Repay a Wrong with Uprightness

answered by Analects, Xian Wen

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

dir. Kevin Reynolds · USA

A person who lost everything to betrayal gains the power to strike back. Can revenge recover the self he lost, or does clinging to payback lose him more deeply?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

By paying back the one who ruined me, can I recover the self I lost?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

以直報怨以德報德

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Repay a wrong with uprightness, and a kindness with kindness.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius did not say repay a wrong with a wrong, but with uprightness.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius did not say repay a wrong with a wrong, but with uprightness. Meet kindness with virtue, and a wrong not with private hatred but with straight judgment. Revenge seems aimed at the other, yet in the end it binds me to that grudge. One who pours a whole life into paying back does not recover what was lost but loses more of himself. Before what has hurt me, I choose to face it with an upright heart rather than hand myself over to hatred.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you feel the urge to pay someone back today, think of one way to meet it with straight judgment, not hatred.

📖 Classic Source: Analects, Xian Wen. 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.