The Tree Would Be Still, but the Wind Does Not Cease

answered by Han Shi Wai Zhuan; the sentiment of "Liao E," Book of Songs

기원전 편찬(한대 시경 해설 전승)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Aeja (2009)

dir. Jeong Ki-hoon · South Korea

A mother and daughter who did nothing but clash come, only after the mother's illness deepens, to clumsily confirm their love for each other. The days left are short enough to make the quarreling time feel wasted, and the unsaid words are many. When one realizes the time to express love is finite, what does a person most regret?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Do I keep deferring love with "someday I will make it up," only to lose that someday forever?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

子欲養而親不待

樹欲靜而風不止子欲養而親不待

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The tree would be still, but the wind does not cease; the child would care for the parent, but the parent does not wait.

💡 TL;DR

This ancient lament holds the deepest regret of one who failed to complete their filial love.

📝The Classic Answers

This ancient lament holds the deepest regret of one who failed to complete their filial love. As the tree cannot stay still because the wind will not release it, so a child who now wishes to serve finds the parent already gone. I always defer love with "when I have room," "next time." But a parent's time does not wait for my circumstances. Only at a mother's sickbed do the unsaid words pour out, and by then it is late. This line means not to frighten me but to press me to love now. If there is a tenderness I have postponed, I choose to give it today, while it can still reach.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If there are words you have put off to an aging parent or a cherished one, do not wait for the perfect moment — say them today.

📖 Classic Source: Han Shi Wai Zhuan; the sentiment of "Liao E," Book of Songs. 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.