溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
With What Should I Repay a Wrong?
Should a wrong be repaid with uprightness, and kindness with kindness?
Repay a wrong with uprightness, and kindness with kindness.
Someone asked Confucius, "What if one repays a wrong with kindness?" This was Laozi's teaching of tolerance — "repay resentment with virtue." But Confucius answered otherwise: "Then with what will you repay kindness? Repay a wrong with uprightness (zhi), and kindness with kindness." If one responds to both benefit and injury alike with kindness, the line between good and evil blurs. Uprightness is neither private revenge nor unconditional tolerance, but a fair and correct response. The question split wider. Jesus went further than Laozi: "love your enemies; if struck on the right cheek, turn the left." Before a wrong, shall I take revenge, be fair, or love? Three roads divide here.
In an age when retaliation spreads in an instant, the old call to repay a wrong with uprightness stays coolly valid.
Before these three roads I waver every time.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Before these three roads I waver every time. The wish to avenge whoever wronged me rises first, and the sages place tolerance and love above it. Yet Confucius's "uprightness" oddly reassures me. Not to endure unconditionally or love unconditionally, but to respond fairly without being swept by feeling — to dislike what deserves dislike yet not repay in revenge, and to repay kindness without fail. I am far from loving an enemy, but at least I could try, this once today, to choose uprightness over revenge.
✍️Your Answer
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