When a community decides to believe a comfortable story, even a name that no longer matches reality is taken by all as true. Before the question of who a person really is, do we choose the agreeable lie over the uneasy fact?
THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS
Because it is agreeable, do I believe as true a story whose name no longer matches the reality?
THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL
必也正名乎
必也正名乎 名不正則言不順
📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER
One must first rectify names; if names are not right, words do not accord with reality.
💡 TL;DR
Confucius made the rectifying of names the first step of governance.
📝The Classic Answers
Confucius made the rectifying of names the first step of governance. When name and reality diverge, words diverge; when words diverge, affairs go astray. When a community decides to believe a comfortable story, a whole town is built on a mismatched name. To ask who a person truly is is uneasy, but fold that question away and a lie takes the seat of the true. Before an agreeable story, I choose first to check whether its name matches the reality.
— ONGO · Curator
🌱Apply It Today
If there is a story everyone takes as true today, check once, on your own, whether its name matches the reality.
📖 Classic Source:
Analects of Confucius, Zi Lu.
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.
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A Bridge Between Eras — the wisdoms this question threads
Reading the new through the old — classics this question awakens.
