The Butterfly's Dream, or Mine

answered by Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal

기원전 4세기경

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Big Fish (2003)

dir. Tim Burton · USA

A father who has spent his life inflating his story into myth stands opposite a son who cannot bear the exaggeration and longs to know the real man. To one who believes only facts are true, is the tale a person paints of themselves a lie, or another kind of truth?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

When the story a person leaves behind sits between fact and embellishment, which side holds the truth of that life?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

昔者莊周夢爲胡蝶，栩栩然胡蝶也

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, fluttering about, a butterfly to the full.

📝The Classic Answers

I find this question's answer in Zhuangzi's butterfly dream. If we can never settle whether Zhuang Zhou dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly dreamt him, then arguing over which is fact may be wasted effort. Even when a person inflates their own life into legend, that embellishment can hold a truth of the heart more exact than the facts. Rather than asking whether my father's tale was true, I choose first to read the heart that wanted to tell it that way.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

When you hear someone's exaggerated old story, before checking the facts, first consider what heart made them want to tell it that way.

📖 Classic Source: Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal. 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.