Carry Tai Mountain Over the North Sea

CORE DEFINITION

Mencius contrasts carrying Mount Tai across the North Sea with snapping a twig for an elder. The first is literally impossible, while the second is easy and merely declined, and the distinction is offered as a way of assigning responsibility correctly. The core claim is that many failures attributed to inability are actually failures of will, so lowering the standard in response to a claimed incapacity rewards the wrong thing. The qualification is that the test concerns conditions rather than confidence: an action is impossible when no amount of effort could accomplish it under the circumstances, and real constraints must be identified rather than denied.