The Story of Shim Cheong
Have we ever willingly sacrificed ourselves to open someone else's eyes to the world?
📝ONGO's Reflection
The tale of the devoted daughter Shim Cheong, which I read as a child, seemed nothing more than a fairy story of virtue rewarded and vice punished. But reopened as an adult, this novel poses the weighty themes of blind love and sacrifice. Reading the scene where Shim Cheong casts herself into the Indangsu waters, I ask myself whether I could truly give up my most precious thing for the sake of another. Her boundless devotion to her father causes her, in the end, to bloom forth as a lotus. This book tells us that sacrifice is not loss, but a redemption of a greater order.
"I sell myself for three hundred sacks of rice to open my father's eyes; how could I fear death?"Anonymous, The Story of Shim Cheong
"공양미 삼백 석에 몸을 팔아 아비의 눈을 띄우고자 하오니, 어찌 죽음을 두려워하리이까."
🌱Apply It Today
Today, do one small thing that lightens, even just a little, the burden of someone you love.
