The Moment Beauty Is Called Beautiful, Ugliness Already Exists

answered by Laozi, "Dao De Jing", Ch. 2

기원전 6~4세기

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Planet of the Apes (1968)

dir. Franklin J. Schaffner · USA

An astronaut crash-landed on Earth encounters a world ruled by apes, where humans are treated as beasts. In a world where ruler and ruled have swapped places, he confronts a fundamental question about hierarchy itself.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

When the positions of the powerful and the dispossessed are reversed, what do we learn?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

天下皆知美之為美，斯惡已。

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

When all the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness has already come into being.

💡 TL;DR

Laozi said that the moment beauty is recognized as beauty, ugliness is already born alongside it.

📝The Classic Answers

Laozi said that the moment beauty is recognized as beauty, ugliness is already born alongside it. The moment one side is declared superior, the other is already pushed into an inferior place. In a world where the standing of humans and apes has been completely reversed, whichever side becomes the new ruler governs in exactly the same manner as the old humans once did. Unless the very standard dividing above from below changes, the structure of oppression remains, even when the positions are swapped. Whenever I judge someone as beneath me, I remember that the judgment itself could be reversed at any moment.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you judged someone as beneath you today, imagine for a moment what it would be like if that very standard were reversed.

📖 Classic Source: Laozi, "Dao De Jing", Ch. 2. 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.