298Japanese quotation 名言
天は人の上に人を造らず人の下に人を造らず
てんはひとのうえにひとをつくらずひとのしたにひとをつくらずTen wa hito no ue ni hito o tsukurazu hito no shita ni hito o tsukurazu
“Heaven creates no man above other men, nor any man below.”
The meaning
No one is born superior: the gaps, Fukuzawa continues, come from study and effort. The sentence founds at once the equality of persons and each one's responsibility.
At the origin
The opening of "An Encouragement of Learning" (1872) by Fukuzawa Yukichi, a founding text of modern Japan — "heaven" here is a figure, not a doctrine.
The characters
- 天 tenheaven
- は watopic marker
- 人 hitoman, person
- の
- 上
- に
- 人
- を
- 造らず
- 人
- の
- 下
- に
- 人
- を
- 造らず
はParticleMarks the topic: what the sentence is about — “as for…”.
In practice
Bow to no one on principle — and look down on no one out of habit.