As a Mother Shields Her Only Child

answered by Mencius, "Li Lou" (Li Lou), Part I

기원전 4세기(맹자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

dir. Roberto Benigni · Italy

A father, in the most brutal of circumstances, dresses that hell up as a kind of game so his small son will not be swallowed by fear. Is that deceiving reality, or guarding a child's soul? How far may love conceal the truth?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

To protect the one I love, can I hide even my own fear behind a smile?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

事親爲大

事孰爲大事親爲大

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Of all serving, which is greatest? To serve one's parent is greatest. And that same love flows on into the guarding of one's child.

💡 TL;DR

Mencius ranked the serving of a parent highest among all human service, and that deep-rooted love flows naturally into the strength that guards a child.

📝The Classic Answers

Mencius ranked the serving of a parent highest among all human service, and that deep-rooted love flows naturally into the strength that guards a child. Only on becoming a parent do I begin to guess how much fear my own parents hid for my sake. Love sometimes protects by not showing the whole truth. To smile before a child even in despair is not a lie but a devotion that refuses to let the child's world collapse. Before the one I must protect, I choose to show a little less of my own weight. That is one face of love.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Before someone you must protect today, set down your own anxiety for a moment and first reassure their world.

📖 Classic Source: Mencius, "Li Lou" (Li Lou), Part 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.