Anyone Can Become a Sage-King

answered by Mencius, "Gaozi, Part II"

기원전 4세기경

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Ratatouille (2007)

dir. Brad Bird · USA

A rat with an extraordinary sense for cooking meets the world's wall — that his birth should never allow him near a kitchen. When the station he was born into collides with the talent he was born with, he chooses to trust his own senses.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

To follow one's own talent beyond the station one was born into — is that presumption, or freedom?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

人皆可以為堯舜。

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Every person can become like the sage-kings Yao and Shun.

💡 TL;DR

Mencius said that anyone can become a sage.

📝The Classic Answers

Mencius said that anyone can become a sage. He firmly rejects the belief that birth alone determines the size of a person's vessel. That a rat born in a sewer might possess a genius for the finest cuisine sounds absurd by the world's standard. But as Mencius said, it is not the station one is born into but the talent one cultivates that determines what one can become. I look back at whether I have been sizing someone up by their birth alone, before ever seeing their talent.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you judged someone today by their birth alone, look again at the talent they have actually cultivated.

📖 Classic Source: Mencius, "Gaozi, Part II". 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.