Thus Do Things Flow Away

answered by Analects, Zi Han

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Stand by Me (1986)

dir. Rob Reiner · USA

A grown person belatedly recalls a summer's journey with friends around age twelve and the whole friendship of that time. It asks why such pure bonds and moments never come again, and whether that never-again renders the season vain or makes it shine brighter.

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Why do the friendships and moments of childhood never come again, and does that never-again make them shine brighter?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

逝者如斯夫，不舍晝夜

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Thus do things flow away, never ceasing day or night.

💡 TL;DR

By a stream, watching the water flow, Confucius sighed that thus do things flow away, never ceasing day or night.

📝The Classic Answers

By a stream, watching the water flow, Confucius sighed that thus do things flow away, never ceasing day or night. I read this sigh layered with longing for childhood. A bond as whole as a friendship at twelve flows like a river and never returns exactly as it was. Yet his words urge not grief at the flowing but the knowledge that, because it flows, now is precious. That it never comes again is precisely what engraves that season as a light never forgotten for life. Rather than grieving that I cannot seize a vanished time, I choose to remember with gratitude that it shone so because it will not come again.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Recall one relationship or season of now that will not come again, and with the thought 'precious now because it won't return,' give it a little more care today.

📖 Classic Source: Analects, Zi Han. 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.