Confucius said, “Suppose you are piling up earth to make a mountain. If you stop just one basket short of completion – that stopping is my own doing. Suppose you are leveling ground, and even if you have only dumped one basket – you are advancing, because I am moving forward.”
Note
Using the metaphor of building a mountain with baskets of earth, Confucius powerfully illustrates that the success or failure of moral cultivation and any great endeavor ultimately depends on one’s own perseverance and initiative. He stresses that falling short at the final moment is not due to external obstacles but to one’s voluntary cessation; conversely, even the smallest beginning – adding just one basket on flat ground – is genuine progress if continued. This reflects the Confucian ideals of “humaneness depends on oneself” and “unceasing self-improvement.” Moral growth and achievement are not determined by fate or others, but by sustained personal effort. Crucially, Confucius places full responsibility for “stopping” or “advancing” squarely on “myself”, highlighting individual agency and moral autonomy in self-cultivation. This teaching serves both as a warning against complacency and as encouragement to beginners: no matter the stage, the power to continue always lies within oneself.
Further Reading
Ran Qiu said, “It’s not that I don’t delight in your Way – I simply lack the strength.” The Master replied, “Those truly lacking strength collapse halfway. But you are drawing a line and stopping yourself.” Analects 6.12 (Yong Ye)
Directly parallels Chapter 9.19 – Confucius rejects excuses and insists that giving up is a choice, not a limitation of ability.
Yan Hui asked about humaneness. The Master said, “To restrain oneself and return to ritual is humaneness. If for one day you do this, the whole world will respond with humaneness. Is humaneness something dependent on others, or on oneself?” Analects 12.1 (Yan Yuan)
Both emphasize that moral cultivation (“benevolence”) is entirely self-driven – “by oneself, not by others” – mirroring the personal responsibility in chapter 9.19.
子曰：「譬如為山，未成一簣，止，吾止也；譬如平地，雖覆一簣，進，吾往也。」
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