生死有命富貴在天 shisei mei ari, fūki ten ni ari Death and life have their determined appointments - Riches and honors depend upon heaven

Life and death have their allotted span, wealth and rank rest with Heaven: how long you live and how high you rise are not yours to decide, so stop grieving over what you lack, which is the consolation the line was first spoken as. It is in the Analects and it is not Confucius's: a disciple quotes it as a saying he has already heard, to console a friend who grieves that he alone has no brothers, and adds that a gentleman who is reverent and courteous has brothers within the four seas. 命 is the lot one is given, the decree of Heaven, and so one's span of life, an allotment and not a plan; the English title is James Legge's sentence, with the Calvinist word appointment for it. In Japan the line became a way of facing death rather than a proverb about money, a soldier's reason to attack now since no one knows who dies first, a wanderer's reason not to beg for his life. The scroll's order, 生死, is the compound Japanese prefers, and older by centuries than David Beckham's tattoo of the line, which has one character wrong that every design here has right. Which clause you take, the span or the rank, is yours.

The line is not Confucius's own words: in the Analects, Zixia offers it as a saying he says he has heard, to console a disciple who grieves that he alone has no brothers.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 生死有命富貴在天.

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