📖 Meaning
Planning and initiating matters depends on human effort. It stresses that people must take active responsibility for strategizing and acting, even though the ultimate outcome may rest with fate. Often paired with '成事在天' to contrast human agency with heavenly decree.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Ming dynasty novel 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' (三国演义) by Luo Guanzhong. In Chapter 103, the strategist Zhuge Liang sets a fire trap for the Wei general Sima Yi in the Upper Branch Valley (上方谷). Just as the flames threaten to consume Sima Yi's forces, a sudden downpour extinguishes the fire and allows him to escape. Zhuge Liang sighs in resignation: 'Planning is with man, but accomplishment is with heaven; one cannot force it.' The episode dramatizes the tension between careful human planning and uncontrollable circumstance.
💡 Example Usage
我们只能尽力争取，毕竟谋事在人，结果谁也说不准。
We can only do our best—after all, the planning is in our hands, but the outcome is anyone's guess.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 谋事在人
- Pinyin: móu shì zài rén
- Literal Translation: plan, matters, depend on, people
- Category: Philosophy
- Characters: 4