The Name That Can Be Named Is Not the Eternal Name

answered by Laozi, "Dao De Jing", Ch. 1

기원전 6~4세기

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise · USA

A being raised hidden in a bell tower because of how he was born wrestles with how to define himself, caught between the name 'monster' the world has given him and the tenderness he actually feels.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Can a person, freed from the label of monstrousness the world has branded them with, define themselves instead?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

名可名，非常名。

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

💡 TL;DR

Laozi said the name that can be named is not the eternal name.

📝The Classic Answers

Laozi said the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The world names a being hiding in a bell tower a monster the instant it sees him, but that name cannot hold the tenderness or the fear he actually carries. A name given by appearance alone confines the entirety of a being. Only those who meet him outside that name come to see how different the name the world gave him is from who he actually is. Before easily naming someone, I first doubt whether that name could ever hold the whole of who they are.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you have named someone today by appearance alone, meet them once outside that name.

📖 Classic Source: Laozi, "Dao De Jing", Ch. 1. 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.