Human Nature Tends to Good as Water Runs Down

answered by Mencius, Gaozi I

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🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Les Misérables (1998)

dir. Bille August · USA·UK

A person hardened by long punishment and scorn receives an unexpected mercy. Does a hardened person never change, or does one unrepayable act of kindness revive the goodness that was always there?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Can a single, unrepayable act of mercy truly change a hardened person?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

人性之善也猶水之就下也

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The goodness of human nature is like the way water runs downward.

💡 TL;DR

Mencius said the goodness of human nature is as natural as water running downward.

📝The Classic Answers

Mencius said the goodness of human nature is as natural as water running downward. Even a heart long trampled and hardened has not lost its original grain. When one unrepayable mercy cracks that hard surface, the good current pressed within begins again to run down. What changes a person is not punishment but one act of treatment that still believes him a person. I choose to trust that beneath even a hardened surface, a current is trying to flow.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

When you meet someone's cold surface today, instead of the urge to punish, do one small thing that treats them as a person.

📖 Classic Source: Mencius, Gaozi I. 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.