The span allotted at birth: a hundred, in this chapter. It functions as a measure rather than a promise — the chapter’s question is why people fall short of it, and the answer it gives is conduct.
天年 is the yardstick the chapter opens with. Of old, people lived out the years heaven allotted and passed away only after a hundred; now they weaken at fifty. The question asked is not whether the allotment changed but whether people lost it.
The answer given is behavioural, and it is the chapter’s thesis in miniature: the span is fixed, and what varies is how much of it is thrown away.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
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Reading path
This term belongs to Foundations — the five core concepts, in the order the Suwen introduces them.