Water Takes the Shape of Its Vessel — Wisdom Between Generations

answered by Laozi, Dao De Jing, Chapter 8

기원전 6~4세기(노자 전승)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Pushing Hands (1991)

dir. Ang Lee · Taiwan

An old man who has come to his son's home abroad clashes under one roof with a daughter-in-law whose language and culture are foreign to him. They do not hate each other, yet a different generation and a different way of life spark a small war each day. When a beloved family cannot understand one another, how is living together possible?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Do I insist on my own way with family of a different generation or culture, forgetting how, like water, to seep into one another?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

上善若水

上善若水水善利萬物而不爭

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The highest good is like water — it benefits all things and does not contend.

💡 TL;DR

Laozi likened the highest good to water.

📝The Classic Answers

Laozi likened the highest good to water. Water does not contend; it takes the shape of its vessel yet never loses its nature. When family of different generations and cultures live under one roof, contesting each other's ways as right or wrong turns the home into a battlefield. When an old parent's bygone habits collide with a younger generation's unfamiliar life, what is needed is not victory but seeping in. I easily believe my way is the standard, yet the suppleness to fit the other's vessel like water while not losing myself is what protects a family. When we flow together instead of trying to win over difference, the ravine between generations becomes a river. Before contending, I choose first to seep in.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

When you clash with family of another generation, before pushing your own way, adapt to theirs for just one day.

📖 Classic Source: Laozi, Dao De Jing, Chapter 8. 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.