Ritual Is the Thinning of Loyalty and Trust

answered by Laozi, Dao De Jing, ch. 38

기원전 6~4세기

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Harakiri (1962)

dir. Masaki Kobayashi · Japan

There are times when the name of honor, hollowed to a shell, becomes a tool for keeping the powerful's face. When a ritual upheld on the surface tramples people underneath, where does that fine-looking form part from true good faith?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

In keeping a form upheld on the surface, am I losing the true good faith that ought to be within it?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

忠信之薄

夫禮者忠信之薄而亂之首

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Ritual arises where loyalty and trust have worn thin, and can be the beginning of disorder.

💡 TL;DR

Laozi saw ritual as growing where loyalty and trust have worn thin.

📝The Classic Answers

Laozi saw ritual as growing where loyalty and trust have worn thin. Form itself is not the evil; the danger is when a hollow form becomes a tool that tramples people. When the name of honor keeps only the powerful's face, it is already a shell that has lost true good faith. The finer a ritual looks, the more we must ask whether faith still lives within it. Before contenting myself with keeping a form, I choose first to ask what that form was meant to keep.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If keeping only a form left you uneasy today, trace back the original meaning that form was meant to keep.

📖 Classic Source: Laozi, Dao De Jing, ch. 38. 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.