DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

事在人為

简事在人为 · 繁事在人為

Mandarin · pinyin shì zài rén wéi

the matter depends on the individual (idiom); it is a matter for your own effort
With effort, one can achieve anything.

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Characters in this entry

事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
在: zài · be at, in, on; consist in, rest
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
為: Look up this written character
为: wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2–2 · shi4 zai4 ren2 wei2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

事在人為 · find source passages ↗ · 事在人为 · find source passages ↗

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) it all depends on human effort; human effort can achieve everything; human effort is a decisive factor

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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