溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
How Can One Ever Repay the Toil of Parents Who Bore and Raised Them?
A child who lost their parents before ever repaying them — with what can they answer that toil?
Alas, alas, my parents — you bore me through such toil and hardship.
This lament from the Book of Odes became the archetype of later filial literature. The Han-dynasty Han Shi Wai Zhuan carried the same grief forward: "the tree wishes to be still, but the wind will not cease; the child wishes to provide, but the parent will not wait." When Buddhism arrived, this grief found another answer — the Ullambana Sutra tells how the monk Mulian, unable to save his deceased mother alone, answered her grace by making offerings through the monastic community. To the Confucian lament that filial debt cannot be repaid, Buddhism added a new way of repayment: dedicating merit on another's behalf.
For anyone who lost a parent too soon, this poem's grief before an unrepayable grace still touches exactly the same place, three thousand years on.
This poem is the lament of one who lost their parents before ever repaying them.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
This poem is the lament of one who lost their parents before ever repaying them. Worn and unwell, the poet grieves, listing one by one the toils of the parents who bore and raised them. I learn from this poem that filial piety is not a debt that can be settled by calculation. The grace of being borne and raised has no equal repayment to begin with, and that is precisely why the grief runs so deep. And yet the very awareness that it cannot be repaid may itself already be proof of filial love. I too learn to give thanks even knowing I can never fully repay.
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