67e713a4b0. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.