溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is a Child Risking Their Own Life for a Parent the Peak of Filial Piety, or Its Distortion?
A story of a daughter offering her own life for her blind father — should we read it as the beauty of filial piety, or its heavy burden?
To pay three hundred bags of rice that would open her blind father's eyes, Shim Cheong threw herself into the Indangsu Sea.
The Tale of Shim Cheong was passed down orally among the common people of late Joseon, with endings that varied slightly between versions. Earlier versions weighted Shim Cheong's sacrifice and death more heavily, while later versions strengthened the narrative of restoration — rebirth, reunion, and her father's eyes opening. In the modern era, this story split again: some read it critically as a narrative of sacrifice forced upon women in the Joseon era, while others read it as a universal story of redemption, love returning from death into life. One story is still read differently today, between a burden to be guarded against and a love to be honored.
The question of how much of oneself to give for whom still returns, in changed form, to families today, far from Shim Cheong's era.
Told that her blind father could see again, Shim Cheong pays with her own life and throws herself into the sea.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Told that her blind father could see again, Shim Cheong pays with her own life and throws herself into the sea. But the story does not end there — passing through the Dragon King's palace, she is carried back to the world on a lotus flower, and her father's eyes finally open too. I read this story not as simply glorifying a daughter's sacrifice, but for the fact that this extreme love led not to death but to a return to life. If love for a parent can only be completed by erasing myself, I want to be wary of that kind of filial piety. But if love, passing through me, returns as something greater — I too stand before this story and question my own way of loving.
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