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自業自得 jigō jitoku You Reap What You Sow

自業自得 (jigō jitoku), one's own deeds, one's own fruit, is a Buddhist formula now said of bad deeds coming home. It is written down in Chinese in 539, in a sutra where a hell-warden speaks it in verse. This study follows it through Japanese tales and a Zen mill-song, and why its 得 means to receive, not to gain.

Japanese Scroll of You Reap What You Sow (jigō jitoku) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
You Reap What You Sow自業自得jigō jitoku

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Abstract

自業自得, one's own deeds, one's own fruit, is a Buddhist formula first written down in Chinese in 539, in the 正法念處經, where a hell-warden speaks it in verse to a sinner wailing in the fire and asks him why he wails. Japanese sources carry it from about 1213, in a monk's confession, through tale collections that give it to the Buddha, to King Enma and to a hell-warden as the law no plea can bend, into a dictionary of 1444, and on to a Zen master's mill-song of 1760 and a novelist's use in the 1810s. The sutra states the law both ways, of good deeds and of bad; Japanese usage narrows it to the bad, and the four characters have never had a single owner. English has rendered it as a harvest since Hepburn's dictionary of 1867, and the bilingual dictionaries have kept that equation since.

Overview

The sense. The sutra is neutral and the Japanese use mostly is not. In the sutra the law cuts both ways, good deed and good fruit, evil and evil; the same text says 自作善業，自得樂報 in another chapter [1]. A Japanese telling of 1283 still gives it whole: the founding bishop of Kenninji tells a woman left grieving and resentful after 梶原景時 was killed 何事モ自業自得果トテ我ツクル業ムクヒテ善悪ノ因タカハス苦楽ノ果ヲウクル事ナリ, in everything it is one's own deeds and one's own fruit: the karma one makes comes back, and as the cause was good or bad one receives joy or pain [2]. But from the first Japanese witnesses on, the word is nearly always said of the bad: Hakuin 白隠's 罪科, Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴's villain, Mishima Yukio 三島由紀夫's you brought it on yourself, and the dictionaries record the narrowing. What did not change is the shape of the claim: no one else did this to you. The sutra says it to a sinner in hell, a monk says it of himself, the Buddha says it to a disciple who would save his mother, a storyteller gives it to the king of the dead, a Zen master sings it to working women, and a novelist has one character say it to another. It is the same sentence each time, and it has never had an owner.

The words. 自業, jigō, is one's own karma, the acts one has done, which bear fruit; Hepburn's dictionary of 1867 glosses it one's own works or actions, according to which reward or punishment is allotted in a future state [3]. 自得, jitoku, is to receive oneself. 得 here is not gain: Fujii Otoo 藤井乙男's 1910 dictionary glosses the whole 自己の爲したる業因により、其果報を受くるをいふ, to receive the fruit of the karma one made oneself [4], and the 日国 says 報いを自分の身に受けなければならない, must receive the recompense in one's own person [5]. In the sutra the phrase is a five-character line of verse, 自業自得果, the fruit of one's own karma, self-received; the four-character form is written in Japan by 1213, and the five-character one lives on beside it, as in the 沙石集 of 1283 [2]. The historical kana is じごふじとく, which is what the books from the 1617 print of the 下學集 to Meiji write beside the characters [6].

The proverb in English. Hepburn's dictionary of 1867, the first edition, already has the harvest, and the Buddhist note, under JI-GŌ: Ji-gō ji-toku, to receive according to one's deeds; (what a man soweth that shall he also reap.) [3]; the edition of 1872 keeps it [7]. Lafcadio Hearn lists it in 1899 among Japanese Buddhist Proverbs as the fruit of one's own deeds, which he glosses in a previous state of existence, and adds that few popular Buddhist phrases are more often used, nearly always in the sense of misfortune: people seeing a man taken to prison say it, meaning, "He is reaping the consequence of his own faults." [8] Sakuma Nobuyasu 佐久間信恭's 和英中辞林 of 1904 gives: One's own deeds bring their own rewards; one must reap what one sowed [9]; his 和英大辞林 of 1909 puts Natural result of one's misdeed before it [10]. Arthur Lloyd's dictionary of 1907 offers: Self do, self have; a man's sin brings its own punishment; he that makes his bed ill, lies ill thereon [11]. Inoue Jūkichi 井上十吉 in 1909 gives: He has only brought it upon himself; we must resign ourselves to it as the result of our own deeds [12]. Working from the English side, the 英和俗語熟語故事大辞典 of 1911 glosses to stew in one's own grease with both 自業自得 and 身から出た錆 [13], Saitō Hidesaburō 斎藤秀三郎 in 1915 uses the word to gloss a run of English idioms, from as you make your bed, so you must lie on it to to face the music [14], and Okakura Yoshisaburō 岡倉由三郎 in 1929 gives reap as one has sown, paired with 身から出た錆 and 因果応報 [15].

The historical record

539. 正法念處經 (the Saddharma-smṛtyupasthāna-sūtra), translated by Hannya Rushi 般若流支. Three times. In the first fascicle, plainly: 自作惡業、自得惡報, you do the evil deed yourself; you receive the evil fruit yourself. In the fifty-third, of gods at play: 自作善業，自得樂報, you do the good deed yourself; you receive the happy fruit yourself. In the seventh, in the hells, at the place called 淚火出 where the fire comes out of the eyes as tears, a warden reproaches a sinner in verse: 非異人作惡，異人受苦報，自業自得果，衆生皆如是, it is not that one person does the evil and another suffers for it; each receives the fruit of his own act; all beings are so. And then: 汝自心所作 … 今為大火燒，何故爾呻喚, your own mind made this; now the great fire burns you; why do you wail? The sinner asks nothing; the question is the warden's [1]. A search of the whole canon finds the four characters in this sutra alone among the Chinese scriptures; the other hits are Japanese commentaries and one twentieth-century lecture. The older 自作自受, one does, one receives, is everywhere in the canon, from a translation of the third century on, and in this sutra too [16].

About 1180, in later printings. 宝物集, a tale collection by Taira no Yasuyori 平康頼. Of Jizō, who becomes King Enma and the ten kings to save the damned each day: 自業自得の罪まぬかれかたけれはかならす衆生にかはりて苦患をうけ給ふ, because the sin of one's own doing is hard to escape, he surely takes the torment on himself in the beings' place. This is the text printed in 1648; the book grew through several recensions, and whether the line is in the twelfth-century text is not settled here [17].

About 1213. Jōkei 貞慶 (解脱上人), 愚迷發心集, a confession. 自業自得因果必然也。當來苦報誠以難遁, one's own deeds, one's own fruit; cause and effect are inevitable; the suffering to come is truly hard to escape. The 日国's first Japanese citation, in a monk's kanbun, turned on himself [18].

1252. 十訓抄, a collection of moral tales. The courtier 朝成 prays at Iwashimizu for promotion to 中納言 on the merit of having beheaded a hundred robbers. The shrine's priest objects that the god forbids killing; 朝成 quotes the oracle's exception for evil men who threaten the state; the prayer is carried, and he gets the post. The tale then says 如此の自業自得の類は、ま〔こ〕とに憐愍の及所にあらざるべし, cases of this kind, of one's own doing, are beyond pity: the robbers' deaths, in my reading, set beside a provincial's execution just before it. 朝成 himself, the tale adds, failed to become 大納言 and turned into a vengeful spirit [19].

1257 and 1283. The law the Buddha will not bend, and a grieving woman's comfort. In the 私聚百因縁集, when Mokuren begs the Buddha to save his starving mother, 佛言自業自得道理薄伽梵尚以テ不レ越汝力不レ可レ叶フ, the Buddha said: the law of one's own deeds and one's own fruit even the Blessed One does not overstep; your strength cannot do it, and he points him to the offering of the seventh month [20]. In the 沙石集 of 1283 the founding bishop of Kenninji gives the law whole to a grieving woman, as above, and a waka on 自業自得果, composed at a sermon of his, has the cedar that burns from its own fire: 奥山ノ椙ノ村立トモスレハヲノカ身ヨリソ火ヲイタシケル [2].

1444. 下學集, a dictionary. The four characters stand as a word among the dictionary's words, with the reading ジゴフジトク beside them in the print of 1617: the oldest dated print found among the National Diet Library's digitized books to carry them as a word [6].

1446, and 1532. The verse in the mouth of the Buddha and of King Enma. The 壒嚢鈔 of 1446 has the verse twice: the Buddha recites it as he leaves the door of a rich man who would not give him rice, and in the Zenkōji legend, when the Buddha asks the king of the dead to spare the son of Zenkō, 閻王答テ曰。非異人作惡異人受苦報自業自得果衆生皆如是ト唱テ。我力モ不及, Enma answered by reciting the verse, and said: it is beyond my power [21]. The 塵添壒囊鈔 of 1532 carries the Zenkōji passage on [22]. In a Pure Land commentary, Jizō pleads for the damned and the warden recites the same verse: 云何是を免乎, how could they be spared? [23] The sutra's line became, in Japanese storytelling, the one law a bodhisattva's plea cannot bend.

1760. Hakuin, おたふく女郎粉引歌, a sermon in the form of a mill-girls' song. 一切衆生は皆是前世の。父也母也恩ある族じや。何とぞ扶けて遣りたいものじやと。泪をこぼして勞りたまへど。自業自得の罪科はのがれず。心の田地に蒔置く種じやで。萌切り生出て一粒萬倍。無間の苦患を受けねばならない, all beings were your father and mother in a former life, and they weep and wish to save you; but the crime that is your own doing is not escaped; it is seed sown in the field of the heart, it sprouts ten-thousandfold, and the torment must be borne. Then, in the same breath: so change your nature today. The 日国's second citation; the 1911 edition prints the reading じごふじとく beside it. The seed and the field are Hakuin's own, and they are where the English harvest meets the Japanese [24].

The 1810s. Kyokutei Bakin, 皿皿郷談, a yomihon. 鮮衣どのよ撃れしは自業自得よ侍るめり, that he was struck down was his own doing, said of a villain's death, with the reading じごふじとく in the 1896 typeset [25].

1910. Fujii Otoo, 諺語大辞典. Filed as 仏語 with the two sutra lines, and with two European proverbs: As you make your bed so you must lie on it (French, German, Spanish, Danish) and As you sow, you shall reap (German, Dutch). 自作自受 is entered as the same thing. The word is absent from the two first proverb collections of the 1600s, which is what a Buddhist term looks like beside a folk proverb [4].

What is not a source. No legend attaches to the four characters; the stories that use them name the sutra. The kin the dictionaries give are 自作自受, the older canon form; 自業自縛, bound by one's own karma; 因果応報, the general law of cause and recompense; and the folk proverb 身から出た錆, rust from one's own body, which the English-Japanese dictionaries have set beside it since 1911 [13]. Galatians 6:7, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, is the English equation, not a source, and it is older in the bilingual dictionaries than any other [3].

The dictionaries today. デジタル大辞泉: 仏語。自分の行為の報いを自分自身が受けること。一般に、悪業の報いを受けることにいう. The ことわざを知る辞典 explains the shift in one sentence: 「業」は行為、所作の意で、本来は、よい行いにも悪い行いにもいいましたが、今日では主として後者についていいます, "karma" means act or deed; originally it was said of good acts and bad alike, but today mainly of the latter, with Mishima's 金閣寺 (1956) as its example: まあ怨むなよ … 結局君の自業自得なんだから [5].

Today. JMdict gives paying for one's mistakes; getting one's just deserts; suffering the consequences of one's own actions; reap what you sow [26]. You reap what you sow is Hepburn's equation in its modern shape: neutral like the sutra, moral like the Japanese use, and a harvest, which is Hakuin's image too [3]. Word for word the text says one's own deeds, one's own fruit, a law with no harvest in it; the harvest is the English equation the dictionaries have set beside the law since 1867, so the image is the translators' and the law is the sutra's. What a rendering must keep is that the fruit is received, not gained.

A reading

The sutra says it of good deeds too, while Japanese usage says it of bad ones: so the words are a warning in Japanese and can be a promise in English. The sutra speaks it in hell, to a sinner wailing in the fire, and asks him why he wails; no other did the evil that another suffers for.

References

  1. 般若流支 tr., 『正法念處經』, 539, 十善業道品第一 (T17n0721, p. 4c04–c05), 地獄品 (T17n0721, p. 36b01–c05) and 觀天品 (T17n0721, p. 315b14), at CBETA. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0721&juan=1 · https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0721&juan=7 · https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T0721&juan=53
  2. 無住『沙石集』 (1283), printed 元和4 (1618), National Diet Library pid 2544540, scan 18, and pid 2544538, scan 49. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2544540/1/18 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2544538/1/49
  3. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary; with an English and Japanese Index, American Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai, 1867, pp. 153–154, s.v. JI-GŌ. https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishd00hepb/page/n171/mode/1up
  4. 藤井乙男『諺語大辞典』, 有朋堂, 1910, 【自業自得】【自作自受】, National Diet Library pid 862766, scan 252. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862766/1/252
  5. 「自業自得」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版 日本国語大辞典・ことわざを知る辞典・四字熟語を知る辞典・ブリタニカ, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/自業自得
  6. 東麓破衲『下學集』 (1444), printed 元和3 (1617), National Diet Library pid 2538644, scan 74. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2538644/1/74 · for its date: 「下学集」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/下学集-43320
  7. James Curtis Hepburn, 『和英語林集成』, 2nd ed., American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1872, p. 181. National Diet Library pid 993689, scan 108. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/993689/1/108
  8. Lafcadio Hearn, In Ghostly Japan, Little, Brown, Boston, 1899, "Japanese Buddhist Proverbs", pp. 176–177, no. 34 and its note. https://archive.org/details/inghostlyjapan00hear/page/176/mode/1up
  9. 佐久間信恭『和英中辞林 : 会話作文』, 1904, National Diet Library pid 870208, scan 213. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870208/1/213
  10. 佐久間信恭・広瀬雄 編『和英大辞林』, 1909, National Diet Library pid 870204, scan 211. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/870204/1/211
  11. Arthur Lloyd, 『和英新辞典 : 註解』, 賞文館, 1907, National Diet Library pid 903157, scan 276. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/903157/1/276
  12. 井上十吉『和英辞典』, 1909, National Diet Library pid 1869465, scan 305. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1869465/1/305
  13. 新渡戸稲造 等監輯『英和俗語熟語故事大辞典』, 1911, s.v. stew. National Diet Library pid 902975, scan 652. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/902975/1/652
  14. 斎藤秀三郎『熟語本位英和中辞典』, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary, 正則英語学校出版部, Tokyo, 1915, s.v. bed, consequence, face, music and reap · the 1918 printing, National Diet Library pid 1681530, scans 53, 113, 198, 364, 421, 484, 545, 627, 680 and 692. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1681530/1/53
  15. 岡倉由三郎, 『新英和中辞典』, 研究社, 1929, National Diet Library pid 1904907, scans 43, 334 and 366. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1904907/1/43
  16. CBETA, whole-canon search for 自業自得 (eleven hits in seven fascicles: 正法念處經 卷七; 梵網古跡抄, 西谷名目句解 and 識知淨土論, Japanese; 演培『唯識二十頌講記』, twentieth century) and for 自作自受 (菩薩本緣經, 吳 支謙 tr., and on). https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/search?q=%E8%87%AA%E6%A5%AD%E8%87%AA%E5%BE%97 · https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/search?q=%E8%87%AA%E4%BD%9C%E8%87%AA%E5%8F%97
  17. 平康頼『宝物集』, 3 books, printed 正保5 (1648), National Diet Library pid 2599657, scan 23. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2599657/1/23 · for its making about 1179 to 1181 and its recensions: 「宝物集」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宝物集-132419
  18. 貞慶『愚迷發心集』, in 『日本仏教思想資料集』, 1941, pp. 178–179. National Diet Library pid 1040306, scan 108. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1040306/1/108
  19. 『十訓抄』, 鈴木弘恭 校『校正十訓抄』, 1894. National Diet Library pid 877527, scan 81. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/877527/1/81
  20. 住信『私聚百因縁集』 (1257), printed 承応2 (1653), National Diet Library pid 2599664, scan 5. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2599664/1/5
  21. 行誉『壒嚢鈔』 (1446), printed 正保3 (1646), National Diet Library pid 2597268, scans 21 and 33. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2597268/1/33 · for its date: 「壒嚢鈔」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/壒嚢鈔-421709
  22. 『塵添壒囊鈔』卷第十七, in 『大日本仏教全書』, 1922, pp. 428–429. National Diet Library pid 952854, scan 218. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952854/1/218 · for its date, 天文元年 (1532), and its making from the 壒嚢鈔 and the 塵袋: 「塵添壒嚢鈔」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/塵添壒嚢鈔-538514
  23. 『觀經厭欣鈔』卷中之末, in 『大日本仏教全書』, 1922, pp. 494–495. National Diet Library pid 952740, scan 252. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952740/1/252
  24. 白隠, 「おたふく女郎粉引歌」, in 石上学人編『新註白隠法語集』, 1911, pp. 192–193. National Diet Library pid 823165, scan 103. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823165/1/103
  25. 曲亭馬琴『皿皿郷談』, 1896 typeset, pp. 134–135. National Diet Library pid 879500, scan 70. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/879500/1/70 · for its date among Bakin's yomihon of 1809 to 1813: 「曲亭馬琴」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/曲亭馬琴-16114
  26. JMdict, 「自業自得」, at Weblio 英和・和英辞典. https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/自業自得

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · grok-4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · gpt-6-astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 自業自得 (jigō jitoku)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/jigo-jitoku.