A fortune was told, and then refused.
A Deed a Day is named for a man who was told exactly how his life would go, believed it, and then changed it. This page is his story, and the reason this app exists.
The story of 袁了凡
Yuan Liaofan (袁了凡) lived from 1533-1606. As a young man he met a fortune-teller who read his life down to the detail. The teller named the rank he would take in the imperial examinations, said he would never have a son, and said he would die at fifty-three.
It all came true, one line at a time. The examination results arrived exactly as foretold. Years passed with no son. Convinced his life was already written, he stopped striving for anything more.
Then he met the Zen master 云谷禅师 (Yun Gu). The master told him that fate is not fixed, and that only ordinary people are bound by it. He gave Liaofan a practice: accumulate good deeds, and keep a record of them as you go.
Liaofan took up a 功过格 (gongguoge), a ledger of merits and faults, and wrote in it every day. He set himself one thousand good deeds. He finished them, then began ten thousand more.
The predictions came undone. He passed the imperial examination. He was granted a son. He lived to seventy-four. His account of the practice, and the four lessons drawn from it, is the 了凡四训 (Liao-Fan's Four Lessons).
What a 功过格 is
A 功过格 is a page ruled into two columns. On one side you write the good you did. On the other, the harm and the failings. Then you look at it, honestly, and you try to make tomorrow better than today.
It is not a trophy case. It is a mirror. The value is not in the total, it is in the looking. This app is that page, made modern: a grid of one thousand cells you fill in over time, one deed at a time.
You can keep it private. You can share a deed when you want to. But the ledger itself is for you, the way Liaofan's was for him.
Why one thousand
One thousand is the number Liaofan set himself. It is large enough that you cannot reach it by accident, and small enough that you can imagine arriving. Some days it looks far off. That is the point.
Small daily deeds beat grand gestures. A grand gesture is rare, and it usually needs money, time, or luck. A small kindness needs none of those. Carry one bag, make one call, hold one door, and do it again tomorrow. Ten thousand quiet days are how a life actually changes.
The count is a scaffold, not the building. It gives you a place to stand while the habit forms.
How to keep it well
Do not compare your count with anyone else. Their ledger is not your ledger, and their life is not yours. The public feed is there to encourage, never to rank.
Do not keep score against yourself either. A slow week is not a failure and a fast one is not a victory. If you miss a day, you simply begin again. You can always begin again.
Write the plain truth, including the faults. A ledger that only flatters you has stopped being a ledger. The honesty is what makes it work.
Questions
- Is my data private?
Yes. Every deed starts private. Nothing you log is visible to anyone else unless you choose to share it, and even then you can share without your name.
- Do I have to share anything?
No. Sharing is entirely optional. The ledger works just as well in private, and many people never share a single deed.
- What counts as a good deed?
Anything that leaves a person, an animal, or a place better off than you found it. Only you can decide what counts. A held door and an hour of tutoring both belong here.
- Do you verify my deeds?
No. This is a personal ledger, not a scoreboard. There is no review and no proof. Honesty is the whole mechanism, and it only works if you keep it.
- Can I delete everything?
Yes. Settings has a download of everything you have kept, and a delete that removes your account and your ledger for good.
Your ledger is blank.
Your ledger is blank. That is the best part.
A Deed a Day, A Deed a Day. This project runs at https://adeedaday.app.