If It Is Not Right, Do Not Act on It

answered by Analects, Book 12 (Yan Yuan)

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Spring in a Small Town (1948)

dir. Fei Mu · China

An old love reappears to a married person. The marriage to be kept and the revived old feeling collide. Follow the heart and several lives collapse; suppress it and one must deceive oneself. What is right?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Between a rekindled old love and a place one must keep, how is a wavering heart to be governed?

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

💡 TL;DR

📝The Classic Answers

In the Analects, Confucius says, "If it is not right, do not look; if it is not right, do not act on it." Here "the right" is not repression but the restraint that seeks to keep several lives together. There is no need to deny a wavering feeling, but to weigh what would collapse before turning it into action is a grown person's love. I choose to restrain my heart without deceiving it. To acknowledge feeling honestly, yet govern action by what is right — there lies the way to lessen the harm.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If a feeling wavers, before denying it or acting at once, first weigh what your action would bring down.

📖 Classic Source: Analects, Book 12 (Yan Yuan).
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.