Stripped of everything by a friend's betrayal and sent to the galleys, a man regains power and stands before the chance for revenge. He wavers between completing it and being released from its chain.
THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS
Must I be freed from the thirst for revenge before I can truly be free?
THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL
大小多少，報怨以德。
📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER
Whether great or small, many or few — repay resentment with virtue.
💡 TL;DR
Laozi said that before resentment, one should repay not with resentment but with virtue.
📝The Classic Answers
Laozi said that before resentment, one should repay not with resentment but with virtue. Revenge looks like punishing the other, but in truth it re-binds the avenger to the very chain of that resentment. The moment the betrayed answers the betrayer in kind, the two are no longer different people. Whenever I hold onto a grudge as unfinished business, I first ask whether repaying it will set me free, or bind me more tightly still.
— ONGO · Curator
🌱Apply It Today
Recall one grudge weighing on you today, and ask yourself whether settling it would truly make you freer.
📖 Classic Source:
Laozi, "Dao De Jing", Ch. 63.
Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
✦
A Bridge Between Eras — the wisdoms this question threads
Reading the new through the old — classics this question awakens.
