A Tree Planted in the Village of Nothing

answered by Zhuangzi, "Free and Easy Wandering"

기원전 4세기경

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Billy Elliot (2000)

dir. Stephen Daldry · UK

A boy meant to learn boxing stumbles upon ballet instead. His family is torn between the father's standard of manliness and the boy's first discovery of real talent.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Is a dream that steps outside an assigned gender role a betrayal, or a discovery?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

今子有大樹，患其无用，何不樹之於無何有之鄉，廣莫之野，彷徨乎無為其側，逍遙乎寢臥其下。

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Now you have this great tree and worry that it is useless. Why not plant it in the village of nothing at all, in the vast wilderness, wander idly beside it, and lie freely beneath it in easy rest?

💡 TL;DR

Hui Shi worried to Zhuangzi that a great tree was useless.

📝The Classic Answers

Hui Shi worried to Zhuangzi that a great tree was useless. Zhuangzi told him instead to plant it in a field beyond any standard of usefulness, and to rest freely in its shade. Measured by the world's standard of use, a boy's passion for ballet looks useless. But seen from a place beyond that fixed standard, it is not betrayal — it is simply the size of the tree unique to that child. Whenever I hear something called 'useless,' I first doubt whether the ruler measuring it was ever the right one to begin with.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Look again today, with a different measure, at someone's talent or dream that seems 'useless.'

📖 Classic Source: Zhuangzi, "Free and Easy Wandering". 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.